Dave Clark is an experienced Local Government Transformation Adviser and Portfolio Programme Manager. He has 38 years’ experience in local government, 25 of which have been focused around a transformational change agenda. For the last 20 years, he has been operating at management group level and from 2013 at Service Head level. He specialises in financial management, risk management and programmes and project management. He is an experienced programme manager and has implemented multi-disciplined complex business change programmes that have delivered savings, efficiencies and service improvements.

Major projects and achievements delivered include:

• Multiple business transformational programmes across a complex business environment resulting in the saving of over £100m. These savings straddled the various Councils’ main business functions and required a multi-disciplinary approach, strong operational knowledge and experience of numerous departmental areas. Fundamental to the delivery was the implementation of the governance arrangements which he was also responsible for implementing.
• Successfully supporting the design and implementation of programme support offices for a number of local authorities including Lewisham, Hillingdon Croydon and Tower Hamlets.
• Development of numerous business cases, budgets, resource plans and planning for overall programmes and individual projects. Including a wide variety of Programme and project management templates covering all arears within the range of Time, Cost and Quality.
• Delivery of Hillingdon Borough Council’s Legal Services Contract, (as a fee earner for Lewisham Borough Council). He successfully worked with the Deputy Borough Solicitor of Hillingdon B.C.  in the capacity of a consultant, to implement key proposals arising from the Best Value Review of their Legal Services Department. This included market testing, restructuring and development of public private partnerships.
• Co-authoring the first Local Government guide on project management, a book entitled ‘Lewisham’s Standard for Project Management’, which established best practice across the London Borough of Lewisham in project management methods and techniques and guidelines for all aspects of the process of managing change, according to nationally recognised standards. The Guidelines specified the skills required to effectively project manage, through to initiating the project, the techniques of project planning and reporting, and how to measure success and close a project. To ensure compliance he ensured that the “standard” was incorporated in Financial Regulations.
• Working with the District Auditor and Department of Health to successfully mitigate the risk of claw back on spend relating to various grants including, Aids Support, Section 28a, Quality Protects and Preserved Rights.
• Negotiating with a number of Government Departments on a variety of multi-funded programmes and projects, to develop and implement recovery processes to mitigate the risk of non-compliance and clawback. This process has included reviewing in detail the in-year delivery plans and associated budgets with the funding partner, and delivering a number of quick wins within a very constrained time line.
• Programme managing implementation of a number of recommendations from the Best Value Review that successfully restructured Social Services into Adults and Children’s Services, jointly working with a number of Health Service partners.
• Designing and introducing a new computerised Debtors System, which enabled the more efficient use of resources.
• Preparation of proposals for East Sussex County Council for reduction in costs within the Education Agency Budget.

David worked with the London Borough Tower Hamlets from 2005 to 2016, with responsibilities for external funding, programmes and business assurance, prior to taking up the position of Acting Head of Resources.  Prior to this he held a number of positions with the London Borough Lewisham and with Hastings Borough Council.