Jo Clift Consulting

I have two decades of experience working at a senior level at the heart of Government, mainly in the Cabinet Office. I have worked directly with over fifteen Ministers.

I am at my best dealing with complex situations that require strategic analysis and careful handling involving multiple senior stakeholders. One of my key skills is that I am able to find a path through problems by creating excellent networks and relationships - using fine political judgement with stakeholders whilst focusing on the key deliverables.

After six years in Whitehall as a senior communications specialist, including as Press Secretary to Lord Falconer (Millennium minister), I wanted grow my expertise in change management, so I joined Deloitte Consulting for two years as a senior change consultant. This gave me a great set of change skills and valuable insight into the private sector, but I found that I missed the strategic aspect of working at the heart of Government so returned to lead the shared corporate services work across whitehall.

As government lead for Shared Corporate Services, I created a new model for sharing back office services. To do this I engaged directly with cab sec, number 10 and senior stakeholders across Whitehall and the public sector . I led and created the strategy for cross cutting shared services which is still used today and has achieved over £10million savings.

I led the ICT strategy for the Coalition Government and then set up and ran the Whitehall unit for managing the appointments to Boards of public bodies. I also led the new legislation to combine two ombudsman organisations.

I am now working as a consultant with organisations who want to engage and communicate better with government to achieve their goals.

Specialties: Understanding government and how to engage with departments to get things done. Working closely with Ministers and senior stakeholders to achieve and sustain goals. Sensitive and strategic communications.