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What people have said about us!!
Cannock Chase District Council - April 2010
Full reference is here
Simon worked as an interim Principal Revenues and Benefits Officer from January to April 2010. The reason for the placement was to backfill for the time spent by myself and other members of my revenues and benefits management team, working on shared service justification with a neighbouring authority.
As a consequence of the nature of the placement Simon needed to operate in all areas of revenues and benefits including fraud and systems control. Simon did not only cover for the absence of our managers but also brought expertise and experience to the team which helped us to develop our service in a number of areas.
In particular Simon contributed the following to our service:
- Development of a Business Justification for introducing homeworking into our Benefit service.
- Drafting of procedures to help us to implement homeworking.
- Development of a “KLOE” action plan to help us demonstrate our compliance with Audit Commissions Key Lines of Enquiry.
- Issues Invitations to Quote from leading suppliers of E-forms solutions.
- Creation of a Document Retention Policy, incorporating management of paper and electronic data.
- Drafted policy documents regarding the issuing of Insolvency and Charging Orders.
- Helped us to review some of our recovery notices.
- Helped us to significantly improve the content of our website, particularly in the Benefits area.
- Handled Formal Complaints.
- Authorised benefit fraud sanctions.
Simon’s friendly and approachable style made him popular with, and earned the respect of, colleagues within our department and from the other departments that he liaised with during his time here.
I would have no hesitation in recommending Simon for similar placements elsewhere.
Rob Wolfe. - Local Taxation and Benefits Manager
Oldham Council (Unity Partnership) - December 2009
Full reference is here
Simon Bailey was employed as a freelance interim revenues and benefits manager for the Unity Partnership from April 2009 to December 2009. He served in the post of Director of Exchequer Services and Access Oldham and reported directly to me as Managing Director.
During his time in Unity, Simon worked extremely well with colleagues from both th e partnership and Oldham Council. Given that he was providing interim cover for someone on maternity leave, it was important that he establish strong working relationships for himself but also help in maintaining the relationships of the permanent post holder. He rose to that challenge and did an outstanding job of building relations with Unity staff, the council’s client team and the council’s senior management and directors. He served as a member of my senior management team and made significant contributions to the council’s leadership team as well.
During his tenure, Simon introduced new working practices and performance management frameworks that led to significant improvements in service performance. The service has seen its processing times for benefits nearly halved from previous years, and we have significantly improved our collection rate for both council tax and NNDR.
Simon has developed our IT systems (Academy and ICLIPSE) to remove manual processes and replaced them with technology-enabled solutions. As a result, we’re getting better use of our systems, and the service has improved because staff time can be used more productively.
Simon has a very effective style of working, combining strategic thinking with pragmatic solutions. He has been a pleasure to work with, and I would readily employ him again should a need arise.
John Howard- Managing Director
East Dorset District Council - September 2009
Full reference is here
I was Chief Executive of East Dorset District Council for 22 years from 1st August 1987 to the 31st July 2009 and during that time I had the pleasure of employing Simon Bailey on four separate occasions to carry out work for the authority on Revenues and Benefits.
The first time was in 1998 when the Council was faced with testing the market for Revenues and Benefits. Simon was appointed as an external consultant to work with the in house team on their bid for the Revenues and Benefits Contract which included bid price and production of bid documents/method statements. Simon was thorough, working exceptionally well with the staff gaining their confidence and together they delivered a successful in house bid.
The outcome was a streamlined staffing structure with the Head of the Section leaving. This left a void and the Council had no hesitation in asking Simon with his wealth of experience in managing a Revenues and Benefits Section to carry out an interim management placement. Simon ran the section professionally whilst implementing the contract, and setting up reporting methodologies as well as working with myself to appoint a successor.
My next involvement with Simon was in 2003/4 when the Council after making the decision to move from an in house system agreed to use outside help to evaluate the different Revenues and Benefits systems available. Simon with his wide experience in the Revenues and Benefits field carried out this role and made a recommendation to procure an appropriate package system. The District Council followed the advice and Academy was installed which has proven to be an excellent system.
Last year East Dorset along with its neighbours Christchurch Borough Council and North Dorset District Council agreed to work together on Revenues and Benefits and Simon Bailey as an independent consultant was invited to work with the three authorities to produce a business case and model for the revenues and benefits partnership. Simon completed the first stage successfully. He has now taken on the project management so that the partnership can go live in October 2010. He has total support and respect from the three authorities Leaders and Chief Executives as well as the staff of those authorities
It has been a pleasure to work with Simon over the years. He has always met his deadlines and never failed to deliver. He is a nice person to have working for you who gets on well with staff and I would have had no hesitation in employing him at East Dorset.
Alan Breakwell - Chief Executive
Fareham BC
Full reference is here
I am very pleased to provide a reference for Simon who has worked directly for me for approximately two years. He was taken on as the interim Head of Benefits at a time when the performance of the service was unsatisfactory, despite ongoing efforts to improve, it was proving difficult to sustain the improvements made. Within a year of joining the Council, the Benefits performance indicators moved from third and fourth quartile to first and second quartile and this has been consistently sus tained since then.
