Public Sector Executive Podcast

In Episode 32, Chris Cromar spoke to Louise Smyth (Chief Executive, Registrar of Companies, Interim Regulator of Community Interest Companies - Companies House) and Martin Swain (Director of Strategy, Policy and External Communications - Companies House) about how Companies House drives confidence in the UK economy.

“Often, the legacy of a leader is talked about in terms of their achievements. However, in public services, the job is never done.

“You constantly strive towards your goal for a better service, a better life or a better experience for people who you serve. You can only do that effectively if you drive a culture where others can develop to the best of their potential.”

That was the view of Rajesh Nadkarni, Executive Medical Director at Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust, as he discussed with host Matt Roberts the advice he would offer fellow leaders having undertaken the NLC Accelerate Programme.

Joined by Tosca Fairchild, Delivery Director for Equality & Health Inequalities and Intensive Support for the East of England at NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I), it was clear despite such different journeys to their current positions, there was a consensus of desire to improve their skills not only for their own benefits, but the benefits of their colleagues, organisations, and service users equally too.

That dictates a strong, conscientious public service leader and is one of the end targets of the NLC Accelerate Programme, which has striven to provide the skills and environment necessary to encourage and develop these skills within their cohort.

With the NLC Accelerate Programme now open to new applicants for the 2021/22 cohort, both Rajesh,Tosca and the other participants of this four-part miniseries strongly recommended that leaders consider the benefits the NLC could offer.

Tosca explained: “The network that we’ve created, through being part of the programme, is going to be in my view invaluable for all 20 of us on this programme.

“As we go forward, we have been introduced to people that we would not ordinarily have come across, we will have action learning sets and people to call upon when, as leaders, things get tough and you need to run something past someone.

“We now have a network of people that I know with confidence, I can pick up the phone and say ‘Rajesh, I’ve got this in mind, can I have a conversation with you to help me?’ [and they’ll support me with that].”

The NLC Accelerate Programme brings together 20 high-performing ethnic minority leaders from across public services, who are currently working at Deputy CEO level and aiming to become CEO-level leaders within their respective fields.

Applications for the new 2021/22 cohort of the NLC Accelerate are open until September 24, 2021. Those keen to take part in this year’s course can register their interest here.

Most of us can identify the qualities that make a good public sector leader, but what turns a good leader into a great one? In particular, what can we learn from other leaders around us to help take advantage of opportunities and deliver greater services to the public?

As part of our four-part podcast miniseries with the National Leadership Centre (NLC), Public Sector Executive is delving deeper into what helps make a great leader’.

Joining host Matt Roberts on the podcast, Parveen Yaqoob, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Reading and Shantha Dickinson, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, discuss their leadership journeys and the experiences that helped propel them forward in their careers.  For Parveen, there was one particular moment which represented a turning point in her career progression.

“About five or six years ago, I was asked to take part in a STEM event for Year 9 girls. I was one of six role models, women representing different areas in STEM, and at the start of the event the facilitator asked each of us to stand up and explain why we were there. I stood up and found myself saying that there weren’t enough women in senior positions in universities and I wanted to see change.

“As soon as the words were out of my mouth, it just hit me like a thunderbolt. I realised I couldn’t say something like that, and yet have no intention of doing anything about it.”

That drove Parveen to make the most of opportunities, and to help guide and support others to come through too. But equally, it also taught her to take pride in her achievements and recognise the success she had achieved in her career, and how she could then turn that into a shareable experience for others.

There are many different ways that a leader can go from having a good career to a great one, with guests Parveen and Shantha’s very different experiences demonstrating as much, but one thing comes across immediately clear: the growth of a great leader doesn’t just benefit themselves, but it benefits everyone across their organisation and in the case of the NLC Accelerate delegates, it benefits the recipients of the public service their organisations provide

Listen to the full discussions with Shantha and Parveen and discover what truly took them to that next stage of personal, professional, and collaborative success, and how the NLC Accelerate Programme has impacted their leadership journeys.

