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Articles by Adele Taylor
Robust inference and correlates from genetic associations with personality
Abstract Personality traits describe stable differences in how people think, feel and behave, and how they interact with and experience their social and physical environments1,2. Many questions remain unanswered about associations between DNA and personality traits, such as their robustness, their generalizability and the biological and social pathways through which they act.
Mood in the moment: a study protocol for embedding ecological momentary assessments into established longitudinal cohorts to examine depression in real time
Discussion This protocol outlines the design for a unique EMA study nested within two established longitudinal studies: TEDS and ALSPAC. The purpose of this research is to examine what depression and its correlates look like in day-to-day or moment-to-moment settings in people with different histories of depression trajectories.
Infections in lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes - prevalence and risk factors: a report from the European MDS Registry
Author(s): Bente Houtman , Adele Taylor , Corine Van Marrewijk , Alexandra Smith , Pierre Fenaux , Catherine Cargo , Argiris Symeonidis , Moshe Mittelman , Reinhard Stauder , Jaroslav Čermák , Guillermo Sanz , Eva Hellström-Lindberg
Rising to the rough sleeper challenge in Peterborough
We had the idea for a new approach to helping rough sleepers for whom existing solutions may be unsuitable some time ago, but a lot of things needed to be in place for it to work. Now it's ready, and we believe that it is the only service of its kind in the country for rough sleepers with multiple and complex needs.
AI use increases but barriers remain
Artificial intelligence (AI) use among councils is increasing, but one in 10 are still not using any forms of the technology, a survey has found. The Local Government Association survey found the proportion not using AI had fallen from 19% to 11% in a year. Only half of those not using any AI said they were exploring how it could be deployed. Lack of funding was the biggest barrier to using or increasing use of AI, cited by three in five councils.
Struggling to be glass half full
FINANCE Struggling to be glass half full Watching budget proposals for the next year and medium-term, Adele Taylor says that even she is struggling to be glass-half-full, 'having seen the challenges around financial sustainability of so many in the sector'. By Adele Taylor | 05 February 2025 SHARE I admit it, I am generally a glass-half-full person.
Transformation has to be about long-term financial thinking
FINANCE Transformation has to be about long-term financial thinking Transformation has to be about an organisation rethinking how it operates, how it works with its communities and partners, and changing outcomes, says Adele Taylor. By Adele Taylor | 11 December 2024 SHARE While waiting for more detailed announcements around local government, many of us are still looking at how we can prioritise our resources to keep delivering the services we need to.
Turning the lens on ourselves: exploring the practitioner’s own narrative
In this article, the fourth in our series, student nurses reflect on how their experiences of healthcare are shaping them This article, the fourth in our series on the power of narratives, focuses on the practitioner’s story and the value of self-reflexivity to help us understand our own stories and the way they are shaping us.
Balancing the golden triangle
FINANCE Balancing the golden triangle Adele Taylor says: 'We need to ensure we are investing at the right level to gain the financial consequences we expect, but at the same time guarantee we are investing in risk mitigations so we can deliver what we need to.' By By Adele Taylor | 23 October 2024 SHARE When money is tight, decisions about resource prioritisation can be tough.
Speaking up for patients: advocacy and narrative work in nursing
This third article in our series on narrative inquiry explores the concept of advocacy in nursing practice This article, the third in our series on the power of narratives, defines the concept of advocacy in the context of health and social care practice. Questions are posed as to the content and utility of narratives, and how they can support the role of the professional as an advocate.
Speaking up for patients: advocacy and narrative work in nursing
This third article in our series on narrative inquiry explores the concept of advocacy in nursing practice This article, the third in our series on the power of narratives, defines the concept of advocacy in the context of health and social care practice. Questions are posed as to the content and utility of narratives, and how they can support the role of the professional as an advocate.
Finance chiefs need a long-term view at the mid-year point
Finance chiefs need a long-term view at the mid-year point Even without a new Government, this time of year when councils are modelling what budgets and medium-term financial sustainability looks like, has always been challenging, especially with single-year settlements, says Adele Taylor By By Adele Taylor | 12 September 2024 SHARE As we reach the mid-year point of the financial year, our ability to make quick changes to any pressures experienced in our financial performance becomes ever...
