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Janet Dean helps Hull to ‘stardom’
An Audit Commission report published today (11th May 2006) acknowledges the work of Janet Dean of the Dean Knight Partnership Ltd in helping Hull City Council to rapidly improve performance in its housing service.
And whilst there is still a lot to do, Janet’s eight month assignment as Interim Director of Housing has kick-started the cultural and organisational change needed to deliver excellent services in the city.
In April she handed over the reins to a new permanent Director, John Hocking, having worked with the Council on his appointment.
A Great Start for the Dean Knight Partnership
Janet’s work in Hull demonstrates the range of skills and services which she can offer both individually and through the Dean Knight Partnership Ltd, which she founded in June 2005 in partnership with Keith Knight an established architect and project manager.
‘This job was my first substantial project since we set up the Dean Knight Partnership’ says Janet ‘and I couldn’t have wished for a better way of getting started’.
Janet originally went to Hull to cover a vacant Head of Service post, initially for two months, and was asked to extend by three months to continue restructuring work and to support service managers.
From 0* to 1* in four months
However, a crisis in Housing Landlord Services arose in August 2005, when the Audit Commission informally advised the Council that its repairs and maintenance service still appeared to be poor (0*) – the same rating it had at inspection in March 2004.
With re-inspection due in January 2006, and with the Government's Appointee and his team still on site, David Gibson, Director of Community Health and Well Being, asked Janet to come back to Hull in September 2005 in the specially created role of Interim Director of Housing, leading a new interim change team. Her task would be to achieve a 1*(fair) rating for housing in just over four months.
In October 2005, the Government Monitoring Board for Hull met to consider how well the Council was progressing. The Director of Housing at ODPM described the job of improving housing performance in Hull as ‘the most difficult in the country’. Despite this, he had sufficient confidence in Janet and her team to allow Hull to continue.
Janet’s approach to this enormous task, was pragmatic. She says, ‘I remember the Council’s Audit Commission Relationship Manager saying very clearly in October ‘We will find what we will find’, when she returned in January. It was a warning, and one which I heeded very well – there would be no point in pretending things were better than they were, but every point in showing the Audit Commission what had improved.’
Hull, like a lot of weaker Councils was still suffering from a lack of confidence and an inability to present itself honestly, but well. Janet’s previous experience at Doncaster MBC meant that she was familiar with the characteristics of a Council emerging from a long period of poor performance. Between 1999 and 2005, she had been a member of the Executive Board which led the Council, in less than five years, from the dark days of ‘Donnygate’ to its first ‘good’ CPA rating in 2004,
Describing her approach in Hull, Janet explains, ‘ In four months, we couldn’t really start and finish anything new – our focus was on energising the managers and staff, generating confidence in the organisation, and letting the Audit Commission see what had improved. We also laid the foundations for the longer term change which is needed to sustain improvement and move up through good to excellent ratings’
Focussed and Consistent Leadership
Janet’s contribution as Interim Director has been clearly acknowledged by the inspection team. As Janet says, ‘What is particularly pleasing for me is the acknowledgment of the role that communication played in creating the cultural and organisational change that is needed to create sustainable service improvements’
The Inspector’s report says,
‘There is evidence that communication has improved in recent months. Middle managers feel the organisation has a clearer sense of direction which is being transmitted effectively down the organisation. There are more opportunities to raise questions and concerns, with feedback given on actions taken to address them and some initiatives reviewed in response to staff concerns about unrealistic deadlines. The Interim Director of Housing has been providing focussed and consistent leadership for the past four months. Weekly briefings with a group of up to 80 key managers and staff has helped embed messages about priorities and given middle managers confidence to progress ideas for service improvement. Policy and procedural changes are better explained, with opportunities to become involved in working groups. This has led to better policy development and implementation and clear ownership of revised policies and procedures amongst all staff’
Janet reflects, ‘Some people questioned why I needed to see managers every week – the service had been used to monthly briefings – but in a time of rapid change, clear messages are crucial. I had so little time, I had to capture the hearts and minds of this key group who are absolutely critical to the success or failure of any organisation. It was very much about keeping everybody focussed’
David Gibson, Director of Community Health and Well-Being, and responsible for commissioning Janet to manage the project agrees. In describing Janet’s approach, he says
‘Her calm, assured leadership style inspired confidence in staff, elected members and tenants. She introduced a number of key performance management systems, underpinned by a comprehensive communications and engagement strategy. Calm under pressure and unflappable, she quickly brought her team together and relentlessly pursued the required outcome, which was, needles to say, delivered. Janet is an outstanding strategic manager, who has represented excellent value for money. She has laid excellent foundations for her permanent successor.’
Added Value Contribution
‘Managing the re-inspection as a ‘project’ was critical, and it was the core element of my assignment’, says Janet, ‘but I feel I was able to add value to Hull’s progress in a number of ways. I advised on the options for procurement of contracts to invest over £200m in Decent Homes, planned maintenance and responsive repairs. This project included the setting up of an arms-length wholly owned Council company to deliver a third of the work, with two thirds being procured on the open market.
Hull’s Chief Executive, Kim Ryley is leading the transformation of the Council so that it becomes a more customer focused, neighbourhood delivery structure.
’I believe completely in the role of housing in creating sustainable communities’, says Janet, ’and supported the integration of housing landlord services into the neighbourhood structure. There were concerns about the major risk to performance that this implied, but I recommended a core housing structure to report to the new Director of Housing which gives the Council the reassurance that it can deliver excellent housing services within a devolved neighbourhood delivery model.’
All the signs for Hull are good – the Council was recently removed from ‘special measures’ by the government after achieving a ‘1* improving adequately’ direction of travel statement from the Audit Commission in December. The one star for housing will also go some way to reassuring the government that services can be improved.
Project Management and Skills Transfer
‘My work in Hull has made me into a housing expert again’, says Janet, ‘which is strange because I haven’t worked in the mainstream of housing services for about four years, having increasingly specialised in wider regeneration and strategic development in a partnership context. However, I believe this assignment was about project management and leadership in managing organisational change and improvement, which can be applied across most service areas in all organisations.’
After 25 years in local government, Janet is delighted to be able to transfer some of the skills and capacity which she has to senior and middle managers in other organisations. This assignment demanded a high level of coaching and mentoring for key managers who needed to be able to grow in confidence and expertise so that they could take the improvement agenda further.
Janet believes that the thread that binds the diversity of the Dean Knight Partnership’s work is the project management of change. ‘We develop buildings, we develop people and organisations, and we contribute to the development of sustainable communities’, she says.
Future Projects and Collaboration
Janet’s next project is very much about combining these elements. She has been commissioned by the ODPM’s Neighbourhood Renewal Unit to mentor a Project Manager responsible for her first capital project as part of the programme of projects being delivered by Community at Heart, which is the name of the New Deal for Communities initiative in Bristol.More
In a related piece of work, Janet’s business partner, Keith Knight, a qualified member of the Association of Project Managers is collaborating on the development and delivery of project management training for conservation professionals.
Another key development opportunity for the Dean Knight Partnership is to work more widely in association with other professionals. ‘We enjoy working in teams, and particularly like collaborating with people who have complementary skills, says Janet.
Keith adds, ‘Recently, we have been approached by larger companies and by individuals who are interested in our work and we are exploring some formal opportunities for collaboration which could lead to really exciting developments for our company in the coming year.’
For more information about the work of the Dean Knight Partnership Ltd or to contact Janet Dean or Keith Knight visit www.deanknight.co.uk
To read the Audit Commission Report visit www.audit-commission.gov and look for Kingston Upon Hull.
Read more about the Dean Knight Partnership's work in News Archive