Senior Officer at the County Council to take up New Role

Jim Savege, Deputy Corporate Director (Human Resources) for Staffordshire County Council has announced that he has accepted a promotion at another local authority.

Jim will leave the county council in November 2007 to join Cumbria County Council as the new Corporate Director, Human Resources and Organisational Development.

Working for Staffordshire County Council was his first senior role in local government and he has been at the authority since October 2002. Prior to this Jim was a Director of a transformation and change management consultancy, working with large organisations across a number of sectors in restructuring, large scale organisational change and mergers.

During his time at the county council, he became nationally recognised for his innovative leadership in working towards the implementation of the Government's Single Status (Job Evaluation) programme and worked in this area with colleagues on a national scale.

Commenting on Jim's pending departure, Nigel Pursey, Chief Executive for Staffordshire County Council, said:

Our loss is most certainly Cumbria's gain. Jim has made a great contribution to the county council during his time with us. In terms of our workforce, he has steered us through a significant period of change and his professional and personal commitment to the authority has been rock solid at all times. I wish Jim well in his new role.

Cllr. John Taylor, Leader of Staffordshire County Council, said:

Jim has done an admirable job at the county council and I know his expertise and skills will be a significant coup for Cumbria.

Speaking about his departure from the county council and his new role, Jim said:

I have enjoyed my time at the county council immensely and will be sad to leave, but this new role is something I could not turn down. We have a fantastic HR team here and I am extremely pleased about the progress we have all made in the last five years. Staffordshire County Council was my first experience of local government and I have very much enjoyed working, not only with my colleagues, but also with elected members from all political sides.

I am looking forward to the new challenges at Cumbria and will work to achieve their ambitious programme of service transformation and improvement. In particular, I look forward to helping to work with their partners and the community across Cumbria in helping to continue service improvements.