Strategic Planning Role
Strategic planners help organisations decide what they want to do and work out how to make it happen. Their analysis and insight inform decisions on what services deliver and how to deliver them. The NHS Scotland Careers website includes a description of the Strategic Planning role and the educational pathways to the role.
There are two key resources we use to guide our work in Strategic Planning.
1. The Good Practice Framework for Strategic Planning breaks strategic planning into five key themes. It explores what good strategic planning looks and feels like to guide the approach taken by strategic planners across HSCPs and NHS boards.
2. The Good Practice Skills for Strategic Planning resource breaks down the core functions, skills, competencies and approaches for strategic planners. It is designed to act as the basis for professional development for strategic planners. It includes skills against each of the five themes of the Good Practice Framework for Strategic Planning as well as the key enabling skills that underpin what strategic planners do.
Building a planning culture
Building a planning culture as a strategic planner means understanding the role of strategic planning within the organisation, supporting good planning and supporting the development of a planning culture in the team and across the organisation.
Analyse
Analysis as a strategic planner means trying to understand a problem, need or idea at a broader system-wide level by drawing on a wider set of intelligence than might be done by other professions or roles.
Plan
Planning as a strategic planner means drawing on multiple evidence sources to systematically and comprehensively understand the areas for change, assess the value of the options available and support the subsequent design of services and support.
Deliver
Delivery as a strategic planner means supporting the commissioning and ongoing improvement of services and support by bringing a strategic planning world view and an emphasis on system-wide, future focused evidence on population need as the driver for commissioning and improvement. There isn’t a clear and consistent line between where strategic planning team’s responsibilities end and other teams’ responsibilities start. This can vary between situations and the stakeholders’ strategic planners are working with. Being comfortable at managing this grey area becomes important for successfully providing strategic planning support for the delivery of plans and transformation.
Review
Review as a strategic planner means participating in the ongoing measurement, monitoring and evaluation by contributing a strategic planning lens to how best to measure outcomes, impact and success. Review isn’t something that comes at the end, but instead the competencies in this skill area should be applied right from the outset.
Building a planning culture
Building a planning culture includes understanding the role that strategic planning has to play, understanding what relevant stakeholders to include in planning, supporting the development of shared visions, values and objectives and supporting the implementation of good practice in strategic planning by others across the system.
Analyse
To analyse as a strategic planner means understanding the strategic context, assessing the population need, understanding the status quo, understanding evidence on good practice, and identifying gaps.
Plan
To plan as a strategic planner means assessing options for change, writing strategies and plans, and contributing to the design of services and support.
Deliver
Supporting delivery as a strategic planner means translating planning into commissioning decisions and supporting ongoing implementation of strategies and change by others.
Review
Strategic planners contribute insight and views on measurement, monitoring and evaluation conducted in their organisations.
Enabling skills
Five key skills that aren’t strategic planning specialist skills but are considered important in supporting and implementing good practice in strategic planning include influencing, working with complexity and uncertainty, communication, innovation creativity and problem solving, and leadership.