Case Study: Gillian Humble - Family and Young People’s Director City of London Corporation

Jane Hurst was commissioned by City of London Corporation to undertake a Strategic Review of services for resident young people, focussing on Integrated Youth Support Services, Education Welfare and Connexions provision. This was the first phase in our project to completely reshape services to make greater impact on young people’s life chances, whilst providing better value for money in a context of budget reductions. She was asked to put forward practical recommendations for our future direction. Jane carried out her assignment to a high standard, delivering a comprehensive Report on schedule at the end of a tight three month period.

Recognising the considerable set of experience and skills Jane possessed, we extended her remit to include provision support, advice and assistance to the Youth and Play Service Manager in respect of a number of immediate, very difficult operational matters. This included both staff and contract management and client and community relationships at a time of budget reductions and service change. She drew on her own management skills and experience from a wide variety of contexts across many aspects of children and young people’s services.

From the outset Jane approached our assignment with commitment, enthusiasm and flare. She brought a wealth of relevant leadership and management experience. What was most impressive was the time and effort she put in to researching and familiarising herself with our particular context, so that she was very quickly able to adapt to meet our specific requirements. She was highly skilled in prioritising conflicting demands and organising her limited time to best effect. He assignment required making appointments and meetings with a number of very busy professionals from several agencies, a task which takes exceptional interpersonal skills to achieve their commitment and interest. Jane was successful in this, gathering a lot of detailed, relevant information in a short space of time.

We would not hesitate to commission Jane again for further work as our change programme progresses.