Get to know us
We currently have around 190 Change Influencers representing 48 of the 60 services within Lancashire County Council. You can hear below from some of our current CI's on where they work, what they are interested in and why they got involved in the Network.
Adult Social Care – Ste Walker
Hi my name is Ste Walker and I'm a full-time dad to my son and daughter. I set up a group for solo parent families on Facebook called Solo Parents United Northwest with a black and gold log of a mountain which now has 1.5k members. I am also launching a football club for solo parent families which is going live in April 2024. I work full-time in the Sensory Team as a Rehabilitation Officer and my job involves teaching visually impaired people independent living skills and learning to use the long cane to get around the community.
I joined the Change Influencer Network to share feedback from staff to with management to help influence positive changes within the Council.
Business Growth – Robin Jones
Hi, I'm Robin, Senior Project Officer – Low Carbon & Renewable Energy for the Council, Lancashire Area Lead at North West Net Zero Hub, and Director of Community Energy Preston. I'm a massive net zero nerd and generally quite a geek on a lot of other things like DnD and gaming. Outside of work I spend a lot of time playing tennis and walking my border collie across the beautiful places we have in Lancashire. I have a degree in chemical engineering and a masters in renewable energy engineering. I was part of a pioneering solar and battery project in social housing in my last role. More recently I have been running a low carbon heat grant for SMEs in Lancashire. This involves getting heat pumps and Infra-Red heating systems installed and the challenges therein. I provide a critical friend role in multiple projects across Lancashire; including battery trains to Eden, community scale heat networks and tidal combined with hydrogen storage in salt caverns. I liaise with local companies involved in low carbon manufacturing like LiNa Energy, Global Energy Systems, Isentra, IOT Horizons and Electra Commercial Vehicles. More recently I became a director of Community Energy Preston, installing solar panels on businesses to provide income streams towards fuel poverty.
Customer Access – Charlotte Catterall and Clare Blackburn
We are Charlotte and Clare, Change Influencers for Customer Access Service (CAS). As part of our roles we're involved in a lot of change and continuous improvement, so when the opportunity came about to join the Network we thought it would be good to share the work we have done and are planning to do but also having the opportunity to learn from other Changes Influencers' experiences. The Network allows for ideas and suggestions to be shared across Services, promoting collaborative working which we enjoy, and being a part of the events held by the Network.
We have more recently been heavily involved in the implementation of our new telephony platform which was carefully managed to consider all aspects of change and communication – keeping customers at the forefront of our mind and making sure the new system didn't impact their journey but made improvements for a more positive experience.
Environment and Climate – Sarah Coughlan
I'm a Change Influencer based in the Environment and Climate Team. I've only recently joined the Network but I am looking forward to getting involved over the coming months and help promote positive change within the Council. Please come and say hi if you would like to chat about the Network and how you can get involved.
Estates – Chris Bull, Dean Barlow and Margaret Wells
I am Margaret Wells, a Principal Estates Surveyor. I have worked at LCC since September 2021, and joined the Change Influencer group at its inception. I am keen to enable services to be the best that they reasonably can be, rather than repeat past processes as a matter of habit. It has been enjoyable to meet a wider range of people through the CI Network, and to gain an improved understanding of corporate initiatives.
As Change Influencers within Estates, we have set up a Focus Group to follow through on points raised around Staff Survey issues. We have also reviewed some of the template documents used within our service, and held discussions on effective ways to conduct our service.
Mental Health Social Care Team – Brett Aspden
Hi, I'm Brett, Team Manager within Mental Health in Adult Social Care. I wanted to get involved as a Change Influencer as the staff voice is really important to me. I think it's vital that as an organisation people at all levels feel heard, and that LCC wants to demonstrate meaningful change!
Planning and Environment – Jane Hardy-Jones and Niamh O'Sullivan
Hi everyone, I'm Jane, a Senior Environment Officer within the Environment and Climate Team. I work on the Council's Environment and Climate Strategy, which involves projects and policies centred around reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Although very new to the Network, I wanted to get involved with it so that I could connect with colleagues outside of my service and learn more about the organisation's improvement journey
Hi all, I'm Niamh and I am the Planning Lead in the Infrastructure Delivery Team. I have worked for the Council for over 16 years. I joined the Change Influencers as it is so important to not only understand but also to help influence change in the workplace.
Quality Assurance, Inspection and Safeguarding – Jackie Dempsey, Jenna Billingham and Julie Lee
I am Jackie Dempsey and I am a Business Support Officer in Education and Children's Services, supporting the traded area of School Improvement. I work mainly in the finance area of this team. I have worked for Lancashire County Council for 14 years, starting off in the Sure Start Children Centres as a Business Support Officer, moving to a Delivery Support Worker within CFW. I have been in my current role since Sept 2021. I was asked to take up the role of Change Influencer by my manager after volunteering to be the voice rep for my team. We had another volunteer too for the voice rep, so this made good sense. We all work together to support our team, to make changes for the good and to keep informed of the changes that the council are making too.
My name is Jenna Billingham and I am a Business Support Officer within the School Organisation and Assessment Team supporting schools with assessment related enquiries. I started my journey as a Staff Voice Representative and became a Change Influencer shortly after. I have enjoyed being involved in both aspects and look forward to what the Change Influencer Networks will bring to Lancashire.
My name is Julie Lee and I work as an Area Business Support Manager, supporting a number of Business Support teams within Education and Children's Services. I got involved in the Change Influencer Network from the very beginning and am passionate and excited about supporting and influencing change in our Service and across Lancashire. It has been a learning curve and feel that this year we are really going to make a positive difference and our Change Influencer Network is working really hard to make this happen. It has been great meeting other Change Influencers across other Services and sharing experiences, ideas and learning. I have enjoyed building relationships and networking and this helps with continuous development.
Please see below a summary of our activity to date:
- We have committed to meet as a Change Influencer group every month to keep focused and show a real commitment to supporting positive change in our Education & Children's Services Business Support hub. We also include our Voice Group reps in meetings quarterly.
- We listen to feedback from our teams including feedback from the staff survey and are currently pulling together a document to look into this in more detail and plan together how we can feedback. We are committed to ensure staff voices are listened to and that we are able to provide responses and positive solutions. These will be tracked this year in the form of 'You said, we did'.
- We have created a Change Influencer newsletter for our Business Support Teams to show we are communicating with staff.
- We have created a Staff Voice Group flyer and drop in sessions to try and encourage more staff to engage as a Voice Group rep in areas that are underrepresented.
- We are currently working on 'A day in the life of' for individuals and teams to share so that our teams are aware of what other teams in our structure do. This is something we are going to build on over this year to possibly include as part of recruitment and development.