Member Spotlight: Mark Jenkinson

Who are you and what is your role?

I’m Mark Jenkinson, Assistant Director for Community Services at South Staffordshire Council. My role covers a broad range of frontline and community services, including waste and street scene, community safety, environmental health, emergency planning, and leisure. Ultimately, my role is about making sure those services are effective, financially sustainable and continue to meet the needs of our communities.

What attracted you to work in local government?

For me, it’s the opportunity to make a real difference to the place where people live. I grew up in South Staffordshire and still live in the area, so there is a real personal connection for me. The decisions we make and the services we provide affect my community as well as the wider district. That brings a real sense of responsibility, but also a lot of satisfaction when you can see the difference good local services make.

What challenges do you face in local government?

There are the ongoing financial and operational pressures that most councils face, but local government reorganisation potentially brings another significant period of change. Inevitably, that creates uncertainty around structures, services and how things will operate in the future.

At the same time, I think we need to see reorganisation as an opportunity. It gives us the chance to look again at how services are designed, remove duplication, make better use of resources and technology, and focus on what works best for residents. The challenge is managing that change while continuing to deliver good day-to-day services and not losing the local connection that is so important to our communities.

What do you value most about APSE membership/events/services?

The opportunity to learn from other councils is probably what I value most. We face many of the same pressures and challenges, particularly around finance, workforce, transformation and service delivery. APSE provides a really useful opportunity to share what works, learn from what hasn’t and understand how other councils are responding.

That becomes even more valuable during a period of significant change, when we can learn from authorities that have already transformed services or been through structural change.

What do you like most about living/working in your local council area?

One of the things I particularly value is that I live in the patch where I work and I experience many of the same services as our residents. It keeps you grounded because you don’t just see a performance report or a set of figures, you see first-hand what is working well and where things could be better.

South Staffordshire also has a strong sense of community and individual identity across its villages. I think that will become even more important as local government changes. Whatever organisational structures emerge, we need to retain that connection with individual places and communities and, ultimately, make sure we don’t lose the “local” in local government.