Grant Thornton UK has named Caroline Nugent as managing director to head its public sector people practice.
In a statement, the professional services company said Nugent has more than 20 years of senior human resources (HR) and organisational development experience. It said she has managed major organisational change and overseen trade union negotiations.
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The company added that she has contributed to organisational strategy at executive board level.
In her new role, Nugent will lead Grant Thornton’s work supporting public sector organisations on people-related priorities.
These include workforce development, equal pay and optimising HR teams. Grant Thornton UK said the focus will be on performance, cost management and building long-term capability.
Grant Thornton UK Public Sector Consulting partner Simon Christian said: “The workforce challenges facing public sector organisations right now are significant and they are not going away.
“Caroline brings over two decades’ experience of solving these exact problems from inside the sector. That experience is hard to find and it is exactly what our clients need. Her appointment reflects our commitment to building deeper specialism in this space for our clients as that need continues to grow.”
Commenting on her appointment, Nugent said: “Equal pay claims, recruitment gaps and stretched HR teams don’t respond to off-the-shelf fixes. They need advisors who understand the public sector and have done this work from the other side.
“That is the kind of support I want to build at Grant Thornton – helping the organisations that keep our public services running make difficult decisions with confidence and build the teams they need for what comes next.”
The appointment comes days after Grant Thornton UK named two directors for its public sector assurance team. The company hired Ed Hammond and Camilla de Bernhardt Lane from the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny.
