HR in the Public Sector 2009:
At the Heart of Efficiency

Dean Shoesmith, Vice President, Public Sector People Managers Association

• Empowering front line staff
• Incentives and performance management
• Using ‘lean’ methodology on HR processes

Keith Davis, Director, Efficiency Studies, National Audit Office

• The growth of shared services and managing the transition
• Does the answer lie in outsourcing HR services?
• How can technology support new delivery models?

Steve Foster, Manager, Business Consulting, NorthgateArinso

Split into roundtable groups to brainstorm and discuss with your peers:

• What are the best and least detrimental areas to try and cut costs?
• How best to define and retain top talent while making redundancies?
• How to incentivise during the Recession and a potential pay freeze?

Implementing Shared Services

• Using benchmarking to measure your success in developing and using shared services
• Using information technology to enable change projects and increase efficiency
• Adding value from change

Karen Bridges, Head of Business Change Development, Birmingham City Council

Catherine Griffiths, HR Business Partner - Organisation Strategy & Service Design, Birmingham City Council

• Flexible rewards without the hassle of a flexible benefits package
• Looking at the tangible and intangible rewards: Engaging your workforce interactively
• Offering variety and choice for individually value added rewards
• Create a two way dialogue around total reward
• Using your Total Reward Strategy to drive take-up of benefits

Colin Miller, Reward Manager, Kent County Council

Tackling Long and Short Term Absence Effectively: Measurable Results

• Reducing absence effectively
• Managing short and long term absence challenges
• Analysis: Obtaining measurable results

Anne Copeland, HR Director, Department for Children, Schools & Families

• Revising your absence management policies
• Involving line managers in actively reducing absence and increasing return to work
• Promoting wellness: The health month and its causes
• Measuring the impact through surveys and reduced sickness absence

Lucasta Grayson, Head of HR and Development, Crawley Borough Council

• Skills matter – international comparators
• The business case – what businesses tell us about Apprenticeships
• The route to a successful career
• NAS - end to end responsibility
• How to get engaged

Jaine Clarke, National Apprenticeship Director – Business Development, National Apprenticeship Service

Getting Corporate with Leadership and Management Development

• A leadership and management journey that supports everyone
• Getting buy-in: Two sides of the coin.
• Tricky demand and capacity issues during implementation

Patricia Brewerton, Head of Leadership and Management Development, DWP

Lindsay Cameron, Leadership Development Consultant, DWP

• Managing Share Services: A mulitfaceted project
• Analysing the transferable leadership skills needed to perform
• Combining two cultures for a cohesive working environment

Dean Shoesmith, Joint Executive Head of Human Resources, London Boroughs of Sutton and Merton

Recruiting Diverse Talent: Recognition for your Organisation

• Ensuring your workforce is representative of the community
• Recruitment methods: How to attract your desired employees
• Being a brand leader through your talented diverse workforce

Deborah Clarke, Director of HR, London Borough of Tower Hamlets and Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust

• Observing the recruitment landscape
• Engagement and change in the NHS
• Doing more with less

Sian Thomas, Director, NHS Employers

• Development that is focused on the needs of the organisation
• Involving all directors in the leadership agenda
• Using a tiered approach in matching roles to service and personal development needs

Alan Duffell, Director of Workforce and Learning, Sandwell Mental Health & Social Care, NHS Foundation Trust

• Recruiting the right people for your organisational needs
• Incorporating a talent strategy in your recruitment process
• Innovation in recruitment practice: The future for recruitment

Corinne Mills, Head of Human Resources, The Learning Trust

• What is best practice during a Recession?
• Working with unions during challenging times
• The bottom line: Unison’s perspective

Lucille Thirlby, Deputy Head of Local Government, Unison

Alan Duffell has been a board director, responsible for workforce & learning, and for the 2 previous years was the Assistant Director of HR. Joining the NHS after leaving the Royal Air Force in 2001, taking on the role of Education, Training and Organisational Development, within North Staffordshire.

Deb Clarke is the first ever Director of Human Resources for both a local authority and an NHS organisation. Working across local government and the NHS has led to innovative approaches to public sector employment. She has worked in local government and as a consultant on management, leadership and HR issues and was recently named in Personnel Today’s ‘Top 40 Power Players’.

