9 minute read
STEPHEN YOUNG
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF HALTON BOROUGH COUNCIL FROM 1ST APRIL 2022
We were lucky enough to be granted an interview with the incoming Chief Executive of Halton Borough Council even before he started! We wanted to find out a little bit about Stephen and what Art and Culture mean to him.
Hello Stephen! Welcome to Halton! Could give us a bit of information about your new position at HBC because some of our readers might not have a clue about what Chief Executive means.
SY: Yeah, sure. So I'm joining on the first of April to become the chief executive of Halton Borough Council. So ultimately, I would be what they call the head of service or responsible for all the services that the council provides. So things from ensuring the parks are in good order, and the highways are fit to drive on, to supporting schools in delivering education, looked after children and providing services to elderly people. It's the full range of services. And right across the borough. As part of that role, we've got a key role to play right across the Liverpool City Region. Working with the other councils across Merseyside, and working with the other councils on the Cheshire side of the border. So it's quite a wide remit.
SC: It certainly is! You've got some links with arts and culture already. So tell us a little bit about how you're connected with arts and culture yourself.
SY: Yeah, I have a few connections really. So outside of work, I sit on the board of a theatre in Bolton, a producing Theatre. It produces plays, it produces outreach work, it goes out into the local community, it does all kinds of drama, it does a range of different things using culture as kind of a medium to go out into the community and improve people's lives. When I first joined the board, I assumed that theatre was quite a middle-class pastime and rather highbrow but it's not at all. A lot of the plays that they do in the Octagon, they're all professionally produced plays, but they are about the local community, about people's lives. They've been able to use that to reach out to people and people particularly in deprived areas, to help them get into art and see that as a potential career. They've supported the local university in terms of doing degrees. So there's a range of ways in which you can use art and culture to reach out to the community, particularly those hard-to-reach members of the community and engage them in a particular project. I think a lot of the time that people who benefit from those kinds of services don't necessarily at the start think art or culture is something for them, but it really can improve people's lives, and create jobs. Those are the things that we're here trying to do.
SC: How did you get into working in local authorities?
SC: I've been doing this for a long time now feels like forever. So I've been 27 years working in local government and I started when I needed it, but it was very kind of basic at the start. I needed a job, I'd finished full-time education, and I need the opportunity to work. So I started my local council at the very bottom; a grade one, which is the lowest grade that we kind of pay on a temporary one-year contract. It was during that time, I realized quite quickly that the public sector and local government particularly have a really important role to improve people's lives. I realised during the year that perhaps I wanted to have a career in local government. I then got a permanent job working at the time for Burnley council, which is where I lived and then as I got further into that, working more and more in the job that I was doing, I realised that the corporate centre, so where the chief exec works, which offers all that cultural services is where I really wanted to be.
That's what makes the biggest improvement to people's lives. I then moved from Burnley to work for Bolton, Oldham back to Bolton, and then Lancashire. Over that period of time, I've done quite a lot of things to support and improve those communities. My expertise is in economic development. What we've also been really good at doing in Lancashire, which I want to do with Halton as well is not just create these opportunities where you get people coming across the border from Manchester to get the jobs, we also use the opportunity to say to people creating these opportunities, where are the opportunities for young people in Halton? Where are the opportunities for girls who want to get into engineering, to create some apprenticeships to enable girls to get into engineering or children who were looked after by the local authority? You know, certainly, we've done a lot of this in Lancashire. I want you to give apprenticeships to people who are looked after by the local authority to give them those opportunities. There are lots of things I think the public sector can do and I certainly want to do in Halton. We're bringing forward those new economic developments, job creation, that wealth creation, to ensure that the opportunities that we create are opportunities that people who live in the borough can really benefit from.
SC: We did an interview with a young asylum seeker Ahmad, he was classed as a looked-after child, by the authority, he was talking about his culture and how he's managed to sort of survive in this unknown climate for himself. The Studio have pretty strong links with them looked after children and the care leavers team.
