Tell us a bit about yourself
My name is Elaine Munns and I’ve been working for West Sussex County Council for 24 years now. I joined in an Office Manager role originally, looking after a small team in the Highways Transport and Planning directorate.
I had a degree in Psychology which helps with people management and I applied to undertake a master's degree in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) after starting at West Sussex and was lucky enough to be accepted for this in a day release capacity. This has helped shape the role that I have today and areas of responsibility that I cover.
What inspired you to work in the Highways, Transport and Planning directorate?
The idea of obtaining a qualification in GIS seemed at the time to be a useful qualification in our department because GIS was emerging as a dynamic and useful tool to help in both Planning and Highways, but very little was known in our work area as to its capabilities.
Officers were only just starting to get computers on their desks at that time! We had a knowledge gap and mapping was an interest to me.
Why did you choose to work for West Sussex?
I liked the look of the role as an Office Manager, it suited the skills I’d obtained up to that point in my career elsewhere. Working for the local authority has always appealed to me having spent many years working in a more commercial environment.
The idea of making a positive change rather than simply being profit driven for the benefit of shareholders makes work much more rewarding.
Can you tell me a little about your career progression so far?
Having taken on the Office Manager role I was soon asked to manage a change in the software we were using. I’d embarked on my masters in GIS by then and, with the database management I was learning at university, it meant I was in a good place to manage a database change here.
Since then, other GIS projects have been added to my role and workloads with a heavy database element, although I’ve stayed within Highways, Transport and Planning for all that time and new areas of work have been bolted onto my role.
There’s been a couple of restructures in that time too which have increased the work that I manage.
Being in our department gives rise to a number of career paths that officers can choose to follow. Either as planners or transport planners, civil engineers and policy officers to name the main ones. There’s a broader range of skills needed within our department than people would initially expect.
What is the best thing about being a manager within Highways, Transport and Planning at West Sussex?
The variety in work that I manage, the professional and positive attitude from all the staff around me and particularly my own team and my management team and the opportunities for development and progression.
Giving my team over the years opportunities to develop and seeing their careers progress within and beyond the council in a variety of fields that they’ve chosen to follow.
What do you particularly enjoy about working in the Planning Services service?
I lead on a couple of countrywide initiatives and to see these develop is very rewarding. West Sussex are encouraging in terms of allowing you to pursue this type of role when the benefit is going to affect more than simply your own authority.
Within the service our staff are very hardworking, there is a lot of respect for each other and we all work well as a large team.
How does West Sussex, particularly Highways, Transport and Planning support you to develop and progress?
There is a lot of support from management. We’ve been running courses on management and leadership skills for example for all existing managers, which helps keep you up to date with new ideas and fresh in your approach.
As I’ve mentioned, I was able to obtain funding and day release for my master’s degree and senior management are always open to this type of development if there’s a business case and ability to provide that support. We’re running courses for aspiring leaders and women in management, which a couple of my own team have benefitted from.
Is there a particular case or something about your work here that makes you feel proud?
Running GIS for West Sussex has been challenging. Swapping a well-established piece of software, which was well understood by staff and was considered to provide the gold standard in capability and functionality, for different software, which was much reduced in this regard, was probably one of the more difficult tasks I’ve had.
Due to the way the existing software was set up, we didn’t entirely know who had licences and who was using it, what they were using it for and what the full amount of data that was kept in GIS (mapping) form.
What would you say are the challenges of being a Team Manager within your service?
The work area of Planning, where I’m based, is busy and there’s a lot of demand on our time.
Successive governments have promoted housebuilding and this keeps our workloads high. But, in a world of local government cutbacks year on year, we are constantly open to streamlining our work and making improvements which help to manage the workloads.
Our day-to-day engagement with developers can be challenging as they look to reduce their costs whilst we have a need to ensure our infrastructure is improved to manage the additional housing. We have to juggle the need for development against the concerns of local people on the impact on their neighbourhoods.
If there is one myth you could bust about West Sussex County Council, what would it be?
That we don’t work hard. I’ve no idea where the idea that local government officers don’t work hard comes from. I hear it all the time in my life outside of work and am constantly justifying how hard we all work and how passionate we all are about doing a good job for our communities and the local people who live in West Sussex.
What would you say to somebody considering joining us?
As an employer, West Sussex County Council is flexible and approachable, you’ll feel valued and welcomed. If you work hard and do a good job, then there is career here for you and recognition of your contribution.