We have developed a network of senior people to work closely with places and partnerships across the region; we also have individuals who are able to offer high quality policy expertise on strategic issues such as:
- planning
- housing
- transport
- community safety, and
- community cohesion
GOSE is accountable to Parliament through the Ministers in each of our 11 sponsor departments and, in the future, will also be accountable through our Regional Minister and through Parliamentary regional scrutiny. We report quarterly to our sponsor departments on delivery of Public Service Agreements (PSAs) in our region.
GOSE is led by a Regional Director, Colin Byrne, and a Management Board. We also consult with regional stakeholders through a Stakeholder Advisory Panel that meets quarterly.
Our directors and their responsibilities
Colin Byrne – Regional Director
Colin Byrne has re-joined GOSE after a spell as Director of the Home Information Packs Programme, a position he took up in June 07. Prior to this he was Director of Town & Country Planning in the Department for Communities and Local Government. From 2000 to 2005 he was Director for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight within the Government Office for the South East and had lead responsibility across the Office for Sustainable Communities, Land Use Planning and Housing issues.
He has worked in several Government Departments including Department of the Environment, Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, as well as spending time on secondment to the European Commission and the Health and Safety Executive.
John Scott – Deputy Regional Director, Safer and Stronger Communities
John has responsibility for Home Office policy and delivery of Crime, Drugs and anti-social behaviour, with regional responsibility for the Third Sector, Culture and Community Empowerment. He joined the Government Office in September 2004 from the National Offender Management Service implementation team. He has worked in the public sector since 1989, when he was appointed as an Assistant Chief Officer for Surrey Probation Service. In 1999 he was seconded to the Home Office to join a small team that created the National Probation Service. During 2003 he was seconded to the No. 10 Downing Street Strategy Unit to work on a review of correctional services.
Anita Luthra-Suri – Deputy Regional Director, Place and Resilience
took up her post as Deputy Regional Direction for Place, Partnerships and Performance on 10 December 2007.
Anita started her career as a Mathematics teacher in a boys’ school in Westminster and then joined further education in Southwark College. She went on to work for Paddington College (FHE) adding to her portfolio Equalities work and continued in Further Education after incorporation. Apart from teaching she held responsibilities in developing resource based learning, regeneration and community in the Paddington Basin.
In 1999 Anita left education to join Slough Borough Council as Head of Lifelong Learning, working with the local Learning Partnership, and from there she joined Berkshire Learning & Skills Council as Director of Strategy and Planning. After leaving the LSC, she went on to work for Harrow Council where she was Head of Service for Community Development until 7 December when she left to take up a new challenge at GOSE.
Howard Ewing - Deputy Regional Director, Housing and Planning
Howard joined the Government Office for the South East in January 2007 from the Department of Trade & Industry. Howard's career has focused mainly on market regulation and enterprise issues. He has worked on consumer policy, employment relations, labour markets, and small business policy. Howard was also Secretary to the Low Pay Commission and Secretary to the Inquiry into the treatment of Enemy Property during the Second World War.
Peter Craggs – Deputy Regional Director, Corporate Services
Peter has responsibility for the delivery of corporate services to 250 people working in the Government Office for the South East. This includes Human Resources, Finance, Training & Development, Facilities Management and Audit. He oversees an annual administrative budget of over £14m and has worked in the Government Office since 2001.
Peter Weston – Deputy Regional Director, Children and Learners
Peter joined the Government Office for the South East in December 2005 from his previous post in East Sussex County Council, where he was Assistant Director of the Children & Young People Division of the Children’s Services Department and also spent some time seconded to the Chief Executive’s Department of East Sussex County Council to lead work on developing the Safer and Stronger Communities aspects of the County’s Local Area Agreement.
Peter has made contributions at a national level to Child Protection and allegations against staff, to the built environment for children with special educational needs, and to Ofsted inspection reforms. Since joining the Government Office for the South East, Peter has taken a lead role on behalf of the Government Office Network for Safeguarding, contributing to policy and practice development in relation to Children in Care, Child Protection, Serious Case Review, Disability and PSA 13 – Staying Safe. He is married with two daughters.
