A note from Richard Allman
Dear Colleague in Social Care,
As CSED moves into the post-Gershon era and on to supporting councils during CSR 07, I have decided that the time is right for me to stand down from my role as Programme Director of CSED.
From the 31st March 2008, I will be handing over to Tim O'Connor, currently CSED Implementation Manager for London, the South East and Eastern regions who will become Interim Programme Director for CSED. Tim is a highly experienced professional change and programme consultant who has significant experience in supporting you and your councils having been a key part of CSED for the past year.
I am proud of what we have achieved with councils over the past two years in CSED with the effective and collaborative support that the Programme has enjoyed from many key people and the wider stakeholder community. It has been immensely rewarding to work with Directors and their social care teams that have been amongst the most dedicated, passionate and caring that I have ever worked with in my long career in consultancy. Leaving therefore has been a very difficult decision for me to take. I recognise however that there is still more that CSED needs to do to improve the support we provide to councils in the challenge of delivering the transformational change in social care efficiently and effectively within the CSR timescales and beyond. A new Programme Director will be able to build upon the start we have made, take the Programme to new levels and face the challenges ahead.
I originally flagged my intentions to David Behan and John Bolton last October to provide time to agree continuity and succession arrangements with the minimum of disruption to the programme's work. Both David and John been highly supportive of CSED and of me personally and have approved the succession plans I have put forward. I know that they will be equally supportive and encouraging with Tim in place and I will leave the Programme in very capable hands indeed.
For myself, I have now agreed to take up the role of European Director of Strategy for Human Systems, an organisation who help regional, national and international organisations improve their internal change and programme management capability through knowledge and skills networks, delivery capability benchmarking and using operational metrics to improve performance. A chance also for me to brush up on my Italian and Turkish!
Finally, I would like to personally thank everyone who has helped and supported me over the past two years be it from colleagues in councils, the Department of Health and other agencies. For me I can summarise my role in CSED in three statements. It has been, without doubt, highly rewarding, what we are trying to achieve has been the best meaning and when I look back at the challenge the most demanding I have encountered so far.
With best wishes,
Richard Allman