Introduction
The development of a website focused on childcare and education for the Brimbank City Council is a complex project that may help various people and organisations. One of the first steps in its planning is to identify the key stakeholders – individuals or segments of the population actively involved or benefiting from the given programme. Young families and carers of Brimbank City Council with pre-school children to age five may be considered the primary stakeholders of the project since they are its internal part and direct beneficiaries. According to the recent statistics, there were over eleven thousand birth notifications during the last five years (Brimbank Children’s Plan 2015-2019, p. 2). Therefore, even if the project includes only a part of these young families as stakeholders, it still may number in thousands. It is crucial to understand that this large group will be the primary user or the beneficiary of the website, directly affected by its ease of access and availability.
While parents of young children are to be the key recipients of the information available via the future website, the childcare providers are the inherent second large group of stakeholders. Playgroup coordinators, kindergarten directors, and other childcare service organisations are the key suppliers of resources that are also interested and affected by the success of the project. Brimbank is an international and culturally diverse community, home to families from various countries, such as India, Pakistan, China and many others. Over the last years, Brimbank City Council focused on providing opportunities for non-English speaking families through participating in playgroups to increase literacy and community engagement (Brimbank Children’s Strategy 2020-2024). Therefore, the projected website may serve as the main ground for connecting families in need of childcare and education services and their providers.
Another key stakeholder directly involved and affected by the project is the Brimbank City Council itself since it acts as a facilitator and mediator between other stakeholder groups. According to the City Council plan, it is vital to develop “an informed, accessible and responsive suite of child and family services” (Brimbank Children’s Strategy 2020-2024, p. 18). The mobile-friendly website focused on providing the required information will allow the Council to more effectively implement their strategies and deliver the necessary services to children across the community.
Stakeholder Management Plan
Once the main stakeholders are identified, it is vital to develop a strategy to manage them effectively. A stakeholder analysis should be carried out to systematically gather the relevant information and determine the level of involvement of a particular group and whose interests should be taken into account first. A complete register of everyone involved is required and should be compiled to ease the future interaction between various stakeholder categories.
The management plan is a crucial tool to execute and complete a successful project and in significant part, focuses on communication. Keeping everyone involved in the project, internally or externally, adequately informed is critical to the success of the website development plan. Therefore, the right method of communication needs to be determined to stimulate the stakeholders’ continued interest. Group and individual meetings, written and online correspondence are among the key channels to share project information and conduct relevant discussions.
Different stakeholders may have various and sometimes contradicting needs in terms of the content of the mobile-friendly educational website. The best way to determine the expectations of the main groups is through a series of meetings with them to cover the principal issues. It is crucial to understand what interest both parents and childcare services institutions have in the development of the website, how it will comply with their primary objectives, and what risks are to be expected.
One of the potential risks the project may encounter is the unwillingness of families to transition to the mobile website to gather the information on childcare services. A significant number of non-English speaking parents prefer face-to-face meetings with local councillors. However, an adequate contingency plan will be put in place and include community sessions to inform the affected families that the website is planned to have multiple languages. Moreover, such sessions will include the required training to ease the transition and explain the benefits of using the mobile platform to connect with childcare providers.
POWER The power-interest grid associated with the developing a mobile-friendly website covers the most extensive stakeholder groups: childcare service providers, families with young children, and the Brimbank City Council. The levels of interest in the success of the project, and the involvement of these groups is different. Please, refer to the below grid to see the segregation and prioritisation of the key participants in the project:
Using this power-interest grid, it is easy to determine who has high or low power to impact the project, as well as who has high or low interest in its success. Brimbank City Council is a high-impact – high interest stakeholder, hence, must be closely monitored and managed in terms of its expectations. Web develops and the IT department, on the contrary, has low interest and low power, therefore, should not be involved in all the project communications, however, closely monitored in terms of tasks completion.
Reference List
Brimbank Children’s Plan 2015-2019. Web.
Brimbank Children’s Strategy 2020-2024. Web.