Sophi Bruce, Program Specialist for the ACELG Advancing Leadership initiative welcomed the group, and presented an overview of the first 2 years of the initiative, including the Advancing Leadership Framework, the Graduate Certificate in Local Government Leadership and an update on the partnership collaborations that have occurred across the country. Information on these areas are included in the latest Advancing Leadership discussion paper.

Professor John Martin from La Trobe University gave an overview on leadership themes connected to political management in Australian Local Government (download), and Professor Graham Sansom from ACELG and UTS presented on the connections of leadership to Local Government reputation and performance, workforce strategy and context. UK Local Government Leadership expert Jill Barrow shared her experience from an international perspective, drawing on her work on UK whole place leadership programs and international community capacity building initiatives.

Throughout the roundtable, participants were invited to share their perspectives and experiences of leadership themes and programs, and exchange ideas for furthering collaboration, networking and partnership opportunities via facilitated group discussions. Participants also identified areas of innovation in this space and ideas for further research areas.Feedback on the roundtable was very positive with participants finding the conversations stimulating and appreciating the opportunity to interact and discuss challenges and possibilities with practitioners from across the sector and country.

A summary report capturing the main points from the day will be distributed prior to Christmas including areas for further discussion and exploration as well as initial outcomes that emerged from the roundtable to be progressed in the New Year.

For further information on the roundtable and the Advancing Leadership initiative, please contact Sophi Bruce: [email protected].

Download Sophi`s presentation to the roundtable here.