This guidance is for service leads and technical managers focused on maintaining high technical standards and ensuring there is no single point of failure within their teams.
Introduction to use cases
This guidance is for service leads and technical managers focused on maintaining high technical standards and ensuring there is no single point of failure within their teams.
It focuses on collecting the evidence-based insights needed to investigate team requirements, steer professional development, and track progress against collective goals. These insights directly feed into recruitment and learning plans, and it can provide the data needed to justify spend on external resources or the need for new roles.
When using this framework to manage performance, it is important to remember that proficiency levels do not directly map to seniority. For example, a senior leader may require expert knowledge in some areas while only needing a high-level awareness of others.
Using the framework in staff development planning
Why this is important
Standard performance reviews can sometimes find it difficult to capture the nuances of technical growth within specialised CDDaT roles. The goal is to set clear expectations and ground every assessment in evidence, moving the conversation toward what a staff member can demonstrate. While these assessments show technical growth, they describe capability rather than specific salary grades; remuneration remains entirely at the council's discretion.
How to do this using the framework
Use the framework during annual appraisals and mid-year reviews to track progress against developmental goals. Setting expectations based on proficiency levels helps staff understand the specific technical requirements for their role.
You can download the Individual Development Plan Tool below and follow the instructions. This tool visualises a "Skill Shape" using a radar graph to provide a 360-degree view of performance. It aggregates feedback from managers, peers, and self-assessments to identify perception gaps. The tool automatically prescribes actions by identifying the behavioural indicators needed to reach the next proficiency level.
Download Individual Development Plan Tool
Using the framework to map the skills composition of your team
Why this is important
Service delivery in local government often relies on "hidden" expertise or technical skills that staff possess but aren't captured in their official job titles or descriptions. This creates a significant risk for managers: without a clear map of what their team can actually do, it is impossible to know if the service is truly resilient. Relying on generic titles like "Senior Officer" or "Technical Lead" masks the reality of your team’s capabilities, making it difficult to plan for future projects or identify where the loss of a single staff member could cause a critical service failure.
How to do this using the framework
By mapping the proficiency levels of each team member against the framework’s standards, you can identify the collective skills of your team. This process allows you to see exactly where your strengths lie and where you may be vulnerable to gaps in expertise.
You can download the Team Skills Composition Analysis Tool below and follow the instructions. This resource visualises your "Team Shape" to immediately highlight single points of failure, or areas where critical expertise is held by only one person.
These insights help you manage key-person risk and decide how to allocate training budgets. It may highlight a need to invest in further training for individuals, upskilling the entire group in new skills, or how you can encourage peer-to-peer learning. This level of visibility is vital for business continuity planning, ensuring that statutory services remain stable even during periods of staff turnover.
Remember, a low total score in a specific skill is not necessarily a failure; a healthy, resilient team requires a balanced mix of practitioners and those with foundational knowledge to ensure work can be delegated effectively.
Download Team Skills Composition Analysis Tool
Using the framework to manage knowledge transfer
Why this is important
Effective knowledge transfer ensures that critical expertise is shared across the team rather than being held by a single person or an external partner. This is vital when managing consultant handovers, planning for the retirement of long-serving staff, or supporting junior members as they progress into senior roles. The goal is to avoid consultant dependency and ensure the council retains the "thinking and decision-making" logic required to run its services.
How to do this using the framework
Use the framework to codify and understand the specific skills brought in by contractors or the expertise held by staff members. Once you have identified these relative strengths and weaknesses, or the skills being lost through a departure, you can use this insight to:
- pair technical experts with learners to elevate overall team capability and multi-skill the workforce
- set measurable knowledge transfer requirements for external consultants to ensure internal teams can maintain new systems long-term
- document and transfer council-specific knowledge from senior staff before they leave or retire to prevent a knowledge vacuum
- select stretch projects that push staff out of their comfort zone to bridge identified gaps and build resilience.
Further use cases
The CDDaT framework is a foundational resource that can be adapted to provide a clearer understanding of your team's collective strengths and potential vulnerabilities. These additional use cases are intended to inspire creative ways to use these standards to improve team cohesion and operational resilience.
- Evidence professional progression: Provide objective data to justify promotions by proving a staff member is consistently operating at a more senior proficiency level.
- Build service resilience: Cross-train team members across different technical domains to eliminate "single point of failure" risks and ensure essential services are never dependent on one individual.
- Develop "T-shaped" specialists: Support technical experts in gaining broader experience across various project types to create a more versatile and adaptable delivery team.
- Unlock "hidden" talent: Reveal technical capabilities within your team that may not be captured by current job titles, allowing for more agile and creative staff deployment.
If you have used the framework in creative ways to support your team, please get in touch to share your experience with the sector. Send your use cases and case studies to [email].
