Speakers

Former MP & Minister

He was MP for Carshalton & Wallington from 1976 to 1997. He was PPS to Lord Carrington at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office from 1979 to 1982 and to Lord Lawson at the Treasury from 1987 to 1989. He was also Minister for Further & Higher Education in 1992.

He has been a visiting lecturer at the National School of Government, an instructor at Wroxton College (the UK campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey), and a freelance trainer of civil servants and others on subjects such as modernisation, public sector reform, leadership and political communications. He has also been the author of many articles and several books, including Constitutional change in the United Kingdom (Routledge, London, 2002) and Mastering British Politics (5th edition, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2007).

He has been involved with the private and voluntary sectors – for example, as a non-executive Director of HFC Bank Ltd, a Council member of the Tavistock Institute, and a non-executive Director of Prospects Services Ltd. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit. He has degrees from the universities of Oxford, Harvard and Sussex and a Diploma from the College of Europe.

Director, Office for Public Management

Paul works with organisations on strategy, values and behaviours; and how to change structures, systems and cultures.

For the past 20 years Paul has worked with leaders to help them to create organisations that are both effective and good places to work. This typically involves facilitating top team thinking about strategy, values and behaviours; changing structures, systems and cultures and providing management and leadership development.

However, as public sector organisations have been required to achieve economic and social outcomes they have needed to find better ways of collaborating and working as part of systems or networks of organisations such as multi agency partnerships.

Former Chairman, Judicial Appointments Commission; Former First Civil Service Commissioner

Baroness Prashar has been a senior member of numerous public bodies and organisations in the UK, including the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Study Commission on the Family, the Social Security Advisory Committee, the London Food Commission, the BBC Educational Broadcasting Council, the Solicitors Complaints Bureau, the Royal Commission on Criminal, the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct, and Channel Four.

She was also Chair of the Parole Board of England and Wales, of the Royal Commonwealth Society, and of the ITV Board.

She has also been the First Civil Service Commissioner, and the Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Commission.

Policy Director, Society of IT Management

Martin Ferguson is Socitm's first Head of Policy. In this role, he leads the development and promotion of Socitm responses to major issues around public sector ICT, including data management and sharing; partnerships and outsourcing; self service; flexible working; and the pan-government security vision. He also drives associated stakeholder engagement with central and local government and the third and private sectors. Martin brings a wealth of experience to the role. Between 2003 and 2005 he was Assistant Director, e-government, at the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA), leading strategic support to councils' plans and implementations of local e-government. Prior to that he was Chief Information Officer at St. Albans District Council and was elected a president of Socitm. For over 10 years, he has held the post of Associate Senior Lecturer in Information Management and e-Governance at the Institute of Local Government Studies, The University of Birmingham, teaching Public Service MBA students from local government, the voluntary sector, housing associations, the police and the Hong Kong government.

Andrew Haldenby is the Director of the think tank Reform. He is also the joint author of Fit for Purpose.

Reform is an independent, charitable, non-party think tank whose mission is to set out a better way to deliver public services and economic prosperity. Their aim is to produce research of outstanding quality on the core issues of the economy, health, education and law and order on the right balance between government and individual; and to communicate it to politicians and opinion formers in all parties and none in order to create a consensus for reform. The think tank is determinedly independent and strictly non-party in its approach.

They believe that there has been policy failure in relation to public services over a period of years under all governments, and they want to persuade all parties that there is a better way. The organisation’s non-party approach is reflected in its cross-party Advisory Board.

Director, Public Governance and Territorial Development, OECD

Since 1 July 2009, Mr. Rolf Alter is Director for Public Governance and Territorial Development of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.

Previously, he served for three years as Chief of Staff of OECD Secretary-General, Mr. Angel Gurría.

Mr. Alter joined the OECD’s Economics Department in 1991. Subsequently he worked in the Directorate for Financial, Fiscal and Enterprise Affairs, where he was also a Programme Director for the Investment Compact of the Stability Pact for South East Europe. Between 1996 and 1998, Mr. Alter was an advisor to the Executive Director of the OECD, before being appointed Head of the Regulatory Reform Programme of OECD. In 2002 he became the Deputy Director for Public Governance and Territorial Development.

Prior to joining the OECD, Mr. Alter was an economist in the International Monetary Fund, in Washington D.C. He started his professional career in 1981 in the German Ministry of Economy in Bonn.

Mr. Alter holds a doctorate degree from the University of Goettingen, Germany, following post-graduate work in Germany and the United States.

Deputy Director, e-Borders Programme, UK Border Agency

Ian Neill has a wealth of experience in the UK’s immigration service, having commanded two Terminals at Heathrow, held a variety of posts in the enforcement arena and had a role in running the worldwide Airline Liaison Officer network.

