Paula Hewitt has a job title that reflects the well-earned trust she has built up at Somerset County Council after almost 30 years of service: deputy chief executive and lead director for economic and community infrastructure and director of commissioning. She also has two daughters just in case you thought she got weekends off. She joins our video call immediately after a Q and A with staff members and she jokes that this is a tough way to start the week. If she means this, it doesn't show; rarely is an upbeat attitude so infectious, especially on a Monday morning, but this is one of the many balancing acts Ms Hewitt pulls off with a smile. These regular calls with council staff have become popular - one of those by-product innovations of COVID - she says. Staff are allowed to post questions anonymously to avoid any embarrassment if something is on their mind. At first, they discussed anything and everything but now they have started to focus on different topics, with a Q and A on climate change coming up.
展开▼