The NLC Accelerate Programme brings together 20 high-performing ethnic minority leaders from across public services, who are currently working at Deputy CEO level and aiming to become CEO-level leaders within their respective fields.

Applications for the new 2021/22 cohort of the NLC Accelerate are open until September 24, 2021. Those keen to take part in this year’s course can register their interest here.

As ethnic minority leaders, there have been many barriers and challenges to overcome to reach the career heights that our guests from the NLC Accelerate Programme have done, and in the second of our four-part miniseries with the National Leadership Centre (NLC), we hear about some of these challenges and how the delegates have managed to surmount them.

Joined by Mohit Venkataram, Executive Commercial Director at East London Foundation Trust, and Acosia Nyanin, Regional Chief Nurse for the South East at NHS England & NHS Improvement (NHSE/I), our host Matt Roberts was able to delve into some of the root experiences and explore very honest, candid answers from the guests.

One of the biggest elements, and one which the NLC Accelerate Programme was able to directly intervene and help with, was the construction of strong, valuable networks of like-minded, driven public leaders; leaders who often otherwise might not have crossed paths.

Through both the building of connections among the course cohort, and the implementation of a mentor system, the NLC Accelerate delegates were able to connect, learn and share in confidence.

As Mohit explained: “I think it’s often felt that one is alone in the room. It has felt like that for a long time.

“It is incredibly important to feel in your heart that you have a network, where you can bounce off ideas and where you can feel comfortable, and there’s a safe space to have an open discussion.

“The pandemic made a difference. It taught us that our strength comes in being a group, a collective and in not competing with each other but recognising the experiences we bring in together as a group which makes a difference to the lives of people that we are here to serve.”

Listen to the full conversation with Mohit and Acosia and discover how these two inspirational public sector leaders have overcome barriers and challenges in their career, with the support of the NLC Accelerate Programme,

The NLC Accelerate Programme brings together 20 high-performing ethnic minority leaders from across public services, who are currently working at Deputy CEO level and aiming to become CEO-level leaders within their respective fields.

Applications for the new 2021/22 cohort of the NLC Accelerate are open until September 24, 2021. Those keen to take part in this year’s course can register their interest here.

“It is fundamentally important to work with people, understand what motivates them and what their lived experience has been.”

Those were the words of Salma Yasmeen, Executive Director of Strategy and Change at South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, as she joined two of her fellow NLC Accelerate Programme delegates on the first of a four-part miniseries being ran between the National Leadership Centre (NLC) and PSE’s Public Sector Voices podcast.

For Salma and her fellow Accelerate programme delegates, one of the biggest strengths of the programme was connecting the experiences of a diverse, varied group of public sector leaders to learn from one another and build up valuable connections.

One of the ways that was achieved was by sharing people’s stories up until then, the challenges and successes they had experienced in their careers and their general feelings within their roles; helping to reveal common sentiments among leaders.

Joined on this episode by Gurpreet Jagpal, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of Suffolk and Buki Adeyemo, Medical Director and Deputy CEO at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, the three fascinating leaders shared their own journeys and experiences up to that point.

From experience working in the voluntary sector and in the Middle East, through to a transformative experience in Nigeria, and hard-working summers in their youth, each of the NLC Accelerate Programme members had a unique, rich story to share with our podcast host Matt Roberts.

Jump in and listen to the full stories and learn about some of the transformative benefits that the programme has given these rising public sector leaders.

The NLC Accelerate Programme brings together 20 high-performing ethnic minority leaders from across public services, who are currently working at Deputy CEO level and aiming to become CEO-level leaders within their respective fields.

Applications for the new 2021/22 cohort of the NLC Accelerate are open from September 1-24, 2021. Those keen to take part in this year’s course can register their interest here.

Waste management may not always get a reputation as a glamorous or innovative area of public sector and local authority management, but there are huge opportunities yet to be achieved; much of it involving data science and digital technology.

