Swindon Partnership Board

After a brief career in high street banking, Peter Baxter has enjoyed nearly 30 years in the fire service. He is the Assistant Chief Fire Officer in Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service accountable for their wide range of preventative and operational services.

Peter is also responsible for relationships with other partner agencies, and for much of the organisational development work that has shaped the service in the last three years.

Peter has been involved with Local Area Agreements from their inception, and sits on Strategic Boards in both the County and the Borough. He is the Community Safety workstream Chair for the SW Region of the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA), bringing together his peers from 5 regional fire authorities and is keen to promote the added value that fire and rescue services can bring to wider community development issues.

Learning and Skills Council Wiltshire and Swindon.

Cllr Roderick Bluh Leader of Swindon Borough Council.  

Rod is a qualified Chartered Accountant and set up his own practice in 1981. Moved to Reading to become a partner in a Chartered Accountancy firm in 1987- relocating to Swindon in 2001 to open a branch here.  Rod was elected to Swindon Borough Council in June 2004.  Elected to Cabinet in 2005..with responsibilities for Economic Development, Regeneration & Development Issues.  In May 2006 he was voted in as Leader of the Council

Gavin Jones, Chief Executive of Swindon Borough Council.

Gavin joined SBC in early 2004, having previously worked in a variety of different market sectors and functions within the private sector. His career started with BT in Swindon within IT. From here he moved to the TSB Trust Company and then onto Galileo International, where he was Business Development Director for Europe Middle East and Africa. Prior to SBC, Gavin worked for SITA (a  Global airline and telecommunications provider) as Vice President for Customer Services and Marketing with global responsibilities .

Although having worked abroad for a number of years, Gavin was brought up in Purton and has lived near or in the Borough for most of his life.

Rikki Hunt is an experienced Chief Executive in both start-ups and turnarounds, who has led major organisations in Retail and Technologies sectors.

He was Director and Chairman of Swindon Town Football Club for 9 years, is a Fellow of the institute of Directors, holds a Diploma in company Direction and has authored a book published by Gower entitled "Creating a Thinking Organisation"

His current business interests are smartmobilesolutions working in the mobile marketing and gaming sector, huntforit.com the online auction site and nineretail a designer fashion boutique in Old Town Swindon. He is also a non exec Director of Swindon Mortgages ltd.

Rikki, as chair of the Economic Development and Enterprise Block brings a wealth of business acumen from his experience as a local business leader in Swindon.

Hilary Neal graduated from Bristol University in the 1970s with an honours degree in French and joined the administrative Civil Service as a graduate trainee.  Most of her career has been spent in Whitehall, but in 1991 she returned to Bristol to join the then DOE’s Directorate of Rural Affairs.

A career civil servant with a background in the development and administration of policy, including housing, inner cities regeneration, the maintenance of historic buildings and the conservation of wildlife and biodiversity.  She has worked with Ministers, local authorities and non-governmental organisations, other Governments, the European Commission and international bodies.  the Government Office for the South West in July 2004 as Deputy Director, Planning, covering the range of GOSW responsibilities for spatial planning in the Region.  In January 2007 appointed as Deputy Regional Director for the West of England and Swindon and for transport across the South West.  This is a new Directorate which includes responsibility for helping manage the Government’s relationships with two of the most significant places in the South West.

Oct 2008: update: Voluntary Action Swindon has a vacancy for the Chief Executive Officer  VAS represents the voluntary sector on the Partnership Board.  By using the Voluntary & Community Forum, Voluntary News (newsletter of Voluntary Action Swindon) and the membership database of Voluntary Action Swindon, Voluntary Action Swindon informs the voluntary and community sector of the latest development and progress of the Local Area Agreement.   Raising issues, concerns and recommendations from the voluntary and community sector on the 19 outcomes of the Local Area Agreement will be his key task at the Partnership Board meetings.  Chris also chairs the Swindon Compact Working Group to create the Swindon Compact and the five Codes of Practice – Funding, Consultation, Volunteering, Community Groups and Black & Minority Ethnic Groups.

