Update from Chief Executive Mark Wynn, 6 May 2025
Hello everyone,
Last week, I was the Returning Officer for the county council elections. One of my roles was to announce the results of each poll. This was certainly not what I expected to be doing when I first started my role in local government all those years ago!
Looking forward this month as an Executive Leadership Team, we will be signing off all of our directorate business plans. I want to thank everyone that has helped us to develop these. I also have the employee conference, which I will talk about later and will be visiting our Customer Access Service, Fleet Services and Curden Highways depot. If you would like me to visit your service, please email internal.communications@lancashire.gov.uk, they will arrange this for me.
Election next steps
The county council election was held on Thursday, 1 May, and the results were announced on Friday. You can view the full results on our election results website.
All 84 seats on the council were up for election, covering the whole Lancashire County Council area. Overall, the results are as follows:
- Reform won 53 seats
- Conservatives won 8 seats
- Independents won 7 seats
- Labour won 5 seats
- Liberal Democrats won 5 seats
- Green won 4 seats
- Our West Lancashire won 2 seats
This means Reform has won a majority and gained control of the council.
Reform will now form an administration and choose a Leader who will then choose a Cabinet. These positions will be formally announced at Full Council on Thursday 22 May, when Chairs of committees and other appointments will also be made.
The Executive Leadership Team and I will work closely with the new Reform administration as they set their objectives and begin their work, and we will support both new and returning county councillors from all parties as they start their terms of office.
For more information about the role of county councillors and how to work with them, read the Think Councillor guide on the intranet.
I would also like to congratulate each of our newly elected county councillors.
Employee conference
I will be hosting our annual employee conference at 2 pm on 14 May at County Hall in Preston.
It would be great to see as many of you in person as possible. There will be a wide variety of stands outside the council chamber in the Assembly Hall, including representatives from our employee networks, Public Health and apprenticeships team, to name a few. I and other directorate representatives will also be available to chat if you would like.
You can book a space to attend in person using our online booking system book your place here.
This session will include an update on Local Government Reorganisation, the county council election results, the relaunch of our employee networks and updates from each directorate on our priorities for the year ahead.
You don't need to book a space to watch the session online. A link to join the session will be available on staff news on 14 May.
If you would like to email a question to be asked on your behalf or anonymously, please email internal.communications@lancashire.gov.uk.
Senior leadership updates
We are currently recruiting for my former role, Executive Director of Resources and the Director of Finance. You may be aware that Noel O'Neil left as Interim Director of Finance at the end of March, and we have appointed Julie Crellin as Interim Director of Finance until our recruitment is complete. I am sure you will give Julie a warm Lancashire welcome.
You may remember that following the retirement of Louise Taylor, our Director of Public Health Dr. Sakthi Karunanithi has been instrumental in working with the Integrated Care Board and place-based partners to shape future partnership arrangements. I want to pass on my thanks to Sakthi for his collaborative work during this time and as we maintain close ties with the Integrated Care Board for Lancashire, Jane Scattergood from the NHS will provide interim cover for some of the duties previously covered by Louise.
Shout outs
I wanted to end my email with a few shout outs.
Well done to everyone involved in the recent Family Safeguarding Celebration Event. The event was an opportunity for people working in Family Safeguarding to reflect on their achievements since the model began in 2021.
I think it is safe (hopefully) to say that our gritters have been put away until later in the year. I want to thank our Highways Service for keeping our roads safe during the wintery weather.
I would like to thank our Democratic Services, Digital Services, The Exchange, and Communications and Public Relations Service for their hard work before and on election day. I know that a lot of effort and planning went into ensuring the day ran smoothly. I am incredibly proud of the dedication and professionalism shown by everyone involved.
I am often blown away by the volume of the shoutouts that are recorded on the intranet, and it is great to see that so many of you take the time to recognise the great work that you do. I know that as such a large organisation it may often feel that your efforts go unnoticed, but you are helping the most vulnerable people in Lancashire. No matter what our role, each of us impacts this.
If you have any stories that you would like to share with us, please email the team that coordinates this for me internal.communications@lancashire.gov.uk.
Have a great week,
Mark