Man of figures

Former accountant, Phil Halsall, once one of the youngest chief executives in the UK as head of a shire district, has taken on the top job of one of the largest counties. He tells Michael Burton about the challenges ahead With a background in finance, Phil Halsall, the new chief executive of Lancashire CC – where he was appointed just three months ago and which is the largest local authority in the North serving 1.2 million residents – is well placed to handle the toughest public sector budgets in decades. It figures: Lancashire's Phil Halsall has an accounting background.(Pic: Lancashire CC County Hall Johnny English) As you would expect from a trained accountant, he rattles off budget figures... The county's non-schools spend is £800m. On a three-year budget, it has to save £180m over that period, with £71m in the first year, half of it through back-office savings such as the partnership, refinancing debt, and reducing senior management costs. Phil declines to put a total on job losses. But the frontline has also been hit, with the eligibility criteria going up for adult care, although he insists the county will always protect the vulnerable. For 2012/13, a further £55m will need to be taken out of the budget. He explains: ‘We were fairly accurate about our spending expectations, which were slightly worse than we thought, although I'm a pessimist and naturally prepare for the worst. ‘The aim is to avoid hitting services. And the best way is to that is involve frontline staff, because they'll find a way of doing it.' The problem is that while the public, in theory, accept the need for cuts, they still want to preserve their own prioritised services. ‘About 80% of the public understand that public debt needs to go down, but by the time they've said that, actually, they want to protect education, road potholes, adult care, health... there's not much room for savings.' The county is currently entering a joint venture with BT – 60% BT, 40% county – to which 850 staff are transferring on a secondment basis. ‘My ICT function is good, but we can't keep pace with the changes, and we're missing out on opportunities if we don't enter the partnership. Whereas we employ 300 people in ICT, BT employs 100,000. The venture is about saving money elsewhere in the organisation through new technology.' The chief executive is sceptical about the progress of shared services. ‘Local government is too conservative with a small "c". Everyone agrees with the idea of shared services, "provided I do it", with the result that a large chunk will carry on as before. ‘The failure of shared services is because people see their role diminishing. There is probably more sharing of chief executives than sharing of services.' Phil emphasises the importance of staff. ‘It is vital to engage with the people who work here. After all, we employ some 40,000 people, – or 20,000 without schools included. ‘I've got staff who deal with complex domestic issues at home, and yet at work, we treat them at times like idiots. We don't do enough to capture their ideas.' He also insists on continuing to take on apprentices and graduate trainees, ‘because if we don't, who will?' Phil was brought up in Southport, and studied computer science at A-level, later entering local government as an audit trainee because, as he recalls anecdotally, he ‘played football with the assistant treasurer of Sefton MBC'. After training to be an accountant there, he worked at Cheshire CC, then Bolton MBC, and when compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) took root, he moved to what was then the accountancy firm, Coopers and Lybrand. But, as he comments: ‘If I wanted to become a partner, I had to move to London, so I joined South Ribble as chief executive in 1996, then one of the youngest chiefs in the country.' Did he find CCT helpful? ‘It made us think about why we did things.' From there, he moved to Liverpool City Council in 2000, as director of resources, remaining there until 2009. Then he joined Lancashire, also as resources director, and became chief executive in January 2011, earning £195,000, the same as his predecessor Ged Fitzgerald – who became chief at Liverpool. Having worked for a district, metropolitan and county, Phil believes there are ‘significant advantages in the single-tier model', and is dismissive about the ‘turf stuff' over the local enterprise partnerships, adding: ‘Local government boundaries only exist for people who work in it.' He has at least three main priorities at Lancashire. ‘It's a hugely bureaucratic organisation,' he says. ‘I want to see more engagement with staff, giving them the opportunity to be involved and to influence and shape what we do, as they understand it out there.' He also believes they should be open-minded about service delivery, ‘where it is beneficial to work in different types of models'. And last, but not least: ‘I want people to say that the county is miles better.'

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WHITEHALL

Man of figures

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