Interim Commissioning Manager for Personalisation. Working to develop and create approaches and solutions that support strengths-based practice and enable people to lead good lives doing the things they want to do.

‘We have a good life because where we live, the things that happen there and the people around us make it so.’

A new role in Adult Social Care (ASC) focussing on the Resilient Communities work I had developed in previous roles. This was an opportunity to embed Resilient Communities into the ASC model of community-led support (CLS). This enabled me to bring together my knowledge of working at a community level, my experience of strategic commissioning and my steep learning curve of understanding operational social work. The team I led has grew significantly and included day opportunities for adults with learning disabilities and significant levels of commissioning. The team played a key community reassurance role during the pandemic and we are used the learning from this time to work with communities to address the challenges society is now experiencing - isolation, poor mental health, worsening of long-term conditions and people feeling disconnected from sources of support.Highlights -Strengthening the CLS role within Community Partnerships by creating a Place & Personalisation Team led by the original CLS co-ordinator. This team had greater scope and reach across ASC, Public Health and the VCS and resulted in more activity that had CLS embedded within it, such as a Winter Support Service and a supported hospital discharge programme.Commissioning and grant funding a comprehensive range of preventative, community-led activity delivered by voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations and consortia. I built excellent relationships with our VCS partner providers and have put clear and robust systems in place to ensure a high-quality, flexible and agile approach is adopted by all parties.Building a successful in-house Carers Support Team following an unsuccessful attempt to commission an external partner to provide support for unpaid carers.Embarking on an exciting programme of transformation for the council’s day opportunities using the necessity of having to do things differently during the pandemic as leverage for change.

I designed and delivered locality commissioning with a particular focus on service reinvention through systems thinking and prototyping and working in communities through local governance structures. Locality commissioning is an umbrella activity that is held above the delivery of Shropshire Council's commissioning strategy, the design of appropriate local governance, community asset transfers, community-led planning and the creation of community profiles as local evidence bases and the practical implementation of service reinvention.I work closely with colleagues from acrom the council and its strategic partners, local councillors, the voluntary and community sector and Shropshire residents, fundamentally to acheive local priorities and aspirations. I use influencing, negotiating and listening skills, and always an evidence based approach.

I am currently protoyping this new role to enable Shropshire Council's locality commissioning approach to be robustly tested as one of the ways we will move towards becoming a commissioning council.

My work has intuitively responded to the galloping pace of change in local government. Shropshire Council is moving from a deliverer of services to a commissioner of services and in recent times my work has been focussed on designing and implementing a new way of delivering business support that concentrates on giving excellent customer service from generalists and specialists that will provide business with the support and advice it needs to enable business growth and sustainability. I have also been prototyping a Community Enablement Team concept - again trying to move away from specialist to generalist roles that are future proof and fit for purpose. In 2013 I will be part of the team that will be preparing Shropshire to be 'commissioning ready'. My core work is managing the Community Action Team in north and south west Shropshire and co-managing (with my opposite number) the CAT as a universal service across the county. One of my key roles is supporting elected councillors in their role as community champions and facilitating the opportunities the Localism Act gives our local residents.

I was one of seven NMs working across the borough of Haringey with three electoral wards to look after. My role focussed on supporting elected members, implementing cross-service 'area based working' and providing an interface between the council and the community. Challenging 'crime and grime' work in a challenging environment.