[1] She completed postgraduate study at the Polytechnic of Central London and University of Birmingham, the latter in Local Government and Health in 1992.

In her seven years as chief executive of Coventry City Council, she oversaw its improvement from a start as one of the worst-performing local authorities in the country.

[2] After that, she returned to local government, serving as Chief Executive of Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council 2011–2012 in the run-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

She was brought in as one of five commissioners including Mary Ney for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council in 2015 following scandals around child sexual exploitation, in which role she "steered it through its recovery".

[2][5] She served as interim Chief Executive for Birmingham City Council from 2017 to 2018, which had also previously been struggling with child protection and a range of other issues.