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Paul OBrien
Paul O'Brien is the Chief Executive of the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE). Based in Manchester the organisation has 250 local authorities in membership from throughout the U.K. He has overall strategic responsibility for the management and development of all the Association's activities in the United Kingdom. Following a period as Acting Director, he was officially appointed Director in March 2000. He represents the Association on the Office of the Deputy Prime Ministers, Strategic Partnership Taskforce and the Local Government Procurement Forum. He has given evidence to various parliamentary select committees and participated in numerous lobbying meetings with Government Ministers, whilst representing the Association. Paul is also on the editorial board of the MJ. Paul was previously the Association's Principal Advisor ( Scotland), with a remit to develop links with the Scottish Parliament and associated local government agencies. Paul has 20 years experience in local government. Prior to his appointment with APSE, Paul worked with South Lanarkshire Council in the areas of CCT and Best Value. When previously a trainee manager with Strathclyde Regional Council, Paul spent two years on secondment to APSE at the Scottish Secretariat from 1994 to 1996. Paul graduated in 1998 with a Masters Degree in Business Administration, having carried out his dissertation on the transition from a CCT environment towards the development of Best Value.
Greening Cornwall
March 10th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
In Cornwall today to meet up with the Programme Director for Green Cornwall at Cornwall Council, Steve Cirell. Steve and me go back 15 years and shared many platforms and projects over the years in his time as Head of the Public Sector Unit at Eversheds. Steve has always been passionate about his work and I …
Northern Ireland Local Government Awards
March 10th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
Attended the awards dinner for the Northern Ireland Local Government Awards at the Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle, Down. This is the second year in a row that APSE has been involved in the awards and it’s really taken off as an event with the dinner packed out.
The awards dinner is built on to the Northern Ireland …
Housing issues in Scotland
March 10th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
Chaired a debate today at APSE’s Scottish Housing conference at Peebles Hydro. We had a first class panel of speakers with Alex Neil MSP the Housing and Communities Minister facing the opposition spokespersons for Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, Michael McMahon MSP, Derek Brownlee MSP and Jeremy Purvis MSP. Dave Watson the UNISON …
Best Value 2
March 10th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
Led a debate today at APSE’s Scottish Regional Council on the next stage of Best Value in Scotland this follows on from the Best Value audit process that has recently been completed.
Having examined the recommendations made there will be a requirement for more self evaluation and improvement support will be needed. There will be a greater focus on services, outcomes and …
The sands of time running low
March 9th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
At the time of writing the reorganisation of local government in Northern Ireland has almost ground to a standstill as it has been swallowed up in the stalemate created by the wider political dealings taking place amongst the main parties in the Assembly.
I have been chairing the Local Government Reform Joint Forum in Northern …
Time to grit (no pun intended) your teeth and get on with it!
March 9th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
Happy New Year although for many in public services it may feel as if there isn’t a lot to be happy about.
Facing up to some of the largest challenges to public finances in a generation coupled with the impact of severe weather on the public image of local authority services may make many feel that …
Delivering Innovation and Efficiency!
March 9th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
Progressive austerity appears to be the message on public finances for the foreseeable future. In local government this translates to reducing costs or cutting services in order to pay for the sins of the bankers.
For those who have been in local government over the last few decades this is not exactly a new phenomenon. From …
Shared Ambition!
March 9th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
Speech from the Guardian’s ‘Capital Ambition’ conference in London.
On to the question then, ‘if getting organisations working together is an obvious and simple solution, what has prevented it happening?’
Some of my experience in this area probably dates back to the period 2002 - 04 when I sat on the Office of the Deputy Prime Ministers …
Speech at House of Commons on a new generation of council housing
March 9th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to come along today and speak to you about the highly topical research APSE has recently completed for UNISON - A new generation of council housing, an analysis of need, opportunity, vision and skills.
Looking firstly at need, the origins of social housing in this country can be traced to …
Creating the ‘Ensuring Council’
March 9th, 2010 by Paul OBrien
In his recent book on the politics of climate change Lord Anthony Giddens called for the creation of an ‘ensuring state’ with the capacity to achieve political and economic convergence across policy sub-systems to tackle what is becoming a global phenomenon.
With Copenhagen only weeks away the need to work strategically at national government level …
BNP membership list closed over race bias 
Alistair Darling visits LMH tenants & launches national scheme 
