Paul O'Brien

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.

Delivering sustainable local growth

January 26th, 2012 by Paul O'Brien

With recent announcements on feed in tariffs for solar photovoltaics creating such controversy, many could have been forgiven for believing the opportunity for local government to deliver local growth through its response to climate change had gone. From what I have seen in councils around the country, this is far fr...

Tough times for local government in 2012

January 12th, 2012 by Paul O'Brien

If local government thought 2011 was tough, 2012 may be about to get a whole lot tougher. With an estimated 145,000 job losses in councils over the previous 12 months, some may have thought the heavy lifting had been done. However, my fear is that whilst many have made significant progress in efficiency pr...

Green light for better asset management

January 6th, 2012 by Paul O'Brien

APSE’s first strategic forum of the New Year took place last night on the theme of energy efficiency in asset management. Guest speaker was David Kilduff, Head of the Commercial Group at Walker Morris Solicitors, who gave an overview of the issues facing local government in this area.These events are used as a...

Holding democracy dear

November 30th, 2011 by Paul O'Brien

Many local authorities are considering the alternative models of service delivery that exist as part of their on-going plans to deal with the financial austerity they face over coming years. Issues that should be close to the top of any list when weighing up the pros and cons of each option are governance...

Insourcing Bradford’s Education Services

November 15th, 2011 by Paul O'Brien

I recently met with colleagues from Bradford Council to discuss how they had been involved in Insourcing the City’s Education Services from Serco. 1,300 staff were transferred back to the authority in July this year from a £53m per annum contract.Despite having written about hundreds of examples of ...

A pause before feeding on renewables recommences

November 13th, 2011 by Paul O'Brien

Although many Armageddon prophecies have been written about the coalition Government’s proposed cut to Feed in Tariffs for solar PV and its impact on the wider renewables agenda, I have to say that I don’t quite buy this vision of the future.Whilst I am as disappointed as everyone else at the proposed r...

Expanding your competitive edge

October 19th, 2011 by Paul O'Brien

Now that we are over halfway through the financial year, more and more councils are revisiting plans they have made to generate efficiency savings to see if they will stack up and achieve their desired outcome for this year and beyond.At APSE, we have noticed an upsurge in enquiries about how you ma...

Alternative models of service delivery - a price worth paying?

September 14th, 2011 by Paul O'Brien

A huge debate is taking place at present about which are the best models available to divest public services through. I have got to say I remain to be convinced. Whatever service options local authorities decide to pursue in future the benchmark against which to appraise the options is the existing in-hou...

The housing crisis is back

September 4th, 2011 by Paul O'Brien

The housing crisis is back. For many in local government dealing with the consequences of homelessness, overcrowding and poor stock condition, it has never really gone away. The difference is that the problem is now reaching previously untouched sectors of society – and it's about to get worse.Home ...

Proof of delivery?

August 17th, 2011 by Paul O'Brien

Many extravagant claims have been made about the potential benefits that co-operatives and mutuals could bring as service delivery vehicles for the provision of local public services. However, when the evidence is examined in detail do these claims stand the test of scrutiny? This is what the latest res...