moving you from crisis to prevention by helping you to turn strategy into delivery & building trust
moving you from crisis to prevention by helping you to turn strategy into delivery & building trust
As a Socio Economist and interim Executive Director, I am motivated by delivering positive outcomes through transforming complex environments - and do so by creating high performing and happy teams.
I design, story tell, implement, and govern, sustainable operating models for organisations that provide city and community solutions - places where we live, invest, work, learn, visit and play.
Comfortable at board level, I help organisations define, deliver and measure success of large scale change, managing and influencing behaviour and expectations of senior stakeholders and promoting a culture where risks are measured in terms of time and cost and the reality of political trade-offs. Funding, tight budgeting, effective commissioning and implementing governance that sticks are always part of the mix.
I like to describe myself as others see me: an energetic, respectful and respected person who can build and lead successful teams and governance with a purpose, is bold about his vision for places, curious and creative about innovation and learning, continuously challenges himself to be better and who puts residents at the heart of everything we do - I do what I love.
I would love to connect and collaborate with anybody whose purpose is to improve outcomes for social justice, create better places and fairer services for all, and who has a commitment to tackling inequality and poverty in our cities and communities.
Over the last two decades, I have led on some of the most radical and impactful public sector transformation programmes in the UK and helped reshape the priorities of 10 local authorities, cities and their partners. I enjoy the challenges it brings with it, in times of perm-austerity, environmental and health crises, technology disruptions, and the certainty of demographic changes.
Rather than just managing deliverables, my focus has been on working in partnership side by side with Chief Executives, elected Members and Leadership Teams as a trusted person in matters related to major change and corporate leadership.
My work as an interim executive has been one of intervention, turnaround and making significant improvements by embedding sustainable transformational change. This is reflected in the length of my assignments which typically range from 12 to 24 months. It is work environments when improvements must be delivered at pace where I truly feel at ease.
I further served as an e-Government adviser as part of the UK Prime Minister’s Breakfast Club from 2002-2003 and was Highly Commended for 2 National Director of the Year Awards 2023 by the "Institute of Directors (IoD)", for the categories Public & Third Sector, and for Sustainability.
With a degree in Economics and Sociology from McGill University, further readings at the University of Oslo and studies on Government Devolution and Localism at Harvard Kennedy School, I recently completed the Aspirant CEX Programme in conjunction with the LGA and CIPFA.
Recruiting the right person is becoming increasingly hard. Good people are high in demand, so we took the opportunity to discuss how local government can start to look beyond its own industry to identify new candidates who will not only fit into the culture but also add to it.
Many thanks to Andy Tromans, Senior Consultant, Public Sector Executive Search at Penna and Amin Aziz, Consultant and Assessment Specialist, Penna Public Sector Executive Search.
This webinar focused on "Reducing The Cost Burden for Councils Via Early Intervention" using Homeshare.
Chaired by former Shadow Health Secretary Luciana Berger, the event featured contributions from Claire Kennedy (co-founder & Joint Chief Executive at public sector social enterprise PPL) and myself. Philip Monaghan (Partnerships Director, Two Generations) shared how Homeshare helps Councils and, as always, the audience highlight was hearing from Gretta & Rick, long-time Homesharer.
With 57,000 homes, the London Borough of Southwark is the largest social housing provider in England.
This paper sets out the "Case for Change" of how Southwark Council will repair and maintain its existing homes. It is about transforming how our teams work and where they work and understanding the connectivity and relationships between the various functions of our Council wide system while stabilising our repairs service. It is a call for a more interventionist approach and step change to improving our Repairs and Maintenance services and do so in a much more structured way than we have done so far.
Over a decade into austerity, local government finances have been eroded to tipping point, and so we face many more years of fiscal restraint as we move into a new era of permanent austerity. Meanwhile demand for our services is rising, partly as a result of the impact of austerity on some of our communities and partly because of the macro-economic reality we find ourselves in. All this is happening in the context of increasing climate targets and a new Housing Regulatory Framework coming into effect in 2024 and which are driving up investment requirements for our Council owned assets and the Borough’s housing stock.
