Bernadette Enright is a force of nature. Since joining Manchester City Council as director of children's services six and a half years ago, she has turned the council's adult's service around.

And to top it all, she was named Corporate Director of the Year at The MJ Awards in June.

We are sat in Manchester Town Hall's extension – the actual town hall is still sheathed in scaffolding for refurbishment – just hours after Salford City Council's Tom Stannard was announced as the new chief executive.

‘I spent the first 30 years of my career in Salford,' she explains. She left for Manchester before Stannard took up his current post, but that has not stopped her plying former colleagues for the low-down on her new boss. It has all been good.

Enright qualified as a social worker at Bradford University in the 1980s, starting her career at the Hope Hospital in Salford. She became a mental health social worker and has worked extensively as a learning disabilities social worker.

‘I never saw myself as being a DAS,' she says. ‘I've just always been very fortunate to have been in the right place and been given opportunities.'

She credits working in an integrated learning disabilities service as being the job where she learned the most. ‘If you can get it right for people with learning disabilities,' she tells The MJ, ‘you can get it right for anyone.'

She rose through the ranks as head of social work, then assistant director, then director of social care, going into the integrated care organisation that was created – Greater Manchester was at the forefront of integrated care.

‘I honestly thought I'd finish my career in Salford,' she explains. ‘I was very happy there, and it was a brilliant culture. But then the Manchester job popped into my inbox.'

‘I was born and bred in Manchester… I never imagined in my wildest dreams I'd end up as director of social care in the city where I was born.'

She is diplomatic about the state of the service at that time. ‘It was following the years of austerity. It was clear I needed to put an improvement plan in place.'

Former Manchester chief executive Joanne Roney, and current leader Bev Craig – who was then executive member for adults services – supported Enright with investment to rebuild the service.

‘I built a new structure. We strengthened our policies and procedures. We strengthened our integration and developed the 12 integrated neighborhood teams,' she explains. She sits on the Local Care Organisation, alongside the Manchester health team, as well as on the senior management team of the council. ‘Together, we've developed new models of care,' she says.

‘I truly believe in integration, with the person at the heart, working together to support them to have the best outcomes.'

When Roney suggested they brought in consultants, she was more than sceptical, but commissioned IMPOWER and launched their Better Outcomes, Better Lives programme, supporting people to be as independent as possible, and focusing on prevention. She is now full of praise for the consultants she worked with.

‘We were able to evidence £39m worth of cost avoidance,' she says. ‘But most importantly, the outcomes for people, 70% of them don't need us anymore. That's got to be the best outcome, that they're not dependent on statutory services.

‘I always quote archbishop Desmond Tutu,' she says. ‘There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.'

Manchester City Council has just been awarded an outstanding rating from the Care Quality Commission for its reablement services.

‘That was because the council supported me to invest in something that's non-statutory. But it was the right thing to do for the people of Manchester,' she says. Despite all the pressure on services, they are still investing in prevention and cost-savings.

Our conversation is peppered with stories of people Enright has met throughout her career, service users who have taught her the importance of people at the centre of everything the health and care system does.

‘I want to be able to deliver services that are good enough for any one of our family members.'

Corporate Director of the Year

Winner: Bernadette Enright

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