John Gilbert commenced his role of Group Director, Children’s Services at the beginning of April 2008.  John has worked in local government circa 26 years with his most recent role was at Telford & Wrekin Council where he had the responsibility for the full range of children and young people’s services within this portfolio, ranging from Early Years, Integrated Childcare, Involving & Consulting Young People Services, Connexions4Youth and all of the Education Inclusion Services such as Education Welfare, Educational Psychology Service, Learning Support Advisory Teachers, Behaviour Support Team, Pathways Tuition Service (Pupil Referral Unit), Sensory Inclusion Service, etc.

John was also the lead officer for Telford & Wrekin concerning the joint trailblazing IRT/ISA programme, Budget Holding Lead Professional pathfinder, Children’s Trust, (which focussed on joint commissioning) and Extended Schools.  

John was also the lead officer in the formulation of the naturally acclaimed School and Community Clusters, which has created a geographical framework for delivery multi-agency, ‘joined up’ services within communities, in order to drive forward the change for children agenda. This ‘whole system change’ has been the bedrock of Telford & Wrekin, gaining a number of Beacon Awards for Children’s Services such as ‘Integrated Children’s Services’; ‘Early Intervention – Children at Risk’; Peer Mentoring – which focuses on outcomes/results based accountability.

Tony Bray, Area Director, Bournemouth, Dorset, Poole, Swindon and Wiltshire, South West of England Regional Development Agency.

Tony took up his current post in November 2007, having previously worked at East of England Development Agency, where as Head of Development he was responsible for sponsoring major physical regeneration projects and the region's regeneration partnerships.  This included being a board member and company director of urban regeneration companies in Southend and Peterborough.

His career started in the oil and gas industry; supporting the exploration and development of energy reserves in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  This was followed by a move into local government economic development and regeneration, with local authorities in the South East, leading to a secondment to Defra where he was responsible for the devolution of economic development and rural regeneration activities to Government Offices for the Regions and RDAs.

Celia Carrington is Deputy Chief Executive and Group Director, Environment and Regeneration at Swindon Borough Council.  She is responsible for overseeing Swindon's long term growth and the regeneration of the town centre.  Her span of control includes planning, transport, economic development, culture and environment and health.  Prior to joining the local government world in September 2003, Celia worked for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the Government Office for the South West, where she held a number of different posts including, Director for Local Government, Housing and Planning; Director of Corporate Services; Decisions Officer on behalf of the Secretary of State for major planning appeals; and was involved in the setting up of the Bristol Development Corporation.  Celia began her Civil Service career in the Diplomatic Service and spent five years in a range of posts including a two year posting to Venezuela.

Celia is a Director of Swindon Cultural Partnership and a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s Planning Committee.

Diana Fulbrook

Diana has been Chief Officer of Wiltshire Probation Area which includes Swindon, since the Probation Service was nationalised in 2001.  She was an Assistant Chief in Warwickshire and before that worked for many years in Hereford & Worcester.  Diana has spent all her working life in Probation and has always seen the importance of working closely within partnerships in order to achieve the best outcomes.  

Diana is also a member of the Parole Board and is an appointed member of their Management Board.  This gives her a unique insight into the management of high risk offenders and she is the public protection lead for the new national probation professional organisation being launched at the end of November 2008 – the Probation Chiefs Association.  Diana sees the importance of the criminal justice system working effectively together and this is reinforced through her role as Chair of the Wiltshire Criminal Justice Board, she has been instrumental in the Swindon Community Safety Partnership recently becoming a member of this Board.  

Diana was appointed as an Honorary Lay Canon at Salisbury Cathedral, is involved with two schools in her home area as a Governor/Trustee, and in her spare time sings in a choir and takes an active interest in her new grandson.