Colin Miller is responsible for the delivery of Kent County Council’s comprehensive and challenging reward strategy. Colin started his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Pfizer spending time within research and acting as a lead UK businesses partner for the implementation of a global HR IT system before moving into HR. Colin is also a committee member of the CIPD Reward Forum.

Lucasta Grayson is Head of Human Resources & Development at Crawley Borough Council. Her career has included working for Hammersmith & Fulham, Wandsworth and Croydon London Boroughs and the promotion of wellbeing and the management of sickness absence has been a key priority in most of those roles.

Dean is currently sharing two roles covering the Head of HR for both London Borough of Sutton (where he’s worked for 6 years) and the London Borough of Merton. Dean is a FCIPD and has a Masters degree in Strategic Human Resource Management. He is also a visiting fellow at Kingston University Business School.

Steve Foster is Manager, Business Consultancy NorthgateArinso. Steve has an extensive Human Resources management background, gained in a variety of line practitioner roles. As a managing consultant, he has worked with a wide range of major clients, helping them transform their HR operations. Steve also managed Northgate’s HR Outsourcing division. He brings specialist knowledge of HR business process improvement, e-HRM planning and implementation, outsourcing and change management.

Prior to joining public sector, Anne’s career focused on project management, communications and HR in a variety of industries in the private sector. Since joining the public sector Anne has overseen HR transformation and HR delivery and is now leading HR transformation for the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Jaine is the NAS Director of Business Development. Prior to this appointment, Jaine was the Director of Communications with the Learning and Skills Council. Jaine spent almost three years as the Director of Skills for Employers where she led on the policy development and national roll out of major skills programmes including Train to Gain, leadership and management development, National Skills Academies and the Training Quality Standard. Before joining the LSC, Jaine was Executive Director of Wolverhampton Business Link.

Sian Thomas is Director of NHS Employers, prior to this she was Director of Development with responsibility for developing and managing programmes of work outside the Department of Health contract. In addition, Sian is a director of the NHS Confederation, a member of the Cabinet Office Public Sector Employers Forum and many more, as well as having previously been named HR director of the year.

Catherine has over 15 years public sector experience, the majority of this spent with Birmingham City Council. She spent 4 years as Head of HR and 5 years as a manager in the council’s commercial department before moving into a corporate role developing the corporate strategy for HR. She led the approach on designing the future operating model for HR. Catherine is a fellow member of the CIPD, has a business degree from Aston Business School and an MSC in change management.

Keith Davis is Director of the National Audit Office’s Cross-Government and Efficiency Practice. He leads the NAO’s cross-government work, including recent studies on departmental capability, contract management, the efficiency Programme, the use of consultants, recruitment and shared services. He also specialises in process improvement and corporate service VFM. Previously he managed value for money reviews of the BBC and was Head of Press Office at the NAO. He is a qualified accountant (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy).

Karen Bridges has worked in both local government and the National Health Service. Her background in management and organisational development proved invaluable in her previous role within Birmingham City Council as Change Lead on the Corporate Services Transformation project, Birmingham’s first transformation programme to go live.

Corinne Mills has a broad background in HR having worked in the private, public and not for profit sectors having held Head of HR positions with Marks and Spencer, Ofsted, the London Borough of Brent and now the Learning Trust in Hackney. She is also an Employment Tribunal Panel member.

Lucille Thirlby is Deputy Head of Local Government for UNISON’s Local Government Service Group covering 750,000 members. She is assistant trade union side secretary for the National Joint Council for England, Wales and NI and is a Joint Secretary of the Chief Officers JNC for local government.

Patricia Brewerton is Head of Leadership and Management Development within the Department for Work and Pensions. Her current challenge is the development and implementation of a Corporate Leadership and Management Journey/Framework that supports the business focused development of DWP’s 100,000 plus staff. Previously worked in Capability Management and Business Impact and Change.

Lindsay Cameron is DWP’s leadership consultant to the strategic talent team. She produces development propositions that prepare senior talent programme participants to lead the organisation of the future as defined by Government Reforms. She is also currently developing innovative transition programmes for leaders new to their role and for the Board.