Hello my name is Stephen Young and I am currently the Chief Executive of Halton Borough Council, which is a unitary council on the border of Cheshire and Merseyside.
I have been lucky enough to work in Local Government now for over 29 amazing years. During this time I have been fortunate enough to work across a range of different organisational settings and with some truly inspirational people.
I started my local government career in 1995 working as a grade 1 officer in the Council Tax section of a small district council in Lancashire. During these first years I learnt a lot about councils and the work they do and it was at some point during these opening five years that my passion for the sector really began to grow.
5 years in and I took the opportunity to move onto what I still see as the most influential period of my career working for a number of larger urban Metropolitan councils across the Greater Manchester region ultimately progressing to reach Director level at Bolton MBC in 2015 were I led the environmental and regeneration services for the town. During this period of my career I was able to witness the transformational potential of regional devolution and the election of Manchester’s first elected mayor. It was also during the later part of this period I really began to think about one day becoming a CEO of a council and all that this would involve.
Following these experiences I had a few years stint in a county council before moving back into a Mayoral Combined Authority area and taking the leap into my first CEO role at Halton Council in 2022. Since 2022 I have learnt so much about different aspects of the services we provide, that I had previously not been exposed to and what it means to be a CEO and community leader.
Reflecting back more generally on the last 29 years I remain as passionate about the sector today as I ever have because I think there is no job like it, the ability to positively impact on people’s lives and the shear variety of the role as well as the people you meet is like nothing else.
I would say that without hesitation if anyone is thinking about what to do with their skills and wants to make a positive change to the local community or improving people’s lives then local government is the career for you. We provide over 700 different services impacting on everyone so whatever your passion we offer something for you !
Comments