I'm currently Vice Chair and Retail Director at Trinity Hospice and Palliative Care services, Blackpool. In addition to sitting on both the Trustee and Retail Boards I also oversee delivery of the people agenda, which focuses on the recruitment/retention strategies, succession planning, wellbeing, annual pay award, renumeration and reward strategies for the hospice's 250 employees, alongside reward and wellbeing for it's 800+ volunteers. It's a challenging time to be a Trustee in the charitable sector as fundraising revenues are hard fought for and financial grants and government support for cancer care are reducing year on year. I'm up for the challenge to help the organisation focus it's strategy for the future on key objectives which deliver for patients, their families, the community and supporters.Having recently left government after 40 years I now have more time to give and believe that the skills obtained across the huge range of roles undertaken throughout my civil service career are invaluable to help develop the strategy and ensure oversight and governance in the future.

The Synergy Programme is the largest Departmental cluster, comprising the Ministry of Justice, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Home Office representing over 50% of all Civil Servants. The Synergy Programme will shape the Civil Service’s approach to shared services, setting the procurement arrangements for the next 15 years. This Programme represents one of the biggest changes to the administration of the Civil Service in decades and will bring improvements to over 230,000 employees across Departments and arm’s length bodies (ALBs) transforming the shared service offer for colleagues. The Department for Work and Pensions hosts the Synergy Programme.Government Shared Services (GSS) affect over 450000 civil servants, providing business critical tools in human resources (HR), finance, payroll and procurement. It affects everything we do, from joining a department as a new starter, the way we claim for expenses, how our departments buy goods and services such as our laptops and canteen provisions, how we make a claim for our expenses, to the way we receive our pensions when we retire.

I'm excited to join DWP again after several years of being away. It’s an exciting time for DWP Digital communications and a real opportunity to help shape and tell the story internally to DWP Operations colleagues of how Digital Group is transforming the way that they work. I lead on developing creative content to engage internal DWP operations audiences. My team designs, creates and delivers inclusive, innovative content to achieve communication objectives to help engage colleagues working collaborating across government and the digital sector. The team also provides a responsive incident management process for when things don’t quite go to plan ensuring DWP colleagues are aware of what’s happening and when things will be fixed.Within all this it’s key not to lose sight of the audience by exploiting digital communications technology across multiple channels: videos, blogs, newsletters, social media, photography, intranet and more, helping colleagues to share our digital passion to tell their and our story. Key tasks include:• Developing content (both written and visual) to engage effectively with DWP colleagues to tell the story of Digital’s priorities, portfolio, what we’re delivering, and how were making a difference to colleagues and customers. • Communicating digital change with clarity, removing the 'tech speak' to the right people at the right time • Delivering 24/7 fast, accessible major incident communications to DWP colleagues, customers, Ministers and external audiences • Providing digital engagement advice and support for specific priorities and urgent requests from Digital Director General Operations Digital Director• Coordinating Digital’s response to PQs and FOIs

Working as Communications Lead within a the programme to set up the Government Property Agency in 2018