Metaphors in healthcare narratives and practice: powers and pitfalls
This second article in our narratives series encourages nurses to consider how metaphors might be used, both by health professionals and patients Throughout history, metaphors and figurative language have been used in health and social care to aid communication, visualise illness and conceptualise thinking. This article, the second in our series on narratives in nurse education, critically explores the meaning and resonance of metaphors’ utility in narrative inquiry.
Scoring success together!
West Midlands Employers (WME) regularly brings together local authority resourcing colleagues through the region's strategic resourcing board. A common discussion is raising awareness of careers in local government to enable all councils to recruit skilled people across various expertise and job types. This year, WME led on and delivered a visually striking, large-scale regional local government career awareness campaign.
Delivering the mission
As the dust settles on the General Election, thought has turned to the actions of the new Government, with an immediate focus on delivery. A flurry of announcements culminated in the King's Speech on 17 July providing a blueprint for the parliamentary agenda over the coming term. The Prime Minister has stated he will be judged on actions not words. The poetry of campaigning is over, the prose of government must begin.
Local government is at least creeping up the agenda
FINANCE Local government is at least creeping up the agenda After the King's Speech the sector still needs to work together with a collective voice that ensures the department name change actually means something, says Adele Taylor By By Adele Taylor | 24 July 2024 SHARE As I write this column, the King's Speech has just been delivered setting out the new Government's policy direction and their intentions on the priorities they set out as part of their election manifesto.
Lessons from recent auditors' annual reports
Earlier this year we reviewed just under 100 auditors' annual reports (AARs) produced for our local government audit clients for the 2022-23 audit year. AARs are the key annual deliverable relating to our value for money (VfM) audit work, and this sample represents approximately 30% of all councils in England. In total, the AARs we reviewed identified more than 700 areas for improvement and highlighted significant weaknesses in some councils' financial sustainability arrangements.
The latest articles written by Adele Taylor
Adele Taylor Adele Taylor is interim executive director of finance and Governance at Cherwell and South Northamptonshire Given the knife-edge on which council budgets are currently balanced, the 20% of uncertainty loca...
Speed and accuracy of forecasting has to be the watchword
By Adele Taylor | 11 June 2024 The first quarter of a new financial year is always an interesting time Being on the cusp of financial years, it is really important to ensure threads come together to help you plan for the future and ensure you learn from what has happened, as well as identifying the action that needs to be taken. Receive The MJ magazine each week and gain access to all the content on this website with a subscription.
Inflammatory profile of lower risk myelodysplastic syndromes
INTRODUCTION There is increasing evidence that autoinflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), with several studies describing dysregulation of the innate immune response, as being particularly relevant.1 For example, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been shown to be over-expressed in haematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs), compared to age-matched control subjects.2 Furthermore, in the HSPCs of MDS patients, there is enhanced activation of...
Doing the basics well helps us deal with the changes to come
By Adele Taylor | 01 May 2024 Now that we are into the 2024-25 financial year, thoughts are already turning to what the future holds. We know that by this time next year there will to be a new Government, whatever the political makeup, with a General Election happening before the end of January. This makes future funding ever more uncertain, given we have no confirmation as yet about the relationship between local and central government and how that may change the balance of responsibilities.
Distribution of funding is the trickiest area for councils
By Adele Taylor | 20 March 2024 The power of coming together as a collective in local government has always been when we work best and get our case across about what matters most. With the recent announcement of an extension of the Household Support Fund, having had a strong and vocal case put forward of the impact on vulnerable people by a large group of councils must have helped swing it in our favour, albeit temporarily.
No one forgets financial decisions have real people at the heart of them
By Adele Taylor | 06 February 2024 The visibility of finance within local government has never been so high, with a significant amount of reporting on the challenges we are all facing. Interestingly, the narrative in the mainstream media does seem to be shifting and is recognising that despite many collective best efforts, there simply isn’t enough money in the system to keep doing what we have always done.
Internal audit teams are a crucial tool
There is much reporting about the key themes that come out when you look back at the reasons for some of the high profile failures in local government and not having strong internal audit functions is one that often crops up. Receive The MJ magazine each week and gain access to all the content on this website with a subscription. Full website content includes additional, exclusive commentary and analysis on the issues affecting local government. Already a subscriber? Login
Managing the tightrope
By Adele Taylor | 25 October 2023 Uncertainty is a watchword for all of us who work in local government and an almost near constant state we work in. For finance colleagues and peers, the time between now and the end of the calendar year is probably when we most feel this, given we are all trying to prepare draft budgets and medium-term financial plans in the absence of certainty around our financial future.
