ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how one district council in southern England has responded to some of these pressures and changes. It focuses on the background to introducing Self Managed Learning into this local authority and discusses some of the practical outcomes of work. This programme was offered by Roffey Park Management College and the award of an MBA made by the University of Sussex. Arun District Council has always been committed to training, development and, more recently, learning. The authority was created in 1974 and immediately budgeted for training and development. Surprisingly this was not a typical action in local government. The Council became very performance-oriented and people management responsibilities were shifted to line managers, with clear policy directives and standards being determined by the corporate centre. In 1983 a new Chief Executive identified training and development as a significant part of his approach to strategic planning and managing change.
