Key details
Mode of delivery: Classroom-based
Course code: PS13
Duration: 3 days
Fee: £2,775.00 + VAT
CPD Hours: 18
Course Overview
This course develops the strategic and financial capabilities required for effective public-sector decision-making. Delegates will learn how to set meaningful objectives, apply the policy cycle, assess complex contextual factors and connect strategic priorities with budgets, medium-term financial planning and public value.
The programme also examines the political environment of the public sector, including competing priorities, working with Ministers, stakeholder engagement, political economy, fiscal transparency and accountability. Delegates will then strengthen their use of evidence, monitoring and evaluation, risk management, fiscal sustainability, cost-benefit analysis and value-for-money frameworks to support more credible, transparent and financially responsible strategic decisions.
Agenda
Day 1 — Setting the Right Direction: Strategic Vision, Planning and Financial Foundations
- Setting meaningful objectives
- Understanding and using the ‘policy cycle’
- Evaluating complex contextual factors
- Linking strategy to budgets and medium-term financial planning
- Understanding public value and financial stewardship
Day 2 — Politics and the Public Sector
- Aligning political objectives and conflicting priorities
- Civil servants working with Ministers
- Engaging with stakeholders
- Political economy of public finance
- Fiscal transparency and accountability
Day 3 — The Importance of a Strategic Approach
- Analysis of evidence
- Monitoring and evaluating policy implementation
- Risk management and risk culture
- Financial risk, fiscal sustainability and long-term liabilities
- Cost-benefit analysis and value-for-money frameworks
Course Review
- Summary and recap of key learning objectives
- Action Planning
Target Audience
This course is suitable for:
- Senior and middle managers in government ministries, departments and public agencies.
- Public-sector strategy, policy and planning professionals.
- Finance, budgeting and public financial management professionals.
- Programme, transformation and service-delivery managers.
- Governance, risk, audit and performance-management professionals.
- Officials responsible for procurement, investment, partnerships or major public programmes.
- Professionals working with Ministers, elected representatives and public-sector stakeholders.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to implement a successful strategy that enables you to:
- Formulate clear, meaningful strategic objectives that align policy intent with measurable public outcomes and organisational priorities.
- Apply the policy cycle to structure policy development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and review.
- Analyse political, economic, social, institutional and operational factors that can influence strategic choices and delivery.
- Translate strategic priorities into budget and medium-term financial planning assumptions, testing affordability, trade-offs and resource alignment.
- Apply public-value and financial-stewardship principles to assess whether strategic choices use public resources responsibly and create sustainable value.
- Assess competing political and organisational priorities and identify practical ways to reconcile them with strategic and financial constraints.
- Evaluate how officials can provide evidence-based advice, maintain professional integrity and support effective Ministerial decision-making.
- Design stakeholder-engagement approaches that build legitimacy, surface competing interests and strengthen policy implementation.
- Analyse how incentives, institutions, negotiation and power relationships influence fiscal choices, resource allocation and reform.
- Apply principles of fiscal transparency and accountability to strengthen reporting credibility, scrutiny, institutional trust and responsible financial management.
- Evaluate qualitative and quantitative evidence critically and use it to support strategic policy and resource-allocation decisions.
- Develop monitoring and evaluation approaches that connect implementation progress, outcomes, costs and strategic objectives.
- Integrate risk identification, ownership, escalation and organisational risk culture into strategic planning and decision-making.
- Assess financial risk and fiscal sustainability, including the implications of debt, pensions, guarantees and other long-term or contingent liabilities.
- Apply cost-benefit and value-for-money frameworks to compare strategic options and support transparent, defensible public investment decisions.
Course dates
Feb 15, 2027 - Feb 17, 2027
Jun 28, 2027 - Jun 30, 2027
Oct 11, 2027 - Oct 13, 2027
