Kerry Whiffin

Experienced Co‑production and Engagement Specialist with a proven track record of embedding lived experience into service design and improvement. Skilled in stakeholder engagement, participatory methods, and qualitative research, with expertise in facilitating inclusive workshops and translating community insights into actionable strategies. Adept at managing multi‑agency projects, influencing decision‑makers, and driving measurable outcomes in health, social care, and public services.

• Actively participated in community events as a representative of the organisation.
• Managed various projects from inception to completion, maintaining strict adherence to deadlines.
• Drove change within the organisation by implementing feedback obtained from stakeholder consultations.
• Project Documentation: Delivering documentation that outlines the planned approach, demonstrating purpose, pace, and impact.
• Training and Support: Ensuring all participants are trained in co-production principles and supported in developing necessary skills.
• Collaboration with Managers: Working with managers to enable frontline staff to use co-production approaches, ensuring policies support this.
• Community Support: Identifying and providing necessary support to ensure community involvement and accessibility in the co-production process.
• Scrutiny and Review: Regularly reviewing co-production efforts to ensure they make a real difference and follow agreed principles.
• Promotion and Communication: Developing promotional tools and maintain high visibility of co-production efforts.
• Relationship Building: Building and maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Reporting: Providing regular reports to relevant groups and organizations.

I started the Women's Network within the council to help support staff wellbeing and to promote the needs and rights of women in the work place. We currently have 40 members and we collaborate with the other staff networks to organise events and raise money for charity.

• Fostered an atmosphere of respect and collaboration, increased staff retention.
• Improved company culture by implementing open communication strategies.
• Advocated for employee well-being programmes, fostered a healthy work-life balance.

• I worked as a Team Leader within the Adult Social Care Business Support Team. The team provide admin support for all of the ASC Operational Teams such as social workers, occupational therapists and mental health support workers. They take minutes for safeguarding meetings, get new starters set up with equipment and training, process purchase orders, raise invoices and a whole host of other admin tasks. I line managed four people and provided them with support and advice in their daily work. I liaised with other teams on a daily basis to make sure that the services were meeting their needs.
• Developed strategies, resulting in improved customer satisfaction rates.
• Spearheaded process improvements with innovative solutions.
• Improved team productivity by implementing efficient workflow systems.
• Conducted performance reviews for staff development and progression.

• I worked as part of the Housing Team at Basingstoke. My job was to oversee the overall housing strategy for the authority and to make sure that we were meeting our statutory requirements. I looked after the empty homes function at Basingstoke and I worked closely with different teams to get those properties back into use. I collated data for and produced the annual housing and homeless monitoring report for the senior management team and I maintained the accuracy of the housing internet pages. I also organised two low-cost home ownership events whereby I invited different companies to attend and potential home buyers came along and find out what their options were.

• In this role I worked as part of the Project Management Team (PMO) to ensure that all corporate projects were managed effectively and within timescales and budget. I organised meetings, took notes at those meetings and on occasion chaired the meetings. I assisted the Senior Project Managers with managing their projects and organised training for the team.

• In this role I attend Winchester University and am working towards a nursing degree. I am also based on one of the wards at Basingstoke Hospital where I am undertaking ‘on the job' training to become a nurse. I provide nursing care to people who are in-patients in hospital and work with the multi-disciplinary team to make sure that we get the best outcome for each person. I greatly enjoyed my experience in this but due to various reasons, I did not see my future in nursing.

• In this role I worked as part of the Housing Management team to ensure that tenants and other customers are involved in and consulted about the work and performance of the organization and had the responsibility of coordinating and facilitating participation activity across all sections of the organization. I also liaised with communities and potential customers through specific identified projects.
• The role required that I am proficient in the Microsoft Office packages and other databases. I planned and organized my own workload and managed competing demands and worked to tight deadlines. I am someone who helped the tenants focus and develop their ideas and activities, helped improve communications and made sure they got their say. It meant working face-to-face with customers, organising meetings and activities and generally making sure that the tenants and housing providers each know what the other is thinking.

• In this role I worked as a Housing (Neighbourhood) Officer where I managed a ‘patch' of around 1000 properties. The role was extremely varied and included a wide myriad of tasks including visiting people in their homes, attending child protection or other multi-agency meetings on behalf of housing, preparing and presenting reports at Residents Association meetings, liaising with various other teams and organizations including schools, children's centres, police etc. I dealt with enquiries from elected members including Ward Councillors and MP's, issued tenancy warnings to people breaching their tenancy agreement, attended court on behalf of Housing to take legal action against tenants and answered questions from tenants over the phone, in person and in writing.