SY: You mentioned asylum seekers and you know, obviously with what's happening at the moment in Ukraine, it’s obviously, hugely important. The council and in fact all communities across the United Kingdom I think, have a moral obligation to welcome those people into our country. You’re right, there's a massive cultural thing associated with that. So people come from other countries with their cultures and integrate into our culture.
“…to ensure that the opportunities hat we create are opportunities that people who live in the borough can really benefit from.”
SC: Have you seen anything during Halton’s borough of Culture that's kind of struck a chord with you culturally and that you'd want to build on maybe?
SY: To be fair, I did miss it as I joined after that. So it wasn't something that I'd seen. But I am friends with a number of people working in Knowsley, they are now picking up the mantle [Borough of Culture] And I've seen some of their stuff. It’ll certainly be one of the things I'm going to be looking to see when I join, some of the cultural things that take place. I'm also interested in seeing the theatre. I've seen quite a bit of stuff when I was researching for the interview, one of the tricks that somebody told me years ago, please go on YouTube, and look at the council's YouTube channel. You'll see a lot of stuff that they're doing and proud of and they want to promote. So I watched a number of videos on there. One of those was about the theatre that the council runs [The Brindley] and some of the productions that they're doing. So that's something I'm definitely looking forward to seeing.
“You get to know each other and you get to know local communities. I think those are massively important.”
SC: Yeah, there is still a bit of a divide with the bridges, you know but we do support The Brindley, the Studio work quite closely with their technicians and offer a very small-scale alternative in terms of accessible theatre. So I think we're quite lucky in the borough that we've got this large-scale venue in Runcorn, with big theatre shows and then sort of much smaller shows in a community space over here in Widnes.
SY: I think I wouldn’t underplay that, it’s massive. When you think about people coming together in groups, they come together around sport, they'll come together around cultural events that you've described, you know, they'll come together around Christmas, those are the things that get us all out and get us all together. You get to know each other and you get to know local communities. I think those are massively important.
SC :Do you have any plans for Cultural development in Halton?
SY: As I've said, I think culture and cultural events are really important It's a great way to bring communities together. I think that's one of the areas that perhaps we can build on, is really looking at that kind of cultural offering and not just highbrow theatre.
So again, from previous lives, when I was at Bolton, we did a big food and drink festival every year, that was huge, it attracted hundreds of 1000s of people into the town. That was a big cultural offer around food around celebrating different foods from different parts of the world. Things like that, obviously, really, really important. Then you've got things like celebrating cultural events like Christmas, Christmas light switch on, Easter, all different religious festivals, again, which I think are culturally very important. I want to spend quite a bit of time looking at what already takes place there, but trying to build on it. Absolutely
SY: Can I ask you a question? So ultimately, I'm going to come and be the Chief Executive of the Council. In effect, I work for you. So what do you want to see me do?
SC: ( Elkie) I think I'd love to see lots of things with young people, especially in school, I think I've been very lucky to find the local people outside of school. [Serial Culture] SY: So have you seen a decline in art and art and cultural activities? Do you mean in favour of maths and English? SC (Elkie) Yeah, well, I don't know. I don't know if it's a decline. Really. I've never seen it before I guess, in primary school, it's very important that you learn a lot of things, but definitely, in secondary school, it's not really seen as important. SC: What was your first exposure to, or experience of art? SY: I think it was in school. So when I was at school many, many, many, many, many years ago, I can remember, the school produced a large mural outside and I can remember that, and it was quite bright. I mean, it was done 2 professionally, and it was just celebrating all the different elements of that particular community. I remember vividly, I'm going back a long time now, but I'd vividly remember the colours being really bright and vibrant. I remember the guy that did it, each group coloured a bit of it in. It was certainly there for the whole time I was at that particular school.
SC: Many thanks to Stephen Young for the interview, we wish him well in his role and look forward to experiencing culture alongside him in Halton soon.
