NTC

Various Roles 2003 – 2009

I was employed in a number of roles at North Tyneside Council. Starting as the senior manager for ICT Services and ending as Head of Transformation and Technology, responsible for Information and Communication Technology as well as the Business Support Service (Financial Transaction Processing, People Transaction Processing, Payroll, Facilities Management).

Reporting to the Strategic Director of Organisational Improvement and a member of the council’s senior management team, I had budgetary control of service revenues of £12 million and capital of £3 million per year. The ICT Services had assets of around £10 million. Facilities management is provided for the council’s flagship central office campus.

I joined the council in November 2003 in order to broaden my career by working within the public sector. My original position was Senior Manager ICT but following the secondment of my manager (Director of Strategic Services) I was asked to report to the Chief Executive and to lead on the development of a customer strategy as part of our emerging accommodation project.

In April 2005 I was asked to take over responsibility for three other services, Benefits, Customer and Revenues. Reporting to the recently appointed acting Director of Strategic Services, I had a staff of 350 and responsibility for the distribution and collection of around £150 million per year.

Following a review of the council’s management structure in April 2006, I was appointed as head of the Transformation and Technology team comprised of the ICT, Procurement, Risk and Insurance and Strategic Organisational Development services.

The ICT Services were medallists in the 2008 British Computer Society awards and rated as upper quintile performers in a Society of Information Technology Management customer survey in 2009.

From October 2007, I successfully lead the creation of the Business Support Service, bringing 140 multi-disciplined staff together to deliver high quality transactional services to the whole of the council, including, payroll, people processing, financial processing, facilities management, printing and reprographics.

I then lead on the second phase of this project with a review of the 1200 people who provide corporate services to the organisation. This Buisness Management Review designed the new corporate services that the council required and lead to comprehensive changes in management and service delivery arrangements.

I also lead on the council’s Connected Borough project to provide all residents with low cost access to digital services. This project arose from the ICT strategy and will use the council’s developed ICT capacity to improve the lives of residents and close the digital divide.

In addition, (since April 2006) I was the Programme manager for the council’s Business Transformation Programme. This was an exciting and ambitious programme to transform that way that the council delivers its services. The programme is delivering nearly two hundred change projects creating approximately £80 million of financial benefit.  The programme was in four themes, each with a Strategic director as the Strategic Change Champion:

  • Customer
  • Service
  • People
  • Accommodation

As part of the council’s approach to engagement with the third sector, I volunteered to work for the DePaul trust, working with young people with housing and learning difficulties.

In addition to my service based responsibilities, I have been involved in the corporate communications group, capital strategy group, emergency-planning group and have been the directorate risk champion.