Date/Time: Thursday 6 April 2017, 17.30-19.00

Venue: Partners' Room 8.10, Newcastle University Business School

There are increasing demands for public services to support citizens holistically, in recognition of the interrelated nature of health, care, housing and employment.

Key worker models proliferate as so-called troubled families or people with complex needs are recognised to benefit from sustained contact with a single individual who can guide them through the public service maze.

The public service professional is being superseded by a generalist, with good soft skills, rather than a hard set of professional competencies, and this is something we should celebrate.

The speaker is Catherine Needham, Reader in Public Policy and Public Management, University of Birmingham.

About Catherine Needham

Catherine is part based at the Health Services Management Centre, developing research around social care and policy innovation. She is also part-based in the University’s Public Services Academy, researching new approaches to public service workforce development.

Catherine’s areas of special interest include:

• personalisation and coproduction within public services
• social care reform
• workforce change in public services
• interpretive approaches to public policy