Ian Coates - Deputy Regional Director, Strategy
Ian joined GOSE on 31 May 2006 from the Department for Education and Skills. Prior to joining DfES in November 2004, Ian worked in the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, where he worked on agendas as diverse as the regulation of electronic networks; improving the life chances of disabled people; and the costs and benefits of genetically modified crops. Ian's background is as a Government Economist.
Ian's role in GOSE includes responsibility for regional strategies and the regional implementation of the Review of Sub-National Economic Development and Regeneration (SNR). He also leads on European programmes in the region, and on the regional economic agenda, as well as taking responsibility for corporate planning, communications, analysis and stakeholder management.
Susan Stuart - Deputy Regional Director, Transport and Environment
Susan joined GOSE in March 2007. Prior to her appointment Susan was a Rail Bid Director with FirstGroup plc and was previously a Regional Director for the Strategic Rail Authority, also responsible for delivery of national accessibility and security policy.
Susan has extensive experience of private public partnerships and programme management, which she deployed in a variety of roles with KPMG and with WS Atkins. Her experience spans rail, underground, road and environmental sectors.
Dr Yvonne Doyle - Regional Director of Public Health (NHS South East Coast)
Dr Yvonne Doyle joined the NHS South East Coast as Regional Director of Public Health in August 2006. Her previous post had been with the former South East London Strategic Health Authority where she was Director of Public Health. Yvonne qualified as a doctor in Ireland in 1981 and has trained in public health, worked in the NHS, in an academic support unit and the private sector. She has a very strong track record in research with 40 peer reviewed publications and holds an honorary senior clinical lecturership at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. For the
past four years she has researched the nature of human aging - specifically what, if anything, comprises 'successful' aging - and its implications for health policy in the UK. Part of this work is leading to an MD degree.
Prof. John Newton - Regional Director of Public Health
Prof. John Newton is the Regional Director of Public Health. He was previously Head of Health Improvement with South Central SHA. Having qualified in medicine from Oxford and London, John worked in hospital medical specialities before training in public health.
He was Consultant in Public Health Medicine for the Oxford Regional Health Authority and led a team supporting the national Clinical Standards Advisory Group in the 1990s. He has also been an academic epidemiologist at the University of Oxford for eleven years and was the first CEO of UK Biobank, a large genetic epidemiology project based in Manchester.
In the NHS South Central area, he has been Director of Research and Development and Assistant Medical Director at both Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust and at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust. John retains a national role in public health information and is Honorary Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at the University of Manchester.
Bulraj Bassral – Non Executive Director and Chair of Audit Committee
Bulraj has extensive experience of work as a 'critical friend' in a consultancy capacity for improvement in local governance. His academic background includes psychology, business management & law and people & organisational development. He has experience of leading major change management projects in areas such as regeneration, social inclusion, housing, education, health & social care and youth & community.
He has developed public sector leadership strategy working at the Cabinet Office. While at the IDeA, he worked on major projects such as efficiency through business process outsourcing, peer reviews, partnership development, senior management coaching, corporate governance and probity, performance management, policy development (employment/community cohesion and strategy), beacons assessment (supporting new business), elected member development and top team/scrutiny facilitation. At present Bulraj is working as an independent consultant, and undertakes interim assignment work.
Peter Bounds – Non Executive Director
Peter Bounds has been Chair, from its creation in 2002, of Renew North Staffordshire, one of the Government's housing market renewal pathfinders and is also now a Board member of the North Staffordshire Regeneration Partnership. He has had 37 years local government experience, of which 17 were as Chief Executive, first of Bolton and then of Liverpool. His service in Liverpool covered the period of recovery from the many difficulties of the 80s, completely reshaping and reenergising the Authority and reestablishing its external relations and credibility.
He was particularly involved in a wide range of regeneration initiatives and programmes. He served for six years as a Civil Service Commissioner, responsible for appointments to senior posts in the Civil Service. As a consultant, he has specialised in governance, conduct and relationship issues in local government. He is a patron of the Centre for Tomorrow’s Company, a think-tank and catalyst for a new agenda for business with focus on employees, shareholders and society. He has experience in a range of church and cultural bodies, and is currently Chair of Liverpool Cathedral Council and Company Secretary of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society.
