Anna Earnshaw, the new Chief Executive of the future West Northamptonshire Council, was named as the Corporate Director of the Year during the Municipal Journal (MJ) 2020 awards this month.
The MJ is the UK’s leading weekly magazine for the public sector and related industries and organises one of the most highly respected annual awards within local government.
Winners were announced during a virtual awards ceremony on Friday, 2 October where Anna received recognition for her work at Northants County Council (NCC) as Director of Adult Social Care (ASC) and Deputy Chief Executive.
Anna started her new role as Chief Executive of the new unitary authority on Thursday, 1 October.
Cllr Ian McCord, Leader, West Northants Shadow Authority, said: “When we appointed Anna, I said she was the best of the best. It’s very pleasing to see that opinion confirmed by a panel of industry experts.
“Anna has done some amazing things at NCC. While most of the transformation work on the new council will take place after day one, her former directorate are ending a pilot stage and getting ready to launch a brand-new adult social care service this month.
“I have congratulated Anna personally, but I think the real winners here are the people of West Northants who can have confidence that the person in charge of their local services is highly capable and widely respected by her peers.”
Councillor Ian Morris, Northamptonshire County Council cabinet member for adult social care said: “This is extremely well deserved award for Anna, she has been an integral part of the county council’s journey over the past few years and has worked very hard within adult social care to improve services for the people that use them. I am pleased she will be continuing this excellent work as chief executive of the new West Northants Council.”
Anna said: “It’s a real honour to receive this award from such a respected group, and to be nominated alongside such brilliant public servants. It’s not why we sign up to the jobs we do, but I was delighted when my name was called out and the recognition it brings for us as an area and all our Council staff.
“While I have been the leader of an adults’ service doing some great work to improve resident outcomes, these successes are thanks to dedicated frontline workers and senior staff who work tirelessly to do the very best they can for people across Northamptonshire.”
On Monday, 19 October NCC will launch a new Adult Social Care services with new West and North Unitary teams working in very different ways and based in new Community Hubs spread throughout the county.
The launch comes following two successful pilots Hubs in Kingsthorpe and Corby and bring together a range of support services under one roof and embeds social work staff in their communities.
Central to the new model is the ‘Three Conversations’ approach which aims to move away from the traditional ‘assessment for services’ and hand-offs and put people at the heart of what we do, focusing on what the person can do and treating people as the experts in their own lives.
