Making the shift

When I saw the executive director and section 151 officer post with Peterborough City Council advertised it was ideal timing. This was a role I had been looking at for some time, plus I live on the patch and it is a city I care about and have a real connection with. It is where I started my career as a junior clerk in 1984 and it was the council that put me through my professional Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy training at the start of my local government journey.Having gained a wealth of experience with my previous authorities, including two London boroughs, in roles where I have been s151, monitoring officer and deputy chief executive, and having managed plenty of complexity particularly when acting as a shared officer over multiple councils, I felt that the time was right to step into that unitary space at a more senior level.Peterborough is a council which has had its fair share of challenges in recent years. In December 2021 it voluntarily appointed an improvement panel to address issues in relations to financial practices, governance and member relationships.At the time I joined, significant progress had been made and the council's relationship with its improvement panel, led by experienced former chief executive Eleanor Kelly, was concluding with local government minister Jim McMahon confirming Peterborough's non-statutory government intervention had ended.My first impressions of Peterborough were of a real can-do attitude for the challenges that remained, not least the financial challenges which were steep with fair funding not yet concluded. Staff and members were welcoming and willing to engage with the issues of the day which, as a new s151, felt like an incredibly strong start and a great base to build on.One of the biggest differences I found quite early on was the upscaling of the size of the issues and their sheer complexity. However, the method of dealing with them is the same – break it down and consider where the pressure points are and what you can do about it. Next, deploy your resources to deal with it and learn from others that may have had similar issues.In the districts, the pressures were delivering savings and efficiencies to balance the budget, managing the Housing Revenue Account, homelessness costs, income pressures, food waste implementation and impact of Internal Drainage Board precepts increasing, alongside the delivery of large capital programmes funded through a variety of grant-funded income streams.At Peterborough, it is driving savings and efficiency targets of large scale, managing the debt burden, SEND deficits and service pressures causing overspends. These service pressures can be harder to deal with when they relate to children and adult services and are particularly complex with many moving parts. The capital programme is also very significant with many different tranches of external funding to deploy.Some of the issues are very similar, but what feels different is the scale of the changes being driven nationally across the system in terms of funding, health, children's and adults, alongside the intensive inspection and regulatory arrangements. This all being in addition to the locality issues that place and community services deal with daily.In respect of adults, children's and public health, these areas are without doubt a learning curve; the language is different and you are part of detailed conversations and planning in relation to health trends, social care practice, care plans and prevention.However, the same principles apply. It is about taking a forensic view of every area of spend, what is driving it and identifying where opportunities for improvement or efficiencies can be made and where transformation, particularly in relation to prevention, can support longer-term improvement. Investing to improve outcomes and divert away from costly public sector interventions can have significant impacts when undertaken effectively.From a finance perspective the systems we use are very similar, the deadlines are the same and you may even have the same auditor. If you have had experience of arm's length companies and trusts in the past that will also certainly stand you in good stead.One of the biggest changes I have seen has been the scale of the use of digital and AI tools in ways I could only have imagined. I hope this helps us to achieve faster access to essential services in the most targeted way possible, to make services more accessible and relevant to users as well as making the council more efficient. In Peterborough this is something we are prioritising and investing in.My final piece of advice to those who are currently working for a district and wanting to gain experience at a unitary prior to local government reorganisation taking place, is to make connections with those who can support you. Seek buddies and coaches with the experience of upper tier functions and seek work experience at such councils. It will help to build your knowledge and you should take confidence from the fact that your skill-sets and experience will be needed and appreciated when the proposed new unitaries come into being. Christine Marshall is executive director for corporate services and section 151 officer at Peterborough City Council

Title

FINANCE

Making the shift

By Christine Marshall | 30 April 2026

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