About us

We are a team of specialists offering independent employment and organisational development advice, support, consultancy services working with local authorities and public services in the South East.

As a leading provider of high quality consultancy, training and development in areas of organisational change, leadership, mediation and conflict resolution and compliance with employment law, we will tailor our services to meet your needs. Our focus is to enable organisations to meet their legal responsibilities as employers and to facilitate developing their people to fulfil their potential thereby increasing team morale and adding value to your business. Understanding the importance of sharing, learning and networking, SEE provides a central hub for networks and partnerships. We gather and collate management information and data to share learning and benchmark to help you build on best practice. You don’t need to be a member of SEE to access our services but members do get discounted rates.

Oxfordshire

Buckinghamshire

Berkshire

Hampshire

Surrey

West Sussex

Kent

East Sussex

Isle of Wight

Meet the team

Dr Ruth Adams

Chief Executive

Ruth is the Chief Executive of SEE and is responsible to the SEE councillor representatives for managing and directing the largest Regional Employers Organisation in the UK, with nine counties and 74 local authorities. Ruth has worked with a number of Local Authorities as an Associate Consultant with PwC having previously been the Deputy Chief Executive of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.

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Jennifer McNeill

Director

Jennifer is a Director at SEE and is experienced in working with councillors, chief executives and senior managers to facilitate a range of management activities including executive recruitment and appraisals, organisational redesign and restructuring, chief officer job evaluation, providing independent professional employment advice and support to panels at disciplinary, grievance and appeals hearings. She has also provided services and support as an equality and diversity peer assessor for local authorities.

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Mark Palmer

Development Director

Mark has been with SEE for over 20 years, working with councils and councillors to deliver coaching, personal development and democracy training. He helped to develop the Charter for Elected Member Development, a nationally-recognised mark of excellence for public authorities. Read Mark's full profile by clicking on the circle icon below.

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David Maycock

Employment Director

David joined SEE in 2010 after working at a national level in the fields of equality and diversity. He is a highly experienced HR professional and an accredited mediator, and specialises in equalities training and dispute resolution. Alongside Michelle, he delivers employment law and HR skills courses both on-site and bespoke for our region’s organisations. Read David's full profile by clicking on the circle icon below.

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Michelle Biggs

Employment & People Insight Manager

Michelle, joined SEE in 2008, with extensive experience in Local Government HR. She delivers training, strategic consultancy and day-to-day advice on a wide-range of HR related topics, and is passionate about finding innovative ways to increase HR skills and knowledge. Read Michelle's full profile by clicking on the circle icon below

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Sarah Cope

Business Development Manager

Sarah joined SEE in June 2020. Sarah has over 15 years experience working in Local Government, and brings a varied range of skills to the SEE Team. She has worked as a Graphic Designer and Web Developer in previous roles, and has many years of experience working within a busy Communications team. Read Sarah's full profile by clicking on the circle icon below

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Helen Power

Business Development Officer

Helen works closely with the team to help administer the services we provide and ensure the smooth running of events we host, she is here to help and can point you in the direct of the information you need. Her focus is to ensure SEE’s digital offering remains current and engaging and support for members remains at the highest quality. Helen has over 10 years experience working within different teams in the Council organisations.

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Chelsea Duke

HR Business Partner

Chelsea joined South East Employers in 2023, in a newly created role as HR Business Partner to support the growing demand for people management advice and consultancy from SEE’s members. Chelsea works alongside Michelle and David to provide day to day advice on employment law and best practice, in addition to supporting complex employee relations cases and investigations. Chelsea will also work with our regional HR networks, and with providing articles and podcasts. Read Chelsea’s full profile by clicking on the circle icon below.

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Our associate consultants

Policies

Sue Noble

Sue has many years of experience in both the private and public sector, training managers, coaches and mentors. Her coaching and mentoring programmes are now being delivered through SEE.

Policies

SEE Equal Opportunities Policy Statement 2023 – PDF

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement – PDF

Our governance

SEE is one of the nine regional employers’ organisations which represent the interests of local authorities and public sector bodies in England. As the regional employers organisation for the South East, we are independent and not-for-profit. Through our wealth of local knowledge and professional expertise, we add value to our councils and communities and complement the work they do.

Any local authority in the south east can become a full member of SEE. Each full member may nominate between one and three* of their councillors to be their representative on our management board. From this our Executive Board is elected annually at our AGM.

* The number of representatives a council may nominate is determined by the tier and size of the organisation.