Insights & Resources
Public-Sector Executive Brief
Making complex public-sector change deliverable. Senior transformation leadership informed by more than 20 years designing, implementing and operating the technology and services on which councils depend.
Where Golden Sky helps
The gap between decision and delivery.
Councils often have a clear strategy. The harder task is turning that direction into a working service: clear ownership, a credible sequence, a supplier delivering what was intended, and teams ready to work in a new way.
Graham starts with the operational problem inside the public service, not the product — and knows what it takes for a supplier to deliver against it. Years shaping public-sector products around real service requirements and leading their implementation into council operations — configuration, migration, integration, training, adoption and transition — sit alongside first-hand experience of how suppliers price, resource, prioritise and manage delivery.
Three offers
Offer 01
Mobilise & Assure Complex Transformation
For important programmes that are not yet set up to deliver — or where sponsors need an honest, senior view of whether they will.
When to engage
- An important programme has been approved but not properly mobilised.
- Strategy or a business case has not translated into executable delivery.
- Governance, ownership, sequencing, dependencies or decisions are unclear.
- Delivery is drifting, or sponsors are losing confidence.
- The board needs a senior, objective assessment and a practical delivery path.
What Graham does
- Diagnose. An objective test of whether the plan will work in the operational environment: ownership, dependencies, adoption, readiness and sequencing — not just governance on paper.
- Mobilise. Ownership, decision rights, governance and sequencing put in place, with a credible first-phase plan.
- Assure. Periodic or retained senior review, reporting candidly to the SRO or sponsor.
- Reset. Where delivery has drifted, a re-baselined plan and the decisions the sponsor needs to take.
Relevant experience
- £10m+ programmes. Supplier-side SRO accountability for three public-sector education technology transformation programmes, each valued at more than £10m, with Hampshire, Staffordshire and a North Wales consortium.
- Hampshire. The Hampshire programme covered maintained schools and wider education services, including SEND and inclusion support.
- Sponsor engagement. Direct work with senior council sponsors, including governance across a six-authority North Wales consortium moving to a common hosted solution with harmonised processes.
- Service-delivery mobilisation. Through Solution Focused Education, led mobilisation and implementation of a commissioned workstream within Lewisham's Maximising Wellbeing at Home adult-social-care transformation, working across four major care providers.
Typical outputsDiagnostic report · Mobilisation plan · Governance design · Sequenced roadmap · Sponsor decision log · Assurance reports
The £10m+ programmes were supplier-side executive roles, accountable for Capita's delivery within each authority's governance. The Lewisham workstream was commissioned from Solution Focused Education, of which Graham is a director.
Offer 02
Client-Side Supplier & Technology Delivery Assurance
Senior client-side leadership for supplier-led technology change.
When to engage
- A supplier-led implementation is drifting.
- Requirements, responsibilities or acceptance criteria are unclear.
- Service outcomes, technology delivery and commercial expectations are misaligned.
- The authority needs stronger intelligent-client capability.
- Supplier governance, escalation and accountability need strengthening.
- A procurement, implementation, transition or supplier decision needs experienced challenge.
What Graham does
- Requirements & acceptance. Clarifies outcomes, responsibilities and acceptance criteria, so suppliers are held to what the service needs.
- Delivery review. An objective look at the supplier's plan, resourcing, progress and risks.
- Supplier governance. Escalation routes, measures and a working rhythm that keep accountability clear on both sides.
- Decision challenge. Experienced challenge before procurement, implementation, transition or contract decisions.
Relevant experience
- Product portfolio. Chief Product Officer accountability for more than 300 public-sector technology products across education, social care, social housing, revenues & benefits and digital government.
- Implementation. Led implementation functions delivering technology into councils, across multimillion-pound contracts and substantial recurring support relationships.
- Current operating role. UK market entry and operating leadership for Oksidia's Eepos platform: localisation, implementations, integrations with council finance and payment systems, migration and adoption.
