“It's an exciting time to join the council. Change is on the tip of everybody’s tongue, and you can be a core part of the process. Local authorities are changing – now is the time to be a part of it."
Facilities Management are the central link for everything that happens within WCC buildings and they liaise with all departments. John Turpin leads the team and the WCC buildings across the county and is responsible for cleaning and caretaking, through to the security, maintenance and alarm and water management systems. His team are also required to prioritise compliance across all sites for issues such as legionella and asbestos.
John joined as a contractor in June of 2020 to help support the team he now manages. John said: “When I joined the organisation, we were very much in COVID-19 response mode. Joining during this emergency situation was exciting, there was lots of change and learning to be done. When I was contracting, I loved the flexibility and ambition of the team, so I was really pleased when I was successful in securing a leadership role.”
Facilities Management responded to the pandemic in three phases:
- Closing down and securing buildings when the country first went into lockdown and employees were required to work from home.
- After the first lockdown, reopening for emergency operations only. This involved primarily resetting those settings, making sure they were compliant, clearing spaces for social distancing and providing an enhanced cleaning service.
- Towards the end of 2020, the facilities team started looking at the reinstatement of sites and bringing various services back into buildings. This involved trialling hybrid meeting rooms (having a meeting with colleagues at home and in the office), piloting team spaces and ensuring that all buildings continued to be COVID-19 secure.
John and his team were also responsible for supporting in the identification of suitable sites for COVID-19 lateral flow testing sites and setting them up. This involved working directly with the NHS, ensuring the sites were COVID-19 secure, providing signage, hand sanitising stations and robust cleaning regimes. John added: “Coordinating the lateral flow testing sites was an exciting time but setting up sites is what we’re good at so it wasn’t that different from what we do day-to-day. We had the skillsets in the team to make sure it happened quickly and efficiently.”
Prior to joining the council, John spent 18 years leading a conference and hotel business. After joining the local authority John said: “My original thoughts about the public sector were quashed as soon as I started. Joining during the pandemic I quickly learned that everyone had to be more flexible and more thoughtful in the way they work which is very different to what I thought the public sector would be.”
He added: “Coming from the private sector I thought working for the council might be restrictive, but it’s not at all. As a council we’re very open to finding different solutions and improving on services, and employees are given the opportunity to drive change.
“I really think that now is the best time to be joining a local authority because of everything that has been going on. COVID-19 has brought huge change for all organisations including the council. We really have the opportunity to shape, structure and redefine the way the council works and it’s not often you get to do that.”
The Facilities Management team make a big difference to the communities in Warwickshire, from managing buildings for the Children and Families service so that they can safely operate from them, setting up the community hubs to support those most in need during the pandemic through to reinstating youth clubs and libraries as pandemic restrictions were lifted. John and his team also make sure that all sites are as accessible as possible as all face-to-face council services are delivered from a building that his team manages.
John said: “The variety is what I enjoy most about my role. No two days are the same, one day I might be dealing with a faulty alarm system, and the next I’ll be redefining the agile working structure collaboratively with several other teams.
“Now is an opportune moment to join the council. Change is on the tip of everybody’s tongue, and you can be a core part of the decision-making process. Local authorities are changing – now is the time to be a part of it.”
It’s an exciting time to be a part of Warwickshire County Council. Our direction is clear - our people are making Warwickshire the best it can be for everyone. We know we have to continuously improve to make our direction a reality and it's our teams of dedicated people, like John and the Facilities Management team, who will make this happen.
If you want to improve at every opportunity and make a different to the lives of residents in Warwickshire, find out more about our large variety of roles at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/jobs.