Introduction

3.5  In common with the rest of the Department, the Business and Management Services Division operates by empowering managers to act within the overall strategic direction defined by senior management. Responsibility and accountability for the direction and performance of individual business units is therefore devolved to their managers. This principle is applied to staff development and training.

3.6  The Division's staff planning arrangements (see Figure 11) are co-ordinated by the Divisional Human Resources Team. The Team monitors progress against plan through the year and conducts a half-yearly review to ensure that the overall plan continues to reflect developing Departmental and Divisional needs.

We examined how these arrangements had worked in practice. The report focuses first on the expertise required at senior level within the Division and then examines the wider operation of the staff planning process.