A message from Kay Hodgson, Director of School Operations

24 Jan 2025

Moving on with gratitude and great memories

Dear all,

After a slightly chilly start to 2025 it is great to get back into the swing of things across all areas of the school with budget planning for 25/26, estates projects underway, TLSE teams supporting an assessment period and the start of a new semester, DAA and REP cases being prepared and an academic promotions round well under way. 

The start of 2025 brings a lot of change for me personally as I handover the reins to David Pattwell, who will take on the role of Director of School Operations from 3 February.  

David and I have been meeting regularly for a few weeks now to ensure he has a full picture of the broad range of activity across the school. David brings with him an enormous amount of experience having led the School of Medical Sciences for the last five years. Leading operations of a Medical School through a pandemic was no easy task! 

This period has given me time to reflect on the last five years I have spent in SEED which have been the most rewarding in my 16 years at the University. I hope you will allow me some space to share my thoughts with you all.  

I have had the enormous privilege of working with an inspirational group of Professional Service and Academic colleagues. We have faced a great deal of challenges together and have made many positive developments across the school, often working at pace, particularly throughout the pandemic, but also often with more time to consider the broader strategy, such as the estates work over the last three years.  

A number of key areas stand out to me as demonstrating the wonderful collaborative and collegiate work across the school. All of these have had a positive impact in a number of ways and have been challenging at times but there has always been a focus on continuous improvement to support staff and students. (I could write about many more successes but this message would be enormous!): 

• Operational Efficiency – The work establishing a more robust and agile PS structure across operations began during the pandemic but has been built on each year since. The Operations Team covers an enormous remit including financial support, estates, compliance, health and safety, administrative support for School governance, management information and data analysis, and communications. The team are always looking for ways to continuously improve and have built strong relationships with academics, our finance team, people directorate and estates colleagues to name a few.  

• TLSE transformation – As everyone is well aware, changes in PS support across the TLSE teams has been a complex journey for both PS and academic colleagues alike. I have always been grateful for the resilience and positivity shown by our PS teams throughout and for the relentless patience and support from our academic colleagues. I won’t shy away from saying it has been difficult and remains a challenge but the collegiality and single vision to improve the Student Experience is visible every day across the school. Our Student Hub and Study Space (which is recognised as the best in the university) is one example where we have seen a positive change delivered – to achieve this requires all our TLSE teams to work closely together. Everyone should be very proud of what they have achieved.  

• Reimagining our Estate - How we use our buildings and reshape our office space post-pandemic is also an area of great success and strong partnership working with all staff and Estates colleagues. As a School we are leading the way in improving our spaces, considering the environmental impact of our space and adapting our on-campus interactions to optimise ways of working. Key projects such as the Student Hub and Study Space, B.15 workshops, MUD Lab, GIS lab and VR/microscope suite, HBS foyer and quad, ALB ground floor corridor, EW ground floor refurbishment (starting in the next few weeks!), plans for HBS long term maintenance and the step change we are making with the Rutherford Building demonstrate the courage and collegiality all SEED staff have in making a difference to our carbon footprint. I am sure you will agree this is a huge amount of work that has and will continue to improve our estate substantially. 

• PS training and Development - The last 12 months has also seen a step change in how we train and develop our wonderful cohort of PS colleagues. The SEED PS Leadership Team (Lucy Adams, Rachel Challinor, Laura Ingleby and Kelly Osgood) have done the most incredible job in establishing a programme of work including Insights, core training in Excel, Power BI and Process Mapping alongside Power Automate developments that are all supporting daily improvements in efficiency of working; but importantly are also providing our PS staff with a broader skill set and a strong career development route. 

As I move on to my new role in the School of Engineering I do so with a sense of real pride in everything SEED stand for. It is an incredible School with wonderful staff and students, and I know you are all in safe hands with David who will take it from strength to strength. I know you will all give him a warm welcome. 

I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you for making me feel welcome from the day I arrived in the school, and for your dedication, sense of fun, and determination to make a difference over the years. Your contributions have made a significant impact, and I have no doubt you will continue to shine. I wish you all the very best in your future endeavours, whether academic or professional services. I will miss you all. 

Dr Kay Hodgson 

Director of School Operations 

School of Environment, Education and Development