On Episode 31 of PSE’s Public Sector Voices podcast, we sat down with Peter Hutt, Environment Manager at OpenSky Data Systems, who specialises in helping local authorities realise this potential. And for him, the impacts are often able to felt far beyond the waste management team.

“It’s very much something that’s been part of the waste team’s remit to look at their data and to use it where they can, even if it’s not always recognised because you can see it fairly easily if you have a look. Down to the basic, ‘Oh it’s the summer, we have more people flocking to our beaches, so we need more trucks to empty the waste bins’.

“Data has always been part of it, even when they don’t recognise it themselves.

“The collection of the detailed waste data, the movement from one place to another, gives them a big resource that they could use for planning; and not just for their own planning, but for the planning of other parts of the council.

“For themselves, it’s looking at how valuable would an extra incinerator be for us, in our waste stream, or do we need another recycling centre because we have a big population building up in this area.

“But there’s other parts of the council that could also benefit from the waste data. If you consider the planning department for the new buildings and houses. If we can model what an increase of 5,000 extra people in a particular area looks like in terms of waste, we can look at that and say ‘here is what that would look like if the houses were all semi-detached, here is what it is like if it’s all high-rise. Here is what it looks like if you have 10 acres of green space, and here if you only have five acres.

“It can build into the planning processes as well, so it’s not just restricted to the waste team which would use this data.”

On this week’s episode of Public Sector Voices we are joined by two key members of the National Association of Local Councils, Chief Executive, Jonathan Owen and Chair Sue Baxter.

NALC has been supporting town and parish councils since 1947, by lobbying Government, advising councils and improving and developing the sector, but their challenges now are perhaps greater than ever. 

Sue and Jonathan approach their roles from different angles giving a rounded account of the landscape of local councils, from their relationships with Ministers to local business owners.

With around 10,000 parish and town councils across England, their size, and diversity vary greatly, but the pandemic has shown that the importance of having these councillors on the ground, responding directly to the public is making the sector “as relevant as it has ever been, if not more than ever.”

The pandemic has accelerated what was already happening in the sector, which is that councils are doing much more, raising much more funds to support their local communities, getting involved in things they might not have got involved with in the past and Jonathan believes that local councillors should be at the centre of building back stronger and more resilient local communities.

Devolution, digital development and desires for a restructure, Jonathan and Sue covering everything from the perspective of the first tier of local government. 

On this week’s episode of Public Sector Voices we are joined by Martina Kane, Policy and Engagement Manager, at The Heath Foundation. She is calling for young people’s future & current health to be taken seriously by eliminating stress and uncertainty surrounding work and housing. 

Martina explains how young people’s health is heavily influenced by the wider things that’s around them and why getting people off to the best possible start in life is so crucial. 

She also illustrates through her organisations research the barriers young people face when trying to find secure work and secure housing. 

Following Rishi Sunak’s implementation of the furlough scheme and focus on youth employment, Martina said it was welcomed but hopefully when the economy opens up again a lot of these young people can go back to their workplaces. 

She also discusses how London Youth reported a third of services might not reopen after the Covid-19 outbreak. 

This podcast will tell you all you need to know about ensuring young people are protected for the future with regards to health, work and housing. 

On this week’s episode of Public Sector Voices we are joined by Cllr Mandy Clare from Cheshire West and Chester Council. As the Leader’s champion of Poverty and Inequality, she is calling for the full Cabinet to declare a Poverty and Inequality Emergency.

Councils around the country have been declaring climate emergencies and taking steps to mitigate against it, but Cllr Clare is hoping that now, local authorities will turn their attention to the pressing issue of poverty, and that Central Government will step in too.

The Poverty Truth Commission has been working to enable these conversations between the lived experience of poverty and the professional experience, to de-stigmatise what it means to be living in poverty in England in 2020.