His current role is as Deputy Director for the UK’s Electronic Borders (e-Borders) Programme. During his time with e-Borders he has had particular responsibility for operational projects, including the IRIS automatic barrier and the highly successful project Semaphore – the de-risking pilot for the eventual e-Borders solution. The effort to combat terrorism and improve security is something that engages all sections of society and calls for co-ordinated action by government. Working together with the police service, e-Borders aims to deliver a fit for purpose solution for all the law enforcement agencies, to achieve the vision of a fully integrated and secure border.

The First Civil Service Commissioner, and the Commissioner for Public Appointments, on 1 April 2011

David was Permanent Secretary at the Home Office from January 2006 to December 2010. His early career in the Civil Service involved a range of jobs in the fields of employment, training and industrial relations, and included a time as Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Employment. As Regional Director for Employment Services for London and the South East he was responsible for 500 offices and 10,000 staff. He moved through a series of senior positions in the Department for Education, and the Department for Education and Employment, including Director for Personnel and Corporate Services, and Director General for Schools. In 2001 he was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education and Skills, a post he held until the end of 2005 when he joined the Home Office.

As Permanent Secretary, David made a particular specialism of senior leadership development and human resources. In 2008 he chaired a special steering group that reported to the Cabinet Secretary on workforce and reward strategy for the Senior Civil Service. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

He received a KCB in 2005 and was appointed GCB in the 2011 New Year’s Honours list.

Facilitator and Consultant, Director of Familia Consulting

Simon is the director of Familia Consulting. He is an accomplished facilitator and consultant specialising in public services. He works with a wide range of clients, including central government departments and agencies, local authorities, the NHS and police bodies and voluntary and community organisations.

Simon's areas of expertise include working with top teams and partnerships, developing strategy and mechanisms to ensure delivery, developing approaches to tackling social exclusion and organisational change and design. Simon is committed to improving public services to reduce poverty and alleviate its effects. He was the chair of a Local Strategic Partnership in a deprived area for a year and is now the chair of a regeneration association in south London.

Previously, Simon worked for five years as a senior consultant at the Office for Public Management and, before that, for 12 years in central government, including the Department for Education and Skills, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Cabinet Office and the Treasury. He holds a degree in linguistics and international politics.

Executive Chairman, Future Purchasing

Experience: Spent the last 25 years in consulting as a prime originator of the concepts, processes, tools and techniques being used to bring about transformation in procurement. Has advised clients with a third party aggregate expenditure over €300 bn p.a., working with more than 2,000 practitioners, specialising in change management. Executive Chairman of Future Purchasing and a Practice Leader for Future Purchasing Leaders. Recipient of the CIPS Swinbank Award in 2006 for innovation in procurement.

Education: MA in Organisational Psychology from Cambridge University. Member, CIPD, CIPS and IoD.

Deputy Director, Policy Exchange

David has worked at the forefront of politics, policy development and public service reform for over a decade. Prior to joining Policy Exchange he worked at PA Consulting Group, where he was heavily engaged in developing progressive and innovative thought leadership for the public sector, as well as working regularly with public sector professionals in health, education and policing to ensure effective implementation. David was also Deputy Director of the Parliamentary Resources Unit, a body that provides specialised research services to Members of Parliament.

David was born and brought up in Consett, County Durham. He was the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for North Durham at the last election, gaining a swing of almost 9%. He blogs regularly for Platform 10 and supports Sunderland AFC.

Chairman of the International Civil Service Commission

MSc Organisation Development, Master Practitioner of NLP

2010 – present, Principal Consultant
Delivery of a portfolio of services for UK and overseas customers. This includes working with the UK’s Department of Energy on policy options after it secured £1bn from the Treasury to pay for the development of demonstration technology to capture and bury carbon emissions from power plants. As well as working with the Legal Services Board on regulation policy and how to leverage influence and manage negotiations, Ian worked with the Georgian Electoral Commission on developing electoral policy, processes and systems.

2005 – 2010, Deputy Director, Leadership Development
Responsibilities included the delivery of a portfolio of leadership development and high potential development programmes in the public sector. This includes managing the development and delivery of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) leadership programme for its senior civil servants and supporting grades 6 and 7 as well as the continued development and delivery of the prestigious internally and externally recruited fast stream development programme.

As well as working with Cabinet Office on the development of policy and delivery of the Professional Skills for Government agenda, Ian developed an executive coaching function used by senior officials in Department of Health, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and DTI.

Successes in this period included ensuring that risk and risk management were firmly embedded in the policy process of the organisation, by developing learning solutions and awareness material as well as working with members of DTI’s Executive Board on risk appetite.