2022 has also seen the start of the end of cheap money, with inflation and monetary policies driving up prices and interest rates and with it the cost of borrowing (debt), creating uncertainty around future funding options. The pandemic and inflation that followed has had a negative impact upon our own finances and operations, creating significant pressures on our Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which has been depleted to its lowest ever point.
With the rent cap firmly remaining in place, there is limited room within the HRA to absorb ever increasing demands, and the new burdens arising from government directives around building safety are further exacerbating this. Not only does there need to be significant re-prioritisation of existing resources to those areas of highest need, but also a focus on identifying additional resources to continue to fund our capital programme and investment into improving services.
Now more than ever, our Borough is facing significant on-going financial challenges and risks – doing nothing or to continue doing what we have done in the past is not an option, nor is doing less. We need to find our own ways to plan and then gear up for a future in which we can operate effectively, independently and do so within a reduced financial envelope - this requires us to have a response and then move at pace.
To download a copy of the "Case for Change - Transforming Asset Management", please follow the link below.
My response to the political, macro and socio-economic challenges we are facing in the UK and locally in Peterborough City and the region, the findings and recommendations which were agreed and institutionalised by Full Council within 6 months of initiation.
The "Sustainable Future City Council Strategy 2022-25" and "City Priorities" set out the proposed direction of travel for Peterborough City Council so that it can deliver its long-term vision for the region and our four priority outcomes. It is a positive vision for the City of Peterborough and one which will materialise on the huge opportunities the City presents:
We are living in arguably the most challenging times facing Peterborough since the Second World War. Following the pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis, mainly driven by inflation and exponential price increases across all sectors is putting further demand on an already fragile support system and which is most felt by our communities while the UK is moving into recession.
A different response, yet within the safety of a tried and tested model was required. A Sustainable Future City Council requires the City Council to have an organisational structure that is build around needs using a 'OneCity – OnePartnership' approach. This means looking at all aspects of not only what it does but how it does it.
The starting point was the challenge of finding significant savings over the coming years and to provide for the required long term financial sustainability – only then, the Council could invest into the City’s future. It's done by implementing an operating model which enables the City Council to manage demand and help & support people before they reach crisis point while finding new ways to tackle inequality in our communities by maximising inclusive, sustainable economic growth that benefits everyone.
To download a copy of the "Sustainable Future City Council Strategy 2022-25" and Peterborough's "City Priorities", please follow the link below.
Working with the CEO and Deputy Leader, I joined the Council during the most challenging times facing Birmingham since the Second World War. Coronavirus has caused untold tragedy and economic damage and with a decade into austerity the City faces many more years of fiscal restraint while demand for services is rising. A different response, yet within the safety of a tried and tested model was required, one that builds on the huge opportunities presented to us by the City and do so in a way that empowers staff and partners to showcase their innovation and creativity.
Build and led a portfolio team to design, test and agree with Cabinet a Blueprint for leadership, on the design and organisation of Birmingham so that it can deliver the administration’s long-term vision for the City and its priority outcomes; a Blueprint that invests into the City's future and that addresses:
To download a summary of the “Investing in Our Future” Blueprint for the City of Birmingham, please follow the link below.
Working with the CEO and as a member of the Corporate Leadership Team, I initially led on transforming the Council’s housing offer and prepared it for the successful transition into an external entity. This was done by migrating the redesigned services into two new entities, ‘My Place’ and ‘Home Services’ and which operate within a newly set up commissioning model.
I then led on the design and implementation of Barking & Dagenham’s Ambition 2020 Reform, with the creation of an entirely new Council and which saw improved outcomes and a 20% reduction in demand within 3 years of initiation. This was done through an ambitious Growth and a Health and Wellbeing Agenda and by tackling the root causes of civic inequality and poverty while putting data & insight and community participation at the core of decision making. Mobilised and managed a team of 100+ and successfully transitioned the programme into BAU.
The outcomes of our work have received national and international recognition. Today the model inspires other like-minded organisations, to tackle poverty through early intervention and by increasing economic and social wellbeing in our communities.
To find out more about my journey with the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham incl. Testimonials, please follow the link below.