A message from our departing Chief Executive Paul O'Brien

Dear APSE Members

After almost 24 years as APSE Chief Executive and in my 40^th year in local government I am stepping down from my current role on 31 December 2022.

Many of you will be aware that Mo Baines was successfully appointed as APSE Chief Executive Designate in late November and it has now been agreed by APSE’s National Council that Mo will commence as the new Chief Executive on 1 January 2023. It makes sense that we start the New Year in this way and allows Mo to move forward with rolling out her vision for the future of APSE.

During the first quarter of 2023 I will remain employed by APSE, in the role of Programme Director to assist with specific projects related to this period of transition. Hopefully, this will give me a chance to meet some of you before I depart fully from APSE on 31 March.

When I walked through the gate of the building and works depot in Cambuslang, near Glasgow all those years ago, how could I possibly have imagined the journey in local government that I would go on. In 1999, when I was asked to come to Manchester for a couple of weeks to ‘hold the fort’, during a difficult period for APSE prior to the AGM, I had no idea what the next 23 and a half years would bring. We put together a turnaround strategy and very quickly launched a highly successful range of services, relevant to a growing membership’s needs, in a rapidly changing era, which have proved sustainable in the long term. This has also allowed us to invest in and grow APSE’s staff over the years to create a truly virtuous circle of support for APSE members. The organisation today is unrecognisable from the small core that existed back then and I want to thank all of the National Chair(s), National Council(s), brilliant hardworking and committed colleagues, but most of all you, APSE’s membership.

In the late 1990’s there was a live debate about what was the best way to deliver public services. I couldn’t quite get my head around a suggestion that local government services could be provided better by others. With hard work and a commitment to excellence surely if there was a level playing field then in-house services could not be beaten by outsiders? That is a hypothesis that I set out to prove and hopefully I have contributed something along the way to public policy debates and provided in APSE a service that advocates in many ways on your behalf and supports all of you to go out and deliver for your local communities every day of the week. I am in awe of you, despite everything that is thrown at you – monumental budget cuts, numerous public policy crises including covid – you step forward and deal with it, even when everyone else is stepping back. It has been the privilege of my life and an absolute honour to have worked with all of you.

APSE remains a healthy and resilient organisation, with an amazing and passionate team, whom I am going to miss hugely. But I know with Mo as Chief Executive it will remain a highly successful organisation long into the future.

Best wishes to all of you, enjoy Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours when it comes along.

Take care

Paul

Paul O’Brien

Chief Executive