NCF LLP – 3rd residential brief biographies

Paul Lankaster Chief Executive, Stratford on Avon District Council

Paul Lankester has been Chief Executive of Stratford Council since 2001. He has worked for local government since leaving school. He is a graduate with a degree in Environmental Health from the University of Aston in Birmingham. He obtained a Diploma in Management Studies in 1990.

He has worked for five District Councils, including Stratford-on-Avon District Council, and moved to Stratford from West Oxfordshire District Council where he was Director of Environmental Services.

Paul is a national advisor to LACORS and LBRO on regulatory issues. He currently chairs the Birmingham City Region Forum and the SOLACE Foundation and is a Board member of the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership. He is also a regular columnist for Municipal Journal publication.

Peter Murphy, Nottingham School of Management, Nottingham Trent University

Peter is the Programme Director for the MSc in Public Service Management and module leader on Strategic Leadership and Organisational Change; Action for Partnerships and Contemporary Issues in Public Management. He also supervises research dissertations and delivers in-house corporate courses across the public, private and third sectors.

Peter specialises in the practical implementation of public policy and delivery of public services at the national, regional and local levels. He has particular interests in the following areas:

  • Strategic Management, Collective Leadership and Collaborative networks within an era of multiple and several public responsibilities.
  • Continuous improvement in public policy making and service delivery across local government, health, education and the criminal justice system.
  • The development and implementation of performance management regimes.
  • The intervention and turnaround of poorly performing public organisations and services.
  • Organisational development and capacity building in public services.
  • National, regional and local scrutiny of public sector performance.
  • Innovation and the dissemination of good practise in the public sector.
  • Policy and performance within the town and country planning system.
  • Policy and performance within the cultural and leisure services sector.
  • Programme and project management across the public sector.

Peter is a member of the Local Government and Regional Policy Project Board at the Department of Health and is a Non-Executive Director of the Board of Nottingham City NHS, where he Chairs the Corporate risk Committee, the Performance Decision Making Group and the World Class Commissioning Programme.

He is a member of the Management and Performance Committee of the Planning Officers Society and is a corporate member of the Royal Town Planning Institute having in the past won a number of Outstanding Planning Achievement Awards.

He is also a corporate member of the Institute for Sport, Parks and Leisure and a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce. He is an advisor to the East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership, where he provides an ongoing series of briefing papers on the performance of the regions public sector organisations.

In the past, Peter has been a member of a number of central government programme boards implementing government policy in the public sector, including the Local Area Agreements Programme Board and the Inter-regional Ministerial Board for the Milton Keynes - South Midlands Growth Area.

Atul Patel Cass Business SchoolFaculty of Management

Atul has worked as a senior consultant for over 20 years and has Diplomas in Social work, Business Studies and Technology.Atul is the academic leader for the Post graduate Diploma/MSc in Voluntary Sector Management at CASS Business School, City University. Apart from heading up the degree, he leads on Governance Strategy and Diversity; Organisation Leadership and Change and Managing People and Quality modules.

His broad experience in management consultancy led him to work for organisations in not only the UK but also in Eire and Singapore. His experience in these various organisations includes team and policy development, equality and diversity training, recruitment and retention, business plans and strategic planning.

He has chaired the South East England committee of the BBC Children in Need fund and is currently a Trustee to London Quadrant Housing and Woman kind Worldwide. He has had numerous contracts within the public sector and Voluntary organisations.

Martyn AllisonNational Advisor for Culture and Sport with Local Government Improvement and Development Agency (LGID) to July 2011.

From 2005 to 2008 until the work was mainstreamed by IDeA (predecessor of LGID), Martyn headed up the cultural service improvement unit jointly funded by DCMS, Sport England, Arts Council England, MLA and English Heritage.

Prior to his appointment with IDeA in April 2005 Martyn was on secondment with Sport England part funded by ODPM to oversee the development and implementation of the TAES self assessment framework and support the wider development of the improvement agenda in the cultural sector.

Prior to this he was Assistant Chief Executive with Leicester City Council where he was responsible for corporate and performance management across the Council for over seven years.

Martyn’s early career was spent in leisure and recreation management as Deputy and Director of Leisure at Leicester City Council, Chief Recreation Officer at Scunthorpe Borough Council, and Head of Outdoor Sport at Coventry City Council.

Martyn was Chair of the ILAM Children’s play panel for many years and an advisor to the ADC.

Sue Isherwood, Director NCF Leading Learning Programme

For the last 12 years Sue has worked in and with local government, developing cultural strategy and delivering major programmes around creative industries, arts education and rural regeneration.

From 2002 to 2007 she was Chair and Strategic Lead for the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers (nalgao, now Arts Development UK). This gives her excellent knowledge and networks across the local government field in England and Wales.

She has had a long career working mainly at national level for such organisations as The Arts Council, The British Film Institute and the Royal Photographic Society where she specialised in media, visual art and education development.

Since the mid 70’s she has taught on cultural and women’s studies and arts policy courses at a number of universities and has managed arts organisations in the literature, media and education sectors.

She is currently a board member of the Voluntary Arts Network, Western Community Leisure and several small media, social interest and women’s health organisations in the South West.