Throughout his time here, Simon has regularly reported on performance at our departmental management team, the Chief Executive’s Management Team and to Members. He has proved to be an excellent and experienced manager who has achieved the improvements through a wide range of initiatives which have resulted in improved staff morale and better relationships with other departments as well as improved performance.
These initiatives included drawing up, gaining approval and implementing a restructure of the Benefits Section which improved work flows, career progression and performance management. In addition, he successfully bid for project funding from the DWP which allowed us to introduce mobile working and other service improvements at no additional cost to the Council.
He also developed good working relationships with other managers in the Council which facilitated, for example, systems improvements, better liaison with the Council Housing and Homelessness sections and improved landlord relationships.
In short, Simon was set a number of challenging objectives, all of which he has successfully achieved.
I would, therefore, have no hesitation in recommending Simon to you, based on my experience of working with him over the last two years.
Carol Bolton - Director of Finance and Resources
Oadby and Wigston BC
Full reference is here
Simon managed the project by attending OWBC 4-8 days a month. He always left a task list of what needed to be done before his next visit, which included updates on what had been completed, and also assigned responsibilities for new tasks. If we met any problems between visits Simon was always available by telephone or e-mail, and gave considerable time in this way at  no additional cost.
OWBC was the first site to implement the Pericles benefits software by manually data loading all claims, as it was not possible to convert data from our existing system to Pericles. With Simon’s agreement, OWBC had made a decision not to implement the benefits software until at least 2 other sites were using it in a live environment. This was to protect the Council from the risk of implementing software not capable of delivering the benefits service.
This criterion was met by Autumn 2004 and the OWBC benefits data load implementation commenced after annual billing for 2004/2005, and was completed by June 2005. Simon remained working on the project until September 2005 to resolve post live issues.
Simon maintained good working relationships will all other members of the project team and his IT skills, coupled with his considerable expertise in the area of Housing and Council Tax Benefit, provided an invaluable resource in ensuring a successful outcome of the project.
OWBC would be pleased to retain Simon for future projects, and have no hesitation in recommending him as a responsible, reliable and knowledgeable consultant
Sue Fowler - Revenues and Benefits Manager, Oadby and Wigston BC
Stroud DC
Full reference is here
During his time with us Simon helped us through a difficult period in Benefits. He successfully project managed the implementation of a new IBS Housing Benefit system together with a new Document lmage Processing and WorKflow system.
This was in addition to planning and implementing the new tax credits in benefits.
Simon has excellent communication and negotiation skills and has achieved the deadlines and targets that were set for him. Simon is well liked and respected by both his team and the other managers.
He is very hard working and gave his full commitment to this role.
I wish Simon every success for the future and I would have no hesitation in employing him again.
Joanne Jordan, Head of Revenues and Benefits, Stroud DC
Public Sector Consultants
Full reference is here
Simon has conducted a number of diagnostic and Benefit service improvement reviews. Following on from this he has worked as part of the team implementing recommendations arising from Service Improvement action plans and assisted in the management of Benefit Services.
Undoubtedly though his major strength has been in project managing to a successful conclusion the implementation Benefit related IT systems, in particular Electronic Document Management and Workflow systems.
Simon is a conscientious worker who has demonstrated many outstanding qualities in undertaking contract work
He is always committed to the task in hand working long hours to ensure a successful conclusion to the project. He shows a complete understanding of both Benefits law and administration coupled with the knowledge of the IT infrastructure required to support and improve service delivery and the ability to deliver successful outcomes on these types of projects
In undertaking work of this nature he has also shown that he is able to relate to and communicate, both orally and in writing, with members of staff at all levels including Director level. He is able to extend these communications skills to Member level as well
Public Sector Consultants - January 2003
Oadby and Wigston BC
I have taken a keen interest in this project to ensure that the risk is managed cautiously and appropriately. I recommend the continuing employment of the project manager, Simon Bailey, in whom I have confidence. He is proving to be an extremely useful resource and source of expertise in managing this rather tricky implementation
Oadby and Wigston B C - Open report to P and R Committee 2002
London Borough of Hammersmith
Full reference is here
Simon essentially rescued a failing project when the existing software suppliers for EDM went into liquidation.
He was responsible for procurement of an alternative system, drawing up a specification, conducting site reference visits and ultimately chaired the selection panel to procure a new system.
Working together with corporate colleagues, he project managed the implementation on time and to budget, ensuring the service met its business plan targets with a successful roll-out following going live in November 2001. This work has now enabled the new permanent staffing team to take over the process and to continue development in line throughout this period.
I have found Simon's approach to be sound, down to earth and he has demonstrated a clear understanding and commitment to my department and its business goals. At times this has been immensely challenging but he has developed good relationships with staff and managers and conscientiously worked to achieve the objectives set.
Elaine Elkington Director of Housing - London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Simon is respected by his staff and peers throughout Northavon. He has the ability to extract the best from his team by personal example and effective delegation. Words that spring to mind in assessing his management qualities are enthusiasm, imagination and openness
John Massie - Director of Finance - Northavon District Council
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