Holding workshops for senior management and practitioners to develop a project plan

The targeted youth support (TYS) project team was keen to ensure that the project plan was as robust as possible. A Mobilise workshop was run for the senior management team to make sure this was achieved.

The challenge was to give the senior management team an early opportunity to tailor the pathfinder to the situation in the authority and to work as a team towards a common goal.

This had to be done quickly so the detailed planning of events and interviews could be scheduled, as well as a plan to engage young people. People doing the consultations also needed to be mobilised and enthused about the task ahead.  

A three hour workshop was run, involving all members of the senior management team. It covered:

• Agreeing the scope of the project, including a review of other initiatives happening simultaneously in the authority
• Agreeing key stakeholders
• Agreeing governance and reporting lines for the project
• Agreeing major activities, including their purpose and process, in the Mobilise, Discover and Deepen stages of the project
• Developing a communications plan
• An analysis of risks inherent in the pathfinder. 
• Agreeing key inputs to the project initiation document. 

A second two hour workshop was run with 15 youth workers and social workers who were tasked to plan how to engage young people in the project. The agenda included:

• Sharing the desired outcomes for the engagement revolving around key questions:
  - What are the big issues for young people in our target group
  - What are their priorities?
  - What is their perspective on service provision?
  
  
• Identifying previous consultation with young people and what worked well and not so well
  
  
• Establishing principles for engaging young peoples for the TYS pathfinder
  
  
• Brainstorming ways of achieving the desired outcomes and agreeing the approach

Comments

Both workshops achieved their desired outcomes and provided an opportunity for the teams to mobilise effectively. Using brown papers in the workshops gave everyone an opportunity to be creative.

Further information

Relevant activities for this case study include holding the planning workshop which is one of the activities in the Mobilise stage.

Click for further case studies relevant to the Mobilise stage of the targeted youth support change process.