Hampshire County Council’s Corporate Management Team

The Corporate Management Team (CMT) comprises of seven Chief Officers for the main departments and is led by the Chief Executive. Members of CMT work to ensure that Hampshire County Council is an excellent modern business serving the people of Hampshire. CMT will work with and for the Leader and Cabinet to realise the potential of the County Council.

The role of CMT is to maximise the capacity and effectiveness of the organisation to make the greatest possible difference to the quality of life of all the citizens of Hampshire. CMT is the main interface between the Cabinet of the County Council and the officers employed to serve the organisation and the community.

It is the role of CMT to draw and hold together the varied services for which the council is responsible.

Andrew Smith, Chief Executive

Andrew Smith, OBE, has been Chief Executive of Hampshire County Council since December 2007 and is responsible for managing the third largest shire authority in England serving 1.28 million residents and running a budget of more than £1.7 billion.  He oversees the running of 530 schools and services caring for 95,000 adults and older people, 9,000 children and families and maintaining more than 5,000 miles of Hampshire’s roads.  In 2009 the County Council was only one of 3 County Councils to assessed as ‘Excellent’ by the Audit Commission.

Andrew has worked for the County Council for over 20 years and prior to being appointed Chief Executive he was the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services for 11 years.

Andrew is the lead Chief Executive for Improvement and Efficiency South East (IESE)  He is responsible for advising some 70 or so councils on more efficient and effective ways of delivering procurement and efficiencies across local government services.  Andrew also chairs the National Improvement and Efficiency Partnership for the Built Estate.

Andrew is the national lead for the Government’s Place Based Productivity Programme leading on the Procurement, Capital and Shared Assets workstream.  He will also be advising councils on the implementation of Total Capital pilots for the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Andrew was awarded an OBE in 2006 in recognition of his services to local government.

Gill Duncan, Director of Adult Services

Gill Duncan was appointed Director of Adult Services in 2008. Prior to this, Gill has worked in Adult Services previously as Director for Residential Nursing Care and more recently Assistant Director for Older Person’s and Physical Disability Services. Gill has extensive background across social care and health working at front line and senior management level. She began her career in nursing and progressed to Chief Executive of one of the original Primary Care Trusts in Hampshire.

The Adult Services department provides information, advice, services and support to over 86,500 Hampshire residents per annum, which includes the 22,000 people who meet our eligibility criteria thresholds of critical and substantial and who receive fully care managed services – an additional 4,000 people receive intermediate care.

John Coughlan, Director of Children’s Services

John Coughlan became Hampshire’s first Director of Children’s Services in August 2005, bringing together the former Education Department and the Children and Families element of the former Social Services Department. John was Corporate Director of Social Care in Telford and Wrekin Council between 2001 and 2005. His role included that of former statutory Director of Social Services alongside responsibility for strategic housing, environmental health and trading standards. Between 1997 and 2001, he was Assistant Director for Children and Families in Dudley, and prior to that he held a number of senior management positions in Birmingham Social Services. He has worked extensively with children and young people in various settings, but especially children looked after. John was recently Joint President of the Association of Directors of Children's Services.

The Children’s Services department was formed in 2005 from the Education and Social Services departments to ensure the Every Child Matters/Children Act 2004 was implemented effectively in Hampshire.

The vision of the department is to make Hampshire a better place for children and young people and everyone offering services to children, young people and their families in Hampshire shares a vision that every child and young person:

• has the best possible start in life and develops to their full potential
• receives an excellent education in preparation for a fulfilled life as an adult
• has their achievements celebrated
• is able to grow and develop is safety and free from discrimination of every sort
• receives the highest possible standard of health care
• is listened to and has their views taken into account.

Karen Murray, Director Culture, Communities and Business Services

Karen Murray became Director of Culture, Communities and Business Services (CCBS) in April 2011. Prior to that, she was Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services before it merged with the Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs department to become CCBS.

Karen brings a wealth of experience to this role, being Assistant Director (Operations) prior, which involved providing a major contribution to the management department and its resources, the modernisation of Regulatory Services, and to a number of corporate initiatives including mobile and flexible working and the strategic property review.

The Director of CCBS also has the corporate IT department reporting directly to her via the Head of IT.

Carolyn Williamson, County Treasurer

Carolyn Williamson joined Hampshire County Council’s Corporate Management Team (CMT) in August 2010.

The Treasurers Department supports and enables the whole Council to ensure it achieves sound and robust financial management of the Public Funds it is responsible for, this includes the setting of the budget, completion of the annual accounts, management of borrowing and investments, payments to staff and suppliers and the billing of customers. The Treasurers Department has responsibility for administering the Hampshire Pension Fund, dealing with the investment portfolio as well as collection of contributions and payments to retired members of the fund. The County Treasurers Department also advises the Hampshire Pension Fund, the Hampshire Police Authority and the Hampshire Fire Authority.

Previously, Carolyn was the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director, Resources at Southampton City Council (part of the Chief Officers Management Team). Prior to that she was Director of Corporate Services with Inverclyde Council, in West Central Scotland for 4 years and before that held a number of finance posts in Local Government and the NHS across Scotland.

Carolyn is CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Finance and Accountancy) qualified, since 1991. She was presented with the Iain Doig CIPFA award in 2004 for her contribution to CIPFA and was also presented with the CIPFA Public Reporting & Accountability Award for Innovation in 2004. She was Chair of LASAAC (Local Authority Scotland Accounts Advisory Committee) and a member of CIPFA/LASAAC until 2005.

Stuart Jarvis, Director of Economy, Transport and Environment

Stuart Jarvis was appointed as Acting Director of Environment in September 2009 and formally confirmed as Director in November 2010.  Following the retirement of the Director for Economic Development in March 2011, the Economic Development Office has moved into the Environment Department, creating the new Economy, Transport and Environment Department.

Prior to his appointment as Director, Stuart served for 15 months as Managing Director of PUSH (Partnership for Urban South Hampshire) on a secondment from the County Council, where he had been appointed as the Deputy Director of Environment in May 2004.  Before joining Hampshire Stuart was the County Planning and Transport Officer for Somerset County Council, and previously worked in various posts in Pembrokeshire County Council, Preseli Pembrokeshire District Council, Southampton City Council and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.

The Department is responsible for Economic Development and Regeneration, Highways and Transport, Waste Management, Minerals and Waste Planning, and general Environment services within the County Council.

Gavin Wright, Director of Human Resources

Gavin was appointed Director of Human Resources in October 2007 and before this he was Deputy Director of HR and Head of the Employment Practice Centre.  Gavin has had a number of roles within both the public and private sector.  Prior to joining the Council he worked as a management consultant, specialising in organisational change and leadership development.  His last public sector role was as Director of Human Resources for Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust.  He has also held a number of broader management roles including General Manager of a long stay hospital for people with learning disabilities.  In the private sector Gavin has worked for Glaxo Smithkline and the John Lewis Partnership, both within HR roles.

As Director of Human Resources, Gavin has responsibility for services covering training and development, employee relations, remuneration and benefits, recruitment and selection, health and wellbeing and operational HR services.