A response that’s a dose of sanity
By Adele Taylor | 09 October 2023 Adele Taylor offers the inside track on the fluid response that has made great strides in stabilising Slough Council’s finances following a section 114 notice A lot is written about the causes of s114 notices, but in reality for any council close to or in intervention there are lessons all councils could learn from. We cannot lose sight of our main purpose of financial management, stewardship and ultimately our responsibility to our residents.
Finance chiefs should stress test their professional networks
Want full article access? Receive The MJ magazine each week and gain access to all the content on this website with a subscription. Full website content includes additional, exclusive commentary and analysis on the issues affecting local government. Already a subscriber? Login
Audit and governance is the conscience of the council
By Adele Taylor | 13 June 2023 As a new municipal year starts and for many of us having had local elections, it means brand new councillors and committee members to brief, train and develop to ensure they can perform their roles to their best. Planning training for our audit and governance committees can be tricky, especially when you have a number of new councillors to local government.
Getting out of the mire
By Adele Taylor | 02 May 2023 In the last six weeks I’ve moved to a new job in a local authority that is in intervention. Whenever you start a new job there is always that first day at school feeling where your usual internal networks have been completely broken: needing to navigate your way through different processes and procedures; identify top priorities; and even learn to work your way round new buildings, systems, cultures and try and remember lots of new names.
Stepping up in Slough
By Adele Taylor | 21 March 2023 I’m just starting what I think is one of the most interesting finance roles in local government and, with colleagues at Slough, I’m looking forward to playing my part to continue the journey to stabilise and improve the financial health of the council. At the forefront of my mind is the reason why we exist and the role we have to play in local people’s lives. It is probably why I tend to gravitate to roles where this is brought into the sharpest focus.
Rigour around regular budget management is crucial
By Adele Taylor | 08 February 2023 As another financial year is ending and budgets are being set for the new financial year, our attention is focused on how closely our original spending plans and resources management are to original plans. Understanding the things we can control and those we can’t is important, but so is how well our early warning and detection systems in finance work to manage any variation and take a different course of action.
Where is the co-design between local and central Government happening?
By Adele Taylor | 07 December 2022 With local government in the national headlines once again around governance matters in some authorities, the overall issues all local authorities are facing around resourcing are easy to miss.
We need to get across the story of the real impact of ‘trimming fat’
By Adele Taylor | 26 October 2022 This column is written a week in advance, so given the state of politics at the moment, we may still have the same chancellor as we did or not. It used to be that a week in politics could be a long time, now it is almost hour by hour... Central Government has got a tough gig financially at the moment, struggling with the same issues we are all struggling with: how to make the square peg fit in the round hole of setting financial budgets.
We need more information on council finances
By Adele Taylor | 14 September 2022 It feels like there isn’t a week going by without at least one story about how local authority X or Y is starting to show worrying signs towards being financially unsustainable. These stories are becoming more frequent, but what is also becoming more apparent is this is less about ‘governance issues’ or issues that can be passed off as mismanagement, but something more basic.
Wrestling with uncertainty on budget setting
By Adele Taylor | 03 August 2022 Refreshing our medium-term strategies models is a task we are well used to doing around this time of year, updating and ensuring the assumptions that were used when setting the budget back in February are still valid. But so much has changed in just a few short months, and it reminds me of one of my favourite songs as a teenager about having four seasons in one day given the rapid changes.
Finance is not the be-all and end-all of tackling some 'wicked' issues
By Adele Taylor | 21 June 2022 Anyone who has spoken to me in the last few months will know that, alongside the day job, I took on a crazy personal challenge, deciding to run my first marathon, in Sierra Leone of all places. I ran for a charity that supports children into education through assisting families and communities to become economically independent on the condition their children attend school.
Tax rebates - a never-ending task for finance teams?
By Adele Taylor | 15 February 2022 When it comes to the announcement that we would be paying £150 to band A-D taxpayers it sounds simple enough until you start to unravel what it really means to deliver this despite the good intentions we can all agree with. I’m sure one of the first questions we asked was how many people would we be paying and, of those, how many do we actually have bank account details for.