Ian also led the British Embassy team in Paris through a change programme that included developing the team’s objective setting and business planning skills. Having developed the relevant skills Ian facilitated the application of business planning techniques within each team and then supported the re-engineering of the unit, including the delivery of displacement training and team building support. This work has substantially contributed to the Embassy cementing its position at the top of the UKTI comparative data league. On the basis of this work, Ian was sought out by the First Secretary Spain to facilitate the integration of the Spain and Portugal commercial teams into a joint Iberian team.

Ian was also sought out to help progress policy on better ways of managing workplace conflict in the UK working with Michael Gibbons (author of "the Gibbons Review") the TUC, CIPD, ACAS, Federation of Small Businesses and other union and employer representatives to discuss the way forward on the new dispute resolution arrangements intended to resolve employment problems using mediation to avoid going to tribunal. ACAS subsequently invited Ren to work with the senior management team work on the project plan for delivering the required new ways of working that were a consequence of these changes.

1999 – 2002, Assistant Director, Delivery
Whilst managing the delivery of all charged services, as a consultant in his own right Ian’s successes included positioning the organisation to take full advantage of the growing interest in the EFQM Excellence Model. Ian became a British Quality Foundation licensed Business Excellence Model Adviser and used the model to manage strategic change with customers in the public sector. After further research, this was matched this with a balanced scorecard approach and many customers still use this method to manage headline objectives today.

Successes also included being sought out by the United Nations International Labour Organisation to deliver a 5-day programme on the Globalisation of Human Resource Management at its training headquarters in Turin.

At this time Ian also worked with the UK’s National Audit Office and Ernst and Young to develop the successful “Risk and Success in Policy Making” programme.

1998 – 1999, Assistant Director
Ian managed a strategic review and re-structuring learning delivery function, communicating and managing the changes to deliver increased volumes of work whilst continuing to deliver its full economic costs despite a reduction in overall personnel complement.

At this time, Ian also developed and delivered a leadership development programme for the Northern Ireland Office Senior Civil Service. A successful pilot of the development programme with Permanent Secretary Sir Joe Pilling and his senior team, which included multi source feedback, ensured that it was delivered to the entire NIO SCS population in support of its commitment to the principles of the Modernising Government White Paper.

1996 – 1998, Head of Training Delivery
Responsible for the allocation of a team of development consultants Ian ensured that a £1.8m target turnover was delivered. This role was pivotal in ensuring products were developed and delivered by appropriate consultants to agreed standards. At the same time Ian remained an active development consultant himself, developing the IVCA award winning video on the relationship between Ministerial Private Offices and policy officials in different Departments. Ian project managed the entire process from research through to the delivery of a script to screen service and “Getting it Together” is still used in many Government Departments today.

1995 – 1996, Head of Distance Learning Interventions
Responsible for the identification of distance learning opportunities, and the design and delivery of non-classroom interventions. Successes at this time included the authoring of a computer based training package on equal opportunity that sold widely throughout the public and private sector. At this time Ian also designed and delivered the highly successful Industrial Relations programme that brought together Official Side Secretariat and Trade Union personnel to learn alongside each other. This programme successfully delivered its objective of enhanced relations as well as delivering valuable learning on negotiation techniques, employment law issues and the work of employment tribunals.

1992 – 1994, Investors in People Consultant
As a member of the Training Adviser Service, Ian identified Investors in People (IiP) as an area of interest for its main customers and sought and gained Investors in People Assessor qualification. In subsequently delivered IiP advice to public sector customers, enabling them to successfully prepare for assessment and IiP recognition.

1990-1992, IT Training Consultant
Ian delivered the learning that supported the roll out of the first tranche of PC’s and networked machines to be used in DTI. This work included evaluating the short listed Information Technology providers and actively informed the Department’s policy decision in identifying the successful provider. Ian then managed the design and delivery of hardware and software learning packages in support of the newly introduced technology.

1986 – 1990, Policy Official
Responsible for providing advice to various Secretaries of State and their Ministerial teams on industrial policy and regional policy issues. Ian managed Board level negotiations with private sector organisations with vested interest in the area of stimulating economic recovery in the less favoured geographic areas of the UK economy. Ian was also responsible for urban economic regeneration delivered via a Government funded non Departmental Public Body and managed its service level agreement with the (then) Department of Trade and Industry as well as the corporate Governance associated with its £10 million per annum grant in aid.

1983 – 1986, Policy Official,
Working in particular with Sections 7 and 8 of the Industrial Development Act, Ian’s role involved the delivery of written and oral policy advice to the Secretary of State and Ministers on regional policy issues and providing the draft answers to parliamentary questions, speeches and correspondence. Specifically, this involved the formulation of objectives and strategies supporting the DTI’s work on industrial policy issues, a review of the Assisted Areas map and a revised regional development grant scheme.