As chief executive of Wigan Council, Alison McKenzie-Folan describes her leadership approach, place based responsibilities and wider role in the Greater Manchester area.
Wigan is the 9th largest unitary council in England supporting 345K residents. A politically stable Council, it is part of the combined authority in Manchester, who has an elected mayor.
A key challenge for the Council is how to switch resources to provide preventative support. 70% of expenditure is on children and adult social care - the aspiration is ensure that residents can live well, support neighbourhood health developments, uses holistic support to residents and is co-designed by them. The Council has two missions -to ensures neighbourhood thrive and support improved fairness and reduce inequality.
Manchester “places” are coterminous with Boroughs/unitary government and led by local Government chief executives. Integrated care board staff are aligned to the ‘places’ and leaders of health and care have spent time developing relationships and trust.
In the Council, compassionate leadership is vital and expected of all staff. Important that staff are psychological safe, able to challenge and have different views.
Alison has 20 years of experience in the civil service and organisational development and passionate about asset based working - see the person; ensure everything is person centred in design; understand individual preferences and listen deeply.