The challenge of constant improvement

GETTING her point across . . . Carolyn Wilkins

Martyn Meets... Carolyn Wilkins, chief executive of Oldham Council

HEADING for the civic centre in West Street for my lunch date with Carolyn Wilkins, the most powerful woman in Oldham, I didn’t really know what to expect.

I had been in the company of Oldham Council’s chief officer at the reception which preceded the magnificent 80th birthday celebration of Norman Stoller CBE at Gorton Monastery only three days earlier.

But I didn’t really know her at all. So I opened my notebook with expectation and some trepidation. After all, people do not rise to positions of such authority and stature if they aren’t incredibly proficient at what they do.

Over the next two hours and some excellent food, I was to discover the truth of that assertion. For in 47-year-old Carolyn, who lives in Chinley in the Peak National Park, Oldham has a hidden gem.

We talked openly about her life and times and she answered questions on every subject raised with candour, and an innocence that belied her status as head of the 3,000 people who run Oldham on our behalf.

Even so, as I drove away I found myself musing on what I had actually learned, aside from the facts that she is astute, cool as a Derbyshire cucumber and undoubtedly qualified for the town’s top job.

The honest answer? I don’t know. I had discovered a great deal about Carolyn the woman and Carolyn the careerist, all of which is on public record anyway. But what else did she actually tell me?

The answer is... a great big zilch. She’s a consummate pro, able to speak volumes while giving away nothing. She’d make a great politician...

It’s not that she was procrastinating; it would be far too rude of me to say so. My guest was exceedingly polite and charming... but it was like being entangled in a sticky marshmallow - of her making.

This isn’t a criticism, and it’s not a bad skill-set to have if you have to manage a council of the size and challenges of Oldham (not least having to crop £60million from the budget over the next two financial years).

And she has a hard act to follow, from the chair previously occupied by Charlie Parker, by any measure one of Oldham’s most successful chiefs. But that she will cope I have no doubt at all - and neither have the Oldham politicians who appointed her. Carolyn, born in Leeds, brought up near Hull and in Leighton Buzzard, has what it takes.

“I was a Leeds lass with a pronounced Hull accent, living in Bedfordshire,” she said without a hint of discontent. “I just had to get on with it.”

And getting on is something she has been doing all her life. A trait much admired by Yorkshire people.

Her father worked on the industrial side of the Johnsons Wax business, hence the moves that came with his career. Her mother once worked for Kingston Communications — Hull Council’s independent telephone company set up over a century ago, now one of many telecoms suppliers.

At 18 she left home to return to Leeds and its university to read biochemistry and pharmacology, but... “it was far too scientific and I didn’t enjoy the courses one bit”. She quit and started again, this time reading psychology

“They were happy days, but the city was different from the Leeds of today. We would go to Leeds market late on Saturday and get boxes of meat for £5 which we would eke out as meals for a whole week.”

Little did she know how much those budgetary skills would come into play later, as austerity cuts its way through local government.

Those university friendships remain constant in Carolyn’s life - just the week prior to our lunch date she, second husband Gary and teenage daughter Emma Carolyn spent a weekend reunion with the families of the six girls who had shared those student meals.

On leaving university Carolyn took a graduate trainee placement with Bolton Council — “I had a feeling I wanted to work in the public sector”. So began an irrevocable rise through the ranks of Greater Manchester local authorities to her present position.

All the while she continued her steepening learning curve, working initially at Bolton Institute to gain a Diploma in Management Studies. A thirst for learning remains a constant in Carolyn’s life - she is now a Doctor in Business Administration (Relationships, Trust and Control in Organisations), courtesy of the Open University.

“I like to be challenged in all things; I’m not the kind of person you would want to employ if you want someone to keep things ticking over,” she admits.

That message found its way into the hearts and minds of the council selection panel when they came to choosing Charlie Parker’s successor.

She was an internal candidate - obviously, having been assistant chief executive since 2009 as one of “Charlie’s Angels”, his executive team of five women, then interim chief executive on his departure.

She certainly had the experience: an apprenticeship with Trafford Council, which followed her time at Bolton, then Salford, then Crewe and Nantwich, then Bury, where she was head of policy.

All of different challenges” at Trafford she led a submission for £1million from the Single Regeneration Bid; at Salford she reported on performance planning; at Crewe and Nantwich it was community strategies, and at Bury she honed her policy skills while taking a course at Warwick University (which brought her a Masters degree in Public Administration).

While at Bury she was seconded to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - at the time John Prescott - and worked as an adviser to many public bodies.

Next stop was Rossendale: “So much needed fixing but it was great experience. We went from being rated poor to good in 18 months.” In the process the council rose to third in the The Times’ list of the best councils in Britain.

Not content with her first Masters degree, her time at Rossendale saw her enbark on a new one, this time in Literature. Reading, the theatre and cinema are constant pleasures - when she finds time, of course.

And then came the call that was to change her life. On her honeymoon in New England with Gary - “He was really patient, there was an election in America and I kept dragging him to polling stations to see how their system works” - she was told about the Oldham job. The rest is history.

Interviewed in 2009 by Charlie Parker and then council leader Howard Sykes, Dr Wilkins landed the job - and five years on is now chief.

So we Oldhamers can rest assured the council is in good hands. As we parted Carolyn - I think I can call her that after our chat - said: “I told you I like to be challenged. I want to work with good people, to be part of an ongoing improvement. That’s what is happening, right now, in Oldham.”