Presenting simple and clear messages on our finances is crucial
That process will continue until well into the new year before using that feedback to consider any changes to the final budget that will be presented in February. Receive The MJ magazine each week and gain access to all the content on this website with a subscription. Full website content includes additional, exclusive commentary and analysis on the issues affecting local government. ` Already a subscriber? Login
Understanding the impact of funding care
By Adele Taylor | 24 September 2021 That will teach me to have a week off, given the two major announcements when I was away. One, almost in a blink-and-miss-it way, and the other with unmissable headlines around the potential impact on everyone as well as on businesses. We now know both the date for the Spending Review (27 October) and some detail around health and social care funding.
Reflecting on our financial sustainability story
By Adele Taylor | 10 August 2021 This week I spent time talking to myself on Zoom, all in the name of producing a short video for upcoming recruitment to our finance team.
Dealing with uncertainty's twists and turns
By Adele Taylor | 30 June 2021 Talking to someone the other day about what it is like to be a Section 151 officer, they asked me for a simple summary of what it means to hold that role. I think they were surprised when I summarised it in just three words: ‘dealing with uncertainty’.
Finance teams must stay in the loop
By Adele Taylor | 19 May 2021 The ability to keep on top of central Government announce-ments on policy change can be incredibly difficult, especially given the speed and lack of co-ordination at times. For example, the new Environmental Bill. In one way it’s not a surprise, as this has been mooted for some time. However, once you get into the devil of the detail of what impacts this may have on local government services and our finances, you realise the true extent of what needs to be considered.
Now's not the time to be shy
By Adele Taylor | 08 April 2021 Happy new (financial) year. Looking back at the start of the last financial year and our budgets and spending plans to what our out-turns are going to look like shows how different our original ‘business as usual’ plans are to the reality of what we have spent and resourced in the last 12 months.
Working together in perfect harmony
It’s a subject close to my heart as I know we have some brilliant and talented women in our sector who would be perfect for roles that I’ve recruited to over the last few years, but their CVs don’t pass across my or others’ desks. Receive The MJ magazine each week and gain access to all the content on this website with a subscription. Full website content includes additional, exclusive commentary and analysis on the issues affecting local government. ` Already a subscriber? Login
We can ensure that finance is a true enabler for our organisations
By Adele Taylor | 12 January 2021 In true New Year fashion I’ve been reflecting on the lessons learned over the last 12 months and thinking about how to take those forward into the next year after what has been a turbulent and volatile year for everyone.
Striking a balance
By Adele Taylor | 11 November 2020 With increasing press coverage of potential eye-watering levels of potential fraud from COVID support schemes it is worth remembering the mantra about protecting the public pound drummed into us as public sector professionals from an early stage.
Things will be moving quicker than ever on budgets
By Adele Taylor | 30 September 2020 I was discussing that famous quote the other day: ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.’ I found myself wanting to add a lot of caveats around it, which would no doubt irritate the manufacturers of those posters and postcards of pithy quotes that sell so well. Plans are important, but we also need to recognise that things can change so they need to be consistently reviewed and this sometimes means we need to set a new course.
Green shoots that may buy a little more time
By Adele Taylor | 19 August 2020 Local government has always been a sector that changes shape and adapts to whatever is thrown at it and we have proven that time and time again during the crisis we have been facing in recent months. Our financial sustainability as a sector is something we all are concerned about, particularly since in just six months’ time we should be setting legally balanced budgets. A luxury we don’t have is time.
Judging the financial consequences of change
By Adele Taylor | 07 July 2020 We are all busy considering not just the short-term impact of additional costs and loss of income from the current global pandemic on our overall financial health, but also rapidly assessing what the medium-term is likely to look like. Being able to describe what judgments and assumptions we are making in simple terms becomes ever more important and when they alter, as more information becomes available, so too does being able to justify why they have changed.
Hoping for more certainty in the new funding world
By Adele Taylor | 04 March 2020 With the majority of councils now having set their budgets for the coming year against a backdrop of a future funding outlook that is ever more uncertain, it almost feels like we are in a strange twilight world where we are ready and poised to respond to changes we know are coming, but are waiting to see what actual funding reform looks like.
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