Typical outputsRequirements and acceptance review · Delivery assessment · Supplier governance model · Decision paper
Offer 03
Service & Operating Model Redesign
For when new technology, new suppliers or new structures mean the way the service works has to change too.
When to engage
- Technology change needs new processes, roles or responsibilities.
- Accountability is fragmented across teams, suppliers or partners.
- Supplier and internal delivery responsibilities are misaligned.
- Structures no longer support delivery.
- A service needs a practical transition to a new operating model.
Relevant experience
- Capita PTIS. Restructured the approximately 100-person Professional, Technical and Integration Services organisation, taking its contribution to approximately £4m.
- Welfare Call. As Chief Executive, led organisational transformation in a 110-person organisation serving approximately 105 local-government customers, including restructuring, process modernisation and commercial change.
- Oksidia. Currently helping music services change how they operate — online applications, automated allocation and billing, finance integrations, redesigned administrative roles and analytics. The technology enables the change; it is not the change.
- Lewisham MWAH. Through Solution Focused Education, translated a strengths-based adult-social-care service model into structured frontline learning, implementation support and provider engagement for a commissioned workstream within the programme.
Where a programme needs accountable leadership rather than review, Graham can take the role as an Interim Transformation Director, Programme Director or retained senior adviser: see Fractional & Interim Leadership.
Experience across local-government services
Where Graham has shaped products, implemented technology or led change.
Education & Early Years
Systems, operational processes and implementation for school and education services, from admissions and SEND to early years.
- Education services and school support
- School admissions
- SEND and inclusion
- Early years
- Music education services
Children's Social Care
The technology, data and operating requirements of children's social care and care-leaver services, seen from the supplier, product and executive side. Not social work or statutory practice.
- Children's social care technology and services (Welfare Call)
- Care leavers (FocusGov's Care Leavers App)
- Social-care product strategy and case-management systems
Adult Social Care
Care-management technology and the operating change needed to deliver strengths-based services, including provider-facing implementation.
- Care-management technology
- Provider engagement and implementation
- Strengths-based service models
- Service transformation support
Youth Justice
Youth justice and youth services systems within a large local-government software portfolio.
- Youth justice
- Youth services
Housing
Social housing technology within a local-government product portfolio.
- Social housing
- Housing-related technology
Revenues & Benefits
Revenues and benefits systems, and integrations with council finance and payment systems.
- Revenues and benefits
- Integrations with council finance and payment systems
Corporate & Digital
Digital government products, and the implementation, migration and adoption of technology in councils.
- Digital government
- Technology implementation, migration and adoption
Graham is not a frontline practitioner; service and practice expertise stays with the authority's leads or appropriately qualified specialists. Full detail →
Experience
A working record, not a claim.
£10m+ ×3
Programmes led as supplier-side SRO
300+
Public-sector products as Chief Product Officer, Capita
110
People led as Chief Executive, Welfare Call
Also: restructured Capita's approximately 100-person Professional, Technical and Integration Services organisation (approximately £4m contribution); supported Montagu Private Equity's Full Potential Plan work for Servelec Group (acquisition of approximately £225m) and carried out buy-side due diligence on a public-sector education software business. Experience & case studies →
How Golden Sky works
Senior, direct and clearly bounded.
Golden Sky is a deliberately small practice. Buyers get Graham's judgement and time, a defined scope, and a clear view of where other specialist capability is needed: technical architecture and engineering; cyber security, data science and AI implementation; legal and specialist contractual advice; full PMO and delivery-team capacity; and frontline professional or clinical expertise.
Commissioning routes and conflicts of interest
Directly by the authority; as senior associate capacity through consulting firms and framework suppliers; or through interim intermediaries. Relevant interests are declared at the outset, every assignment is conflict-checked, and Golden Sky will not accept work where a conflict cannot be appropriately managed.
Next step
If a programme needs mobilising, assuring or turning round, start a conversation.
Every engagement starts with a conversation about the situation, and a clear mandate and outputs.