How your core ODP skills develop, supporting your progression

This diagram charts the five core ODP skills and how they expand and develop in to the seven core capabilities for SCS roles.

In the SCS the expectation is you will already have an 'awareness' of all ODP skills and therefore this is foregone and you progress through the 7 capabilities assessing your current expertise from the minimum expectation for SCS ‘Working’ through to ‘Expert’ level. How you progress will depend on your own personal development and experience. This is individual to you and you will discuss this as part of your career development conversations. It is important to recognise that SCS roles are different from the wider ODP framework.

Core ODP skills

Developing into

Howdoes the skill develop?

Connections and communication

Operational leadership and management

(alongside Line Management Standards)

Power of connections

Progression from Grade 6/7 through to SCS sees communications skills evolve to leveraging the power of connections, building relationships and networks internally, across government and externally to help deliver an effective service. This involves increasing influence at a strategic and ministerial level.

Human centred design

Both communication and leadership and management skills evolve from Grade 6/7 into a more human centred design approach for SCS where feedback influences the design of a service. Developing a culture that supports people to maximise the benefits of technology to drive service provision and service user experience.

System leadership

At Grade 6/7 there is greater development of strategic leadership thinking. As the role develops in to SCS there is a greater application of systems leadership. For SCS, the leadership framework is applicable. Seeing the bigger picture and maximising interdependencies to deliver more integrated solutions across the organisation and government.

Adaptability to change

Innovation and risk

At Grade 6/7 there is a culture of openness to change and improvements by supporting innovation in service delivery, maximising the benefits of technology and by balancing risks. At SCS there is more emphasis on being accountable for the risks and outcomes of transformational change and improvements. This involves leading by example and by supporting others to understand and engage with complex change.

Learning agility

Grade 6/7 recognise and promote the importance of learning and learning from successes and failures to bring about improvements. At SCS this evolves into establishing an open and safe culture across the organisation where reflective learning is the norm and is built into organisational design.

Data and insight

Grade 6/7 lead and set the expectation on how data and insights are used, picking out trends that are timely and useful for service delivery. SCS will be involved more in fostering a culture of data and insight driven decision making across the organisation, taking into consideration the interdependencies between data and the way data can be streamlined to bring about improvements.

Delivery and decision making at pace

Decisions at pace

Grade 6/7 balance the benefits and the risks of decision making at pace by taking responsibility and by supporting others to ensure decisions are made at the appropriate level. SCS will develop to being more accountable for the risks and outcomes of the decisions made at an organisational level, often those involving multiple stakeholders and/or across government, taking into consideration the interdependencies.