If we were to award an award to a council that hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, Suffolk County Council would be a strong contender for first place.
In June 2010, the Conservative-controlled council He signed a spin doctor deal for £182,000 a year. Someone who “takes a proactive approach to communications, especially media management, including campaigns, media relations, marketing events, branding, and the web.” They also hired Teletubbies experts to speak at motivational events for staff. CEO Andrea Hill spent £14,000 on coaching sessions, £6,000 on team-building sessions for senior staff including chocolate making and drumming, and nearly £1,500 on PR shoots for herself and other staff. agreed to spend.
Mr Hill also approved a £400,000 training session for 400 staff using neurolinguistic programming, while more than £500,000 in benefits to prevent former employees from becoming whistleblowers. I also managed the. Ms Hill also accepted a free trip to the US, paid for by BT, to explore “business thinking”.
ipswich spy
The Ipswich Spy (Who runs Suffolk Council. Andrea Hill, Jeremy Pembroke or BT?) Add a little more to mainstream media reporting. It writes:
Suffolk's 'transformation' program – meaning making Suffolk County Council staff redundant and giving their jobs to non-existent social enterprises and third parties such as the incumbent BT – is run by BT employee Max Wide. has been done.
According to Linkedlin, “Max Waid is Director of Strategic Development at BT Government and Director of Organizational Transformation at Suffolk County Council, where he is responsible for a major transformation program called New Strategic Directions.” is.
of Great Society Suffolk Blog reported that “the new strategic direction includes outsourcing all of the council's operations to external suppliers, including libraries, social services and building management.” A total of 113 services have been identified as examples of local authority services that could be outsourced (or sold as councils prefer).
The Ipswich spy said he believed BT's close relationship with Andrea Smith required careful and critical investigation.
Andrea Hill & Jeremy Pembroke (former leaders)
common purpose effect
In early April, Jeremy Pembroke (Leader) announced his resignation, soon followed by news of the alleged suicide of the council's acting legal director. The lawyer reported that following his death, the council launched a staff welfare investigation. Shortly after his successor, Council President Mark Bee, began reversing some of the executive's “new strategic directions”, it was announced that Mr Hill had gone on sabbatical for personal reasons.
This unfolding story had a classic whiff of secret meetings, backroom deals and nepotism, and many discerning British column readers felt they might be returning to a common cause.
On March 5, 2011, a news article was published in the Daily Mail. (A £220,000 council leader who spent £14,000 of taxpayers' money on his own coach)). This article taught us “Mrs. Mr Hill, chief executive of Suffolk Council, held 23 sessions with the local authority's “professional coaches” who offered to teach him skills to “lead at the edge of chaos”. Sol Davidson's lessons, which he claims are teaching public sector workers how to “reinterpret much of their experience”, have come to light as councils slash services.
The Mail article's main emphasis was simply on the waste of £14,000 of council taxpayers. Let's take a quick look at Sol Davidson's explanation. “After working for the United Nations and as a consultant for the Australian Government, Mr Davidson became an ‘executive coach’…He first met Mrs Hill before she started working for Suffolk Council. did.”
The article also said: “The pair appeared at a local authority 'leadership event' in Newmarket in February 2008, when she was chief executive of Bedfordshire Council.”
Documents in the possession of the British column provide us with important information that was omitted. This indicates that the leadership event in question took place on February 8, 2008 at Newmarket Racecourse. Andrea Hill, Chief Executive of Bedfordshire Council at the time and Chief Executive Sponsor for Building Capacity East in the Leadership and Management Department, gave the opening address. According to the event program, “Julia Middleton, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Common Purpose, will focus on “leadership and influence outside the organization” and “the legitimacy of leadership in the context of community, place-making and partnership.” He gave a presentation on the theme of “Acquisition of
In the afternoon session, Sol Davidson provided a one-to-one coaching session with (Senior Politicians, Chief Executive Officers, and Directors of Child Welfare).
At the 1st Annual Conference on Public Service Leadership “Collaborating to Innovate” held at the National School of Government on November 4, 2009, Andrea Hill was listed alongside others and recognized as “Characteristics of Public Service.” and what makes it unique?” “What does public service leadership mean?” and “What role can leadership academies play in improving public service outcomes?” Afternoon session So, workshop 8: It will be revealed that 'Partnership Leadership and Transcending Authority' was facilitated by none other than Julia Middleton, CEO of Common Purpose.
Andy Jacob
Another senior player for Suffolk County Council was Andreas (Andy) Jacob. He was responsible for strategic planning and external finance (April 2008 to December 2010). Linkedln lists his areas of expertise as “Leadership, Motivation, Diversity, Change and Program Management, Consultation, Training, Facilitation, Communication, Negotiation, Mediation, Mentoring, Coaching, Community Cohesion, Equality Impact Assessment and Strategic and Management Planning. ” explains. Jacob's profile highlights that “his extensive leadership skills have been honed through practice and participation in NLP-based common purpose development programs.” Mr Jacob has since moved on to a new job based in the Adult, Health and Community Care Directorate at Essex County Council.
a kind of magic
Yacoub, a Common Purpose trained NLP practitioner, is featured on the quotes and credits page of Alex McAleer's website. “As I said last night, you were a 'wow' factor for the audience and I was seriously impressed with you and your performance.” (Andy Jacob – Suffolk County Council) McAleer has performed mind reading and psychological magic across the UK and overseas for numerous companies and individuals including the BBC, the Princess Trust and Suffolk County Council.
There is nothing magical about this special council's actions. Rebranding service outsourcing as a “new strategic direction” is nothing but fantastic Newspeak. There is no hiding the fact that council taxpayers' money can be transferred to the pockets of businesses. Nor can we hide the existence and influence of Common Purpose from the public.