Liz Jones talks about her time with North East Lincolnshire Council

WHEN Liz Jones joined North East Lincolnshire Council in 2004, the authority was in turmoil.

There had been a public interest report about the state of its finances, and nobody had any real idea how deep the problems ran.

Liz recalls joining a local authority in a "perilous state" and says work to build a solid foundation for the future began immediately.

She explains: "Just as I started, the chief executive at the time, left. Coupled with the fact that the finances were not clear and there was no vision for the future of the authority, it was a difficult time.

"The first step was to find out exactly what the financial position was and to clarify how much money we had to work with.

"Then, once we had a stable foundation to build on, we began re-training the staff in different ways of working so that they could be as efficient as possible.

"We also worked out what our key focuses would be and began to work towards them. Prior to that, a lot of things had been promised that never came to fruition and we wanted to deliver. The third stage was to develop our partnership working and communicate to the public that the authority was not a monolith structure but that we work with agencies like the police and NHS to provide the best possible services."

Despite having an obvious affinity for life in the public sector, Liz's career has seen her take on a diverse range of roles.

Born in Doncaster, she read geography at the University of Birmingham before spending two years teaching in Gambia with Voluntary Service Overseas.

A keen hockey player, she was drawn to Birmingham by the sports facilities, and later played for both Birmingham University and England Universities teams.

On her return from Africa, she began training as an accountant in Birmingham before deciding teaching was the job for her and qualifying from Exeter University.

She returned to the Midlands to begin her time as a teacher and worked her way up to head of geography at a school, before joining Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council as education officer. From there, she became area education manager for North Yorkshire and assistant director of education for City Of York. During the last Labour government, Liz joined the Audit Commission, in Leeds, to take a lead role in the implementation of the "best value" initiative, which saw local authorities inspected to ensure they were providing value-for-money.

She explained: "I was lead inspector and so I got to know the councils across the north of England well.

"My role was to go in and give advice but I never got to see the changes through. I would tell them what to do and then walk away.

"It got to the stage where I wanted to work through the issues, so when the new directorate came up in North East Lincolnshire, it seemed like the perfect challenge."

She joined North East Lincolnshire Council as executive director of policy, performance and development in 2004 and became deputy chief executive in 2007.

Over the years she says there have been key changes in the way the authority works.

"When I came here, local governments did things to people, whereas now they work with people," she recalls.

"Nowadays there is far more interaction between agencies and the boundaries between services are more fluid. Everybody is working together, which is especially important with the recession and the limited amount of money there is available."

Liz is set to leave the authority today to enter semi-retirement.

Reflecting on her time in North East Lincolnshire, she said: "I'm confident now that the council has a sound base; it's just a case of it continuing to reinvent itself and move with the times. It has been the people who I have worked with over the years that have made the job for me. They are immensely hard working and committed to not only trying to help the council, but to helping local people too."