Andrew Kerr once embarked on a career as an athlete, until illness forced him to curtail it. When he then took up a job as a stadium manager, he never dreamed that his new profession would take him to the top of the greasy pole as chief executive of a major metropolitan authority.
Born in 1959, and brought up in Falkirk, Scotland, Andrew, from an early age, acquired a keen interest in running. Indeed, he studied for a BEd in physical education and history, and began running professionally. And then, at the age of 23, illness put paid to his career.
He recalls: I’d just started full-time and intended to carry on a few more years, but I began to suffer from a glandular virus every summer which forced me to give up.
‘I was bitterly disappointed since my whole life, until then, had been running. I enjoyed the lifestyle, the travelling, meeting others with the same interests, and, of course, the winning, something which I carried into my career.’
Deciding he needed to find an alternative career, he took up the post of manager of a local sports stadium run by Falkirk Council becoming area leisure manager.
It was the start of his local government career, and his next move was to Wales and Cardiff City Council, where he helped prepare the unsuccessful bid for the 1992 Commonwealth Games, later won by Edmonton in Canada.
Next, he was head-hunted in 1989, to become head of local government at the Sports Council, Wales, where his prime brief was to liaise with the pre-reorganisation district and county councils. When the new authorities were launched, he joined Caerphilly CBC in 1996 as head of lifelong learning and leisure, expanding his experience into adult, parks and youth services.
A career switch followed in 2000, when Andrew decided to move to the Audit Commission as lead inspector for the new Best Value Inspection Service, under the-then high-profile, ex-Newham chief executive, Wendy Thomson, whom he describes as ‘challenging’.
He adds: ‘We started from scratch, employing and training the inspectors. Although it later developed into CPA, I believe the concept of best value still stands. It wasn’t a perfect instrument, but it had a huge impact.’
In 2002, after two years at the Audit Commission, his phone rang one day, and it turned out to be a head-hunter inviting him to apply for the post of director of leisure at Birmingham City Council. ‘In my business, this was the biggest job around,’ he says. He was offered the job, later becoming director of performance improvement, with a wide brief under Lin Homer.
‘The logical next step was a chief executive’s post, but I wanted to work for a council which was big but not too big where I couldn’t have an impact. Birmingham was so large it took time for changes to take effect. ‘North Tyneside was an ideal size, and I felt I could make a difference.’
It also had an unusual political structure, with an elected Labour mayor and Labour cabinet, but with a Conservative majority on the council. He admits he had to think about the prospect of working for an elected mayor, but says they work well together.
‘We have a good relationship and from the beginning, sat down and worked out our respective roles. The advantage of the system is that we can look and plan four years ahead, because the mayor has that power.’
He does not, however, believe such a system should be imposed across the country. ‘It works well here, but it may not be the case everywhere, although I think it can work with the big cities.’
Key tasks at North Tyneside are to accelerate the improvement agenda, introduce £50m of efficiency savings over the next four years, and deliver the 10-year £1bn regeneration programme.
To help drive this change, he needs good managers, and is currently seeking eight heads of service across neighbourhoods, regeneration, finance, investment and HR (see The MJ Jobs this week). He adds: ‘We need capacity to deliver this programme, especially in middle management.’
The council is also moving its HQ and 950 staff to a business park, and rationalising its other disparate offices, some of which will become customer service centres. He says the council’s key strengths are in revenues and benefits, where it operates a four-star service, and children’s services, which is useful – his young daughter attends a local school. n
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