Working across the boundaries of a council and a PCT can be tough, but Deb Clarke explains to Heather Jameson how she has risen to the challenge
Deb Clarke is multi-lingual. Not only does she speak French, but in the last two years, she has become fluent in PCT.
It is a language she has had to learn since she took up her post as joint director of HR for both Tower Hamlets LBC and the local PCT.
Deb describes the job as a ‘voyage of discovery’ – a post which was so unusual that people still remember it being advertised.
‘I spent 12 months as the only point at which the two organisations touched. Both bodies are sympathetic – but both think I’m their full-time director of HR.’
And while she might joke about the language barriers, it is not always a laughing matter.
She deals with two inspection regimes, two budget processes, two performance-management systems…. The list goes on.
She also has separate e-mail accounts, with different e-mail addresses for both organisations, and two Blackberries. Getting the IT systems to talk to each other has proved to be too difficult to manage, so far.
However, Deb thrives on it. ‘I don’t think I could go back to working for just one organisation,’ she says.
Her first job was in a Citizens’ Advice Bureau, before she moved into local government, giving welfare advice. She trained in HR, but, she says: ‘I’m not really that keen on HR. It’s a bit boring.’
She points out the big-named people in HR don’t just do straight HR work. Instead, they have started to take on other roles, in addition to the traditional personnel management role.
‘The scope of HR isn’t big enough,’ she explains. Councils are there to serve the community, but the inward focus of HR can sometimes loose sight of that, and miss the bigger picture.
Deb is very aware of the impact she can have on the local community. In total, she oversees 30,000 public sector jobs. It has a ‘huge impact on worklessness and poverty in the area’, she says.
Tower Hamlets is a borough with high levels of poverty and unemployment, coupled with a lack of skills and huge inequality. Locally, there is an average income of £68,000 – largely skewed by the high salaried inhabitants of the Canary Wharf financial centre. In reality, one-quarter of residents live on a household income of less than £15,000.
Deb moved around local government in the West Midlands, before finally ending up as assistant chief executive at Stoke on Trent, under Ita O’Donovan.
During this time, she also had an HR column in the Birmingham Post newspaper and a show on a local, black radio station. ‘I loved it. It let me indulge my passion for hip hop.’
CAA will make life easier for Deb – ‘if the system can work’. But there is much more that could be done to encourage joint working in the area.
The possibility of single public sector contract for staff – where they can move seamlessly between public sector bodies – has been mooted before. It is something Deb thinks is possible. The sticking point at the moment is pension schemes.
But, she says it shouldn’t make difference which organisation people work for – they are all working for the local community.
She says of Tower Hamlets: ‘We don’t have all the answers, but we are further ahead than most.’
Deb is keen to get some local unemployed people working for the public sector. mytowerhamletsjobs.com, a website for local people searching for basic public sector jobs in the area, has now been set up.
‘I would like to turn this into a social networking site too,’ she adds, so people could rate us as an employer and share their experiences.’
Deb bubbles over with plans for the two organisations – and now she has two assistant directors to help take things forward, her situation is not as lonely as it was.
Whatever happens, she remains positive. She says: ‘The best bits of the job have been when we have been able to agree a joint approach which is more than just the sum of the parts.’
It appears we can add one and one together, and make more than two.
It is a language she has had to learn since she took up her post as joint director of HR for both Tower Hamlets LBC and the local PCT.
Deb describes the job as a ‘voyage of discovery’ – a post which was so unusual that people still remember it being advertised.
‘I spent 12 months as the only point at which the two organisations touched. Both bodies are sympathetic – but both think I’m their full-time director of HR.’
And while she might joke about the language barriers, it is not always a laughing matter.
She deals with two inspection regimes, two budget processes, two performance-management systems…. The list goes on.
She also has separate e-mail accounts, with different e-mail addresses for both organisations, and two Blackberries. Getting the IT systems to talk to each other has proved to be too difficult to manage, so far.
However, Deb thrives on it. ‘I don’t think I could go back to working for just one organisation,’ she says.
Her first job was in a Citizens’ Advice Bureau, before she moved into local government, giving welfare advice. She trained in HR, but, she says: ‘I’m not really that keen on HR. It’s a bit boring.’
She points out the big-named people in HR don’t just do straight HR work. Instead, they have started to take on other roles, in addition to the traditional personnel management role.
‘The scope of HR isn’t big enough,’ she explains. Councils are there to serve the community, but the inward focus of HR can sometimes loose sight of that, and miss the bigger picture.
Deb is very aware of the impact she can have on the local community. In total, she oversees 30,000 public sector jobs. It has a ‘huge impact on worklessness and poverty in the area’, she says.
Tower Hamlets is a borough with high levels of poverty and unemployment, coupled with a lack of skills and huge inequality. Locally, there is an average income of £68,000 – largely skewed by the high salaried inhabitants of the Canary Wharf financial centre. In reality, one-quarter of residents live on a household income of less than £15,000.
Deb moved around local government in the West Midlands, before finally ending up as assistant chief executive at Stoke on Trent, under Ita O’Donovan.
During this time, she also had an HR column in the Birmingham Post newspaper and a show on a local, black radio station. ‘I loved it. It let me indulge my passion for hip hop.’
CAA will make life easier for Deb – ‘if the system can work’. But there is much more that could be done to encourage joint working in the area.
The possibility of single public sector contract for staff – where they can move seamlessly between public sector bodies – has been mooted before. It is something Deb thinks is possible. The sticking point at the moment is pension schemes.
But, she says it shouldn’t make difference which organisation people work for – they are all working for the local community.
She says of Tower Hamlets: ‘We don’t have all the answers, but we are further ahead than most.’
Deb is keen to get some local unemployed people working for the public sector. mytowerhamletsjobs.com, a website for local people searching for basic public sector jobs in the area, has now been set up.
‘I would like to turn this into a social networking site too,’ she adds, so people could rate us as an employer and share their experiences.’
Deb bubbles over with plans for the two organisations – and now she has two assistant directors to help take things forward, her situation is not as lonely as it was.
Whatever happens, she remains positive. She says: ‘The best bits of the job have been when we have been able to agree a joint approach which is more than just the sum of the parts.’
It appears we can add one and one together, and make more than two.
