Andrea Hill

Andrea Hill was Suffolk County Council's Chief Executive from March 2008 to July 2011, when she left the authority by mutual agreement. During that time she was the subject of intense local and national media interest, starting with the controversy of her salary of £218,592 - approximately £70,000 more than both her predecessor and the Prime Minister.[1]

Early career

Hill attended The Sandon School, Sandon, Chelmsford, Essex and then studied Public Administration at Birmingham University and followed her father, an Essex County Council officer, into local government. Her first post was as a management trainee at Thurrock Council in the 1980s, followed by Director of Communications and Policy Development at North Hertfordshire. In the mid-1990s she was Assistant Chief Executive at Cambridge City Council and by 2001 she had gained her first chief officer post at Colchester District Council aged 37 on a salary of £85,000.[2] Among her achievements there was a £1.5 billion PFI contract for a new army garrison.[3]

County council CEO

In August 2004 Hill became Chief Executive of Bedfordshire County Council. During her three years tenure it moved from two to three stars in the Audit Commission's ratings, and was described by them as one of twenty "strongly improving" authorities in the country. She was described as a "tough, effective and single-minded" administrator, and according to The Telegraph was nicknamed "The Ice Queen". The same source claims she only dealt with group leaders rather than back-bench councillors and was likely to correct anyone who did not pronounce her name "Arndrea". After the authority lost out in a unitary council reorganisation it challenged the ruling, at considerable cost in legal fees, despite a previous agreement by all the competing councils that they would accept their fate. The Telegraph speculated that Hill may have been behind this challenge.[4]

Suffolk county council

Hill was appointed Chief Executive of Suffolk County Council in March 2008 at the age of 44 on a salary of £218,592. She was a powerful and vocal advocate of the emerging "New Strategic Direction" of outsourcing council functions, which became an exemplar for ministers. However, as the cuts of 2010/11 began to loom ever closer, so the media interest in Hill increased, with headlines about her rather than the council.[5] By April 2011 Andrea Hill wrote her side of the controversy in the council's house magazine: Inside SCC.[6] But by then the council's new direction had become increasingly distrusted by elected members, who threw it out with the election of Mark Bee as the replacement council leader for Jeremy Pembroke.

That may have sealed Andrea Hill's fate. In July 2011 (aged 47) she received a year's salary as pay-off for relinquishing her post, following a "whistle-blowing" enquiry that exonerated her of any wrongdoing.[7] In October 2011 she was replaced by Deborah Cadman OBE.[8]

Subsequently

Ms Hill subsequently took a sabbatical role as a yachting holiday flotilla hostess in the Virgin Islands.

References

  1. ↑ Daily Express (express.co.uk) 22 March 2011
  2. ↑ The Guardian (guardian.co.uk) 19 September 2001
  3. ↑ bbc.co.uk 10 March 2008
  4. ↑ The Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk) 4 October 2008 ; bedfordtoday.co.uk 27 April 2004
  5. ↑ Crackdown on council fat cats
  6. ↑ "So let me tell you the truth about the recent stories: those 'vanity' photographs; my training; the trips to America with BT. I didn't spend £1,500 of taxpayers money on photographs of myself. The Council did pay a photographer for several photographic assignments, but the portraits cost £900 and were for 17 different people. So the per capita cost was £53. And they weren't shot in a studio as some of the papers have claimed, but in the corridors of Endeavour House. And they were taken on 25 June 2009 at a time when we weren't having to cut services. The Council has a licence to publish them so we don't have to pay the photographer to use them. So what's the story about my training? The Council has spent £12,075 + VAT on coaching for me over the past 3 years. This training has been agreed with councillors are part of my annual appraisal and I have found it incredibly helpful in helping me do a tough job in a complex environment. Sol, my coach, isn't a 'lifestyle guru' as the papers claim. Despite what the Daily Telegraph reports, I didn't "convince voters to pay £400,000 for her psychology sessions". The fact behind the story is that the Council spent £400,000 on leadership training for over 400 staff over 2 years before any spending cuts were being considered. And many of those 400 people have thanked me, on behalf of the Council, because the training was the best they had ever received. Ask them if they thought it was 'psychobabble' as the newspapers like to print - and I can assure you Paul McKenna was nowhere in sight. So what about the two trips to America with BT have they compromised my judgement? In 2008 I did go to both Boston and San Francisco as part of a training programme sponsored by BT. So did 30 other public sector Chief Executives. So too did my predecessor a few years before me and so too have 4 other council Chief Executives or Chief Constables from Suffolk. Not a penny of my trip was funded by taxpayers - not the course, or flights, or hotels, or mileage, or meals or even a cup of coffee. And yes my husband and one of my sons came to join me one weekend - at my personal expense, not charged to BT, not charged to the taxpayer. Has it clouded my judgement in relation to BT? No it hasn't: I have just negotiated £4m of efficiencies and cost reductions in our contract charge this year. And what about how I got the job? Some of the reporting seems to imply something underhand happened. I have no idea why. I applied for the job in open competition - anyone in the country with the right qualifications and experience could have applied. I was interviewed and tested as were other candidates. I won the job fairly."
  7. ↑ The Guardian (guardian.co.uk) 5 May 2011 ; The daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk) 4 July 2011
  8. ↑ East Anglian Daily Times 20 Oct 2001

Andrea Hill attended The Sandon School, Sandon, Chelmsford, Essex

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