Why did you choose accountancy as a career?
I didn’t! The first half of my career to date was in strategic risk management, which accountancy is aligned to, but in itself, it wasn’t something I’d seriously considered as a career until the opportunity came up to study CIPFA. It was that particular qualification that drew me in to finance and got me hooked.
Why did you choose to become CIPFA certified?
I was looking for a new challenge to broaden my skills and my boss suggested looking at the CIPFA qualification. The syllabus had just been revised and now had a good split between finance, strategy and public policy. All those areas and the balance between them really appealed to me, both in terms of my interests and roles at work.
Longer-term I also had an ambition to do an MBA and the revised CIPFA qualification provides a number of exemptions. On a practical level, I was incredibly lucky that my employer funded me to do CIPFA and fully supported me throughout the three years of studying. Three years after qualifying, I’ve now embarked on an MBA through the council’s apprenticeship scheme, drawing on everything I learned through my CIPFA studies.
Why did you choose to work in public services?
That classic truism, public service ethos. My mother worked in local government and my father was a teacher, so I had some fantastic examples of that growing up. When I left university I worked in the private sector for a few years but as much as I enjoyed my job and worked with some great people, my role in local government is far more personally rewarding. It allows me to earn a living while doing something I hope adds value, and makes a real, positive difference to the people and city of Leeds.
What’s your specialism – please give a brief overview of your role?
I joined Leeds City Council back in 2003 to develop and embed risk management which I still do but my role’s become much wider. I’m now the Head of Business Planning & Risk in the council’s Intelligence & Policy Service and have responsibilities for strategic business planning, corporate performance management, city and business intelligence, portfolio management and consultation and engagement. In a number of those areas, I work very closely with my finance colleagues.
Can you briefly explain your career journey to-date?
I studied History at the University of Bristol and did an MA in Medieval Studies, then joined the graduate scheme at Arthur Andersen in London – that’s where I got into Enterprise Risk. As a management consultant, I had a range of clients, specialising in Energy & Utilities companies. My fiancé (now husband) then got a job up north, I followed, and that gave me the chance to think about what I really wanted to do. Serendipity played a big part as Leeds City Council was looking for someone with my skills and experience right at that time and I’ve been there ever since.
How does your qualification help you in your day-to-day tasks and long-term?
Day-to-day and long-term it’s invaluable, I thought I was pretty clued up on public policy and politics but I learned so much more from studying CIPFA. The whole of the public sector is working more and more in partnership and we can’t do that properly if we don’t understand the policy and financial environment we’re each operating in – CIPFA’s taught me that. Also in my roles in strategic risk, planning and performance in particular, I need to understand – and stay up to date with – the financial context we’re operating in so CIPFA’s helped me to be better at my job.