Key details
Mode of delivery: Classroom-based
Course code: PS19
Duration: 10 days
Fee: £8,405.00 + VAT
CPD Hours: 60
Course Overview
This course integrates public-sector strategy with the financial disciplines required to turn policy ambitions into sustainable results. Participants examine strategic direction, the policy cycle, political and stakeholder dynamics, evidence-based decision-making, risk, implementation and delivery. The programme also develops practical understanding of medium-term financial planning, public value, fiscal transparency, financial risk, fiscal sustainability, cost-benefit and value-for-money analysis, funding models, financial controls and public-private partnerships. By connecting strategic choices with budgets, accountability and long-term financial consequences, the course enables public-sector professionals to make more credible, deliverable and financially responsible decisions.
Week 2 of the programme is a focused week designed for new and emerging leaders — or experienced professionals looking to strengthen their leadership foundations. The programme explores the core attributes of effective leadership, including mindset, emotional control, executive presence, and behavioural impact. Participants will reflect on their own leadership identity, learn practical techniques for managing pressure, and develop the habits that build trust and credibility. Delivered through a mix of discussion, case examples, peer learning, and practical exercises, the course creates space for leaders to define their leadership edge and increase their day-to-day effectiveness.
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
Day 4 — Thinking about Implementation from the Start
- Policy tools for effecting change
- Communication as a policy tool
- Working with delivery partners
- Funding models, procurement strategy and financial controls
- Public-private partnerships and alternative financing
Day 5 — Weekly Review
- Summary and recap of key learning objectives
- Action Planning
Day 6 — Leading with Impact: Defining Your Leadership Edge
- Key characteristics of great leadership
- Behaviours and habits that create credibility and influence
- Comparing leadership styles using real-world benchmarks
Day 7 — Leadership Traits and Psychological Mindsets
- Core traits that distinguish effective leaders in complex environments
- Mindset development and its application
- Cognitive flexibility and its role in adapting leadership behaviour across contexts
Day 8 — Self-Regulation and Leadership Composure
- Regulation strategies for maintaining leadership stability
- Identification and management of personal leadership triggers
- Techniques to sustain focus, and clarity under pressure
Day 9 — Executive Presence and Leadership Identity
- Key dimensions of executive presence: credibility, clarity, and composure
- Alignment between self-perception and external leadership signals
- Verbal and non-verbal techniques for increasing leadership impact
Day 10 — Course Review
- Summary and recap of key learning objectives
- Action Planning
Post-Course
- Six (6) x hour-long Executive Coaching sessions at monthly intervals following Course Completion
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.
- New Managers, First-Time Team Leaders, Supervisors, and Junior Managers.
- Emerging Leaders, and Team, Department & Project Coordinators.
- Office & Administrative Managers, and Management Trainees.
- Operations and Technical Team Leaders
- HR Officers and People Support Professionals
- Public Sector Supervisors and Leaders
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.
- Select appropriate policy instruments by considering intended outcomes, behavioural responses, implementation constraints and resource implications.
- Use communication strategically to influence behaviour, build understanding, manage expectations and support successful policy implementation.
- Develop governance and relationship approaches for working effectively with delivery partners across organisational and sector boundaries.
- Evaluate funding models, procurement choices and financial controls needed to support accountable, efficient and deliverable implementation.
- Assess the suitability, value, risks, governance requirements and long-term implications of PPPs and alternative financing arrangements.
- Identify and understand key characteristics of great leadership.
- Develop behaviours and habits that build credibility and influence.
- Analyse and evaluate leadership styles using real-world benchmarks.
- Recognise core traits that enable effective leadership in complex environments.
- Cultivate and apply growth-oriented mindsets.
- Adapt leadership behaviours through cognitive flexibility.
- Implement strategies to maintain leadership stability.
- Recognise and manage personal leadership triggers.
- Use techniques to sustain focus and clarity under pressure.
- Strengthen key dimensions of executive presence: credibility, clarity, and composure.
- Ensure alignment between self-perception and external signals of leadership.
- Utilise verbal and non-verbal techniques to enhance leadership impact.
Course dates
Feb 15, 2027 - Feb 26, 2027
Jun 28, 2027 - Jul 9, 2027
Oct 11, 2027 - Oct 22, 2027
