Adele Taylor

Having spent more than 25 years in local government finance and resources, Adele Taylor has extensive experience in senior leadership roles in the public sector. She is currently Interim Executive Director of Resources at Cheshire East Council, having previously served in a number of director and executive director positions for local authorities across England, including Executive Director of Finance and Commercial at Slough Borough Council, Director of Resources and S151 Officer at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, and Executive Director of Finance and Governance at Cherwell and South Northamptonshire District Councils.

Adele began her public sector finance journey in 1999 as a graduate trainee at the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, where she also joined CIPFA. From there, she progressed to become Director of Finance Services at the London Borough of Ealing, moving on after six years to become a Director at East Herts District Council, where she took on her first section 151 officer role. She spent five years there before moving on to Cherwell and South Northamptonshire in 2018.

Over her career, Adele has experienced many complex situations, from overseeing major local authority reorganisations and helping financially stressed bodies recover to navigating the challenges of the COVID pandemic and other crisis management interventions. Nonetheless, she says she enjoys the variety and unpredictability of her profession and the opportunities it presents to make a difference to people’s lives.

When did you first become attracted to a career in the public sector, particularly public sector finance? And what led you to become a CIPFA member?

I think I’m naturally attracted to the public sector because it aligns with my personal ethos and values. I've always done volunteering, with the Red Cross and also GirlGuiding – I’ve been involved for 40-odd years and am still a leader.

When I left university, I successfully applied for a frontline social care finance role at the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and spent the first year of my public sector career there. 

When I decided subsequently that accountancy might be the career for me, I started to explore graduate opportunities in both the public and private sector. However, the opportunity to work and learn while doing something that mattered at the same time was important to me, so I decided to do the training through local government. It was a natural step then to join CIPFA as part of the training programme.

What have been the highlights or biggest successes of your career to date? Are there any particular standout, pivotal moments?

One of the big standout moments was when I was at Ealing Council back in the 2010s. I had the opportunity to chair the apprenticeship network for the council, which was a real opportunity to take on a broader corporate role. That’s where I first really thought about my corporate parenting responsibilities, and to be part of something that wasn’t just my day job. It’s important as somebody who works in the public sector to have that helicopter view of the whole organisation, and that’s the opportunity that we have as CIPFA members.

It also highlights another area where CIPFA training is great – it gives you the ability to think about your wider leadership skills, because CIPFA focuses not only on finance numbers and debits and credits, but also on your whole leadership career.

That apprenticeship network role was amazing, because I realised how I was going to be able to help shape young people’s lives, both apprentices working within the council and also those in the network across the borough. Stepping forward and taking on that leadership role was very rewarding, knowing that I would be able to make a real difference for young people, offering opportunities and life chances that they might not otherwise have.

What have been the greatest challenges both during your career and within the public finance sector as a whole?

I made a switch from permanent into interim director roles because of a local government reorganisation position in Cherwell and South Northamptonshire District Council in 2018/19. It was one body, with one part in Oxfordshire and another in Northamptonshire. We had to split up the organisation from what was two outward-facing but one inwardly conjoined organisation into separate ones. It was almost like a two-step reorganisation process and extremely complex. I originally was supposed to be there to cover while they recruited a permanent executive director, so it was not the role that I’d originally gone in to do.

However, being a part of that was really interesting, having to hold your nerve sometimes around what battles you needed to fight on behalf of your organisation for the greater good. That was professionally very stimulating and rewarding.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of working in the public sector?

As a finance professional, it’s being able to take your skills and your experience, step into a room and be a real partner in the reshaping and redesign of services – working with co-production networks, for instance, to help deliver services differently. It’s about being able to walk in the door, keeping your finance professional hat on, but also appreciating being part of a bigger picture. If you can co-produce solutions with your residents and other stakeholders, you get much better value out of that. You can use your expertise to make a real difference for individuals. 

How has being a CIPFA member supported you in your career?

Working in the public sector, the responsibilities that you can get very early on in your career are often greater than you would experience in a similar private sector position. As a CIPFA member, I’ve known I have that backing – that professional advice and guidance – so I can be sure I'm doing the right thing. CIPFA training prepares you for a career in the public sector, which is a very different experience from the private sector.

The way the CIPFA programme is structured, from the exams through to the way you develop skills and prepare reports, you’re always looking beyond the debits and credits – the training reflects the importance of public sector accountability. It prepares you for the mindset that everything you do is going to be scrutinised publicly. It gives you that much broader view of life as a public servant, not just life as a public accountant, and provides the key skills to take you through your career. 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given and by whom?

While I was doing my CIPFA training, I did a project around heavy goods vehicles procurement and maintenance. I visited the depot and one of the team there advised: “Just say what you mean. If you say what you mean, you’ll get the answer that you need.” That’s stood me in good stead over the years – focusing on clarity rather than fancy language or jargon, and making sure people understand what you’re talking about, even when you’re discussing complex ideas or concepts.

What advice would you give to people who are beginning their career in public finance?

I would advise them to embrace every opportunity that they get. It doesn't matter what your position is in an organisation, be professionally curious and explore the edges of where your role is and what you do. The more you ask questions, the less you hold back. And the more interested in expanding your knowledge you are, the more inclined your leaders or managers will be to facilitate that and give you further opportunities.

What book, film or podcast would you recommend to anyone working in public finance?

Mutual Ventures do a Radical Reformers podcast that’s brilliant. It’s all about senior public sector leaders who think slightly differently and approach their roles in that context. It’s interesting listening to people’s stories – why they do what they do and how they do things differently. I’ve learned so much from it. I’ve actually been on the podcast, although that’s not the reason I’m recommending it – it’s really good!