Using a data driven and evidence-based approach, Cllr Clare wants her council to lead the way and give a voice to communities who are being disproportionately impacted. 

Foodbank use and cost of living have gone up but benefits and employment haven’t, leaving many people in England on the brink of poverty, and with the pandemic only adding to financial pressures, many people need support. 

With shame and stigma surrounding the poverty conversation, children and young people are unable to ask for help or share their experience with others, perpetuating the cycle even further. 

“We talk about weight issues, eating disorders, gender, sex and drugs in schools now but we don’t talk about poverty”

This podcast will tell you all you need to know about ensuring your council is on the right side of history with the Poverty Emergency, and no one in your region is being unnecessarily left behind. 

This week’s episode of Public Sector Voices, covers a hydrogen transport revolution, with Centre for Policy Studies researcher, Eamonn Ives. 

Eamonn specialises in the environment, devolution and business and regulatory policy and recently authored a report on how hydrogen can fuel a transport revolution.

While the UK economy has reduced its emissions by around 43% since 1990, transport remains the single biggest source, having only reduced by 2% in the same year.

Eamonn talks us through the sectors that are yet to decarbonise and the potential the country has to be ‘first movers’ in hydrogen energy, and reach the countries net zero carbon goals using this ‘miracle fuel’.

His position at CPS makes him primed to have a hand in influencing Ministers and policy on this topic, and he believes they are starting to wake up to the possibilities of hydrogen.

HGVs, Buses and the Railway all stand to benefit from this change but does hydrogen mean bypassing electric?

“The end goal of zero emission transport is what we should be focussing on and it doesn’t matter how we get there as long as we’re getting there.”

On this week’s episode of Public Sector Voices, Emily is joined by Sir David Bell, whose career in local government spans almost four decades.

Sir David is the current Vice Chancellor of the University of Sunderland and believes universities have a vital role to play in supporting the social and economic bounce back from coronavirus. 

Exams, assessment and teaching have all had to innovate around travel restrictions, but could new practices be the thing that transforms higher education for good?

Sir David talks us through his new role in social housing, higher education as economic anchor institutes and the skills that are going to drive the green economy. 

Above all, the resounding message of the podcast, was the immense importance of local authorities and organisations, who have been the glue keeping communities together through this pandemic.

“I think, as the pandemic has demonstrated, you ned people who know their local areas extremely well they know how to make local services work how to join them up, how to coordinate them – you can’t do that sitting in Whitehall.

“I think it’s really important that we don’t penny pinch when it comes to supporting local authorities.”

On this week’s episode of Public Sector Voices, Emily is joined by the Director of National Innovation Centre for Data, Steve Caughey, to highlight the potential of using data to it’s full potential within the public sector and beyond.

At less than two years old, the centre is at the start of its journey to equip the public and private sector with the skills needed to harness the unlimited power of data. 

With just under half of Europe’s organisations currently struggling to fill data analytics role - which incidentally are handsomely paid - Steve explains how we are a long way from being able to satisfy the demand.

Steve warns of the dangers of outsourcing your data, saying that ‘outsourcing your data is the same thing as outsourcing your innovation’ and if you take a look at the world today, we need innovation now more than ever.

With real examples of using data to make the lives of the people better, the podcast is there for people who know all there is to know about data, and those who don’t. 

Particular emphasis is put on the potential of using data on the interface between health and social care, to create a more integrated and efficient service. Not one to be missed. 

This week, Leader of Isle of Wight Council, Dave Stewart, Joined host Emily Rodgers on the Public Sector Voices podcast. The Island has received national attention throughout the coronavirus crisis for piloting the Government’s controversial track and trace app.

With a modest population of 140,000 people, 40% of which are retired, how did this beautiful hub for beaches and tourism get 54,000 people to join the fight?

Leader Dave Stewart attributes the Island’s success to communication, between Central Government and themselves, themselves and their residents, and everyone in between. He also praises the island for being ‘digitally well advanced’, something he was very grateful for once the lockdown kicked in.

Council finances, beach safety and compliant communities are all covered in this week’s podcast, as Cllr Stewart divulges the council’s financial reserves and the fortunate position they are in, compared with others.  

The Isle of Wight, having successfully pioneered the track and trace scheme, is now ready to welcome back visitors to the island, with a ‘safety first’ approach, and is focused on “reengaging and reenergising our economic position.” 

This week leader of Malvern Hills District Council Sarah Rouse joined host Emily Rodgers on Public Sector Voices after being recognised in the #EverydayHeroes campaign for her leadership since taking over the council.

The area suffered from severe floods that devastated businesses only to be hit with the pandemic as they began to recover, making Cllr Rouse’s first year as leader go from crisis to crisis.

Being a small market town has its benefits, but it also means you have to ‘shout a little louder’ to get the support needed to survive, and with Malvern’s unemployment figures tripling since April, they’re going to need all the support they can get.

Cllr Rouse talks of rescued chickens, emergency planning courses and the importance of putting party politics aside to work for the residents. 

A podcast to celebrate the good work being done and still to do in the Malvern Hills District and across all councils fighting the same battle. 

Marvin Rees was elected as Bristol Mayor in 2016 and has taken the city on a transformative journey through climate change action, social mobility and more recently an energised conversation around race inequality. 

Rees joined host Emily Rodgers on the Public Sector Voices podcast this week to discuss the events of the last few weeks and the wider problems the country faces when true diversity is neglected. 

He calls it ‘a big time of self-reflection for Bristol’ as people deal with the symbolic removal of the Colston statue, whilst advocating for the delivery of a full education of Britain’s history. As he puts it; ‘half the truth is no truth’.

Rees talks about the dilemma of being a black politician, under representation of minorities in local Government and the importance of good leadership to tackle institutional racism. 

But as the Mayor points out it’s not about guilt, it’s about open lines of communication to shape a country that works for everyone. 

Listen to this week’s episode of Public Sector Voices for a frank and honest portrayal of the landscape of the city and what can be done to improve it. 

Sir Richard Leese, long-standing leader of Manchester City Council joins Public Sector Voices host, Emily Rodgers to discuss the events throughout his 24-year reign and the future landscape of the city.

It is a task that is still ongoing, but rebuilding Manchester up from where is was all those years ago has taken the industrial city, with a falling population, to the thriving, buzzing hub it is today – all under the watchful eye of Mr.Leese. 

A huge part of the vision for Manchester going forward, is the 2038 zero emissions target, something the Council is keen to beat. Making the next five years absolutely critical.

Retrofitting, active travel and a green Council fleet are among the key drivers of reaching that goal, as well as promoting healthy lifestyles across the region to build a strong and healthy population and build an economy of the future ‘using the real strengths that we already had.’

There is already an abundance of good news coming from the city, with Manchester being one of the healthiest places for people to return to work, but as Mr.Leese says “It’s not time to go wild yet.”

Join us on a journey through Manchester’s history and feel part of its future on this week’s episode of Public Sector Voices. 

On this week’s episode, Executive Member for Children and Families and Leeds City Council, Cllr Fiona Venner, joined host Emily Rodgers on Public Sector Voices to discuss how families in Leeds are being supported through the crisis.

As more school children are sent back to school, a lot of anxiety is apparent among children and families, uncertainty and mixed messaging have made it difficult for parents to know if they are making the right decision. 

Cllr Venner tells us about the support available in Leeds and what schools in the area are doing to support their students back into education.

For those families who have found themselves at the centre of more arguments over the past few months as a result of Covid-19 pressure, this podcast aims to provide you with the support and advice to help you through it, as Cllr Venner reminds us the importance of not turning your home “into a warzone” when home schooling. 

With figures showing 25% of children that were in need of mental health support didn’t have access to support during the crisis, it begs the question ‘what is the extent of the damage from this virus?’

Read more at Public Sector Executive