Public Appointments Limited has been formed to promote excellence across all areas of public life by ensuring the best possible appointments to both executive and non-executive posts in the public sector.

In the months and years ahead, profound changes will continue to affect the way in which all public sector organisations carry out their responsibilities. They will need people who have demonstrated their ability to lead organisational, managerial and, above all, cultural change.

As the pool of available managerial talent appears to shrink, the hopeful casting of bread on the waters of the classified advertisement pages and e-advertising simply will not be enough. The fundamental issue is successful search across the widest sensible talent base, encouraging key potential candidates to let their names go forward.

All of our consultants are not just experienced but have held senior positions in substantial organisations. A particular skill is our ability to source from the private and voluntary sectors outside candidates, where appropriate, into the public sector – as well as cross-over candidates within the public sector (e.g. from local to central government or from health to local government).

Above all, we look at the human fit and business culture, not purely job descriptions and organisational systems: with Dostoevsky, we believe that over-reliance on systems is inimical to real success: the essential issue at the top of any organisation is outcome, not process.

Many organisations claim to be able to advise the public sector on top level recruitment. Why is Public Appointments Limited different?

Track record: Public Appointments Limited is led by John Smith: he will be the lead consultant on most assignments and will see the appointment process through from start to finish. He has advised on successful public sector assignments for nearly twenty years.

Independent: we are one of the few consultancies which are not part of, or owned by, any other consulting group – we are not driven by share price or City short-termism.

Personal service: the consultants you see are the ones you get: clients are not handed over to junior consultants – the ones you see are involved in the appointment from start to finish.

Capacity: John Smith was the first consultant chosen to advise the then DoE on appointments to public bodies (following Nolan) in 1996, an exercise which involved advertising vacancies on 23 public bodies at one time, generating more than 7500 enquiries. Since 1988 John Smith has advised personally on more than 150 local government, 80 senior civil service, and 100 Board appointments. We can do a lot but we won’t take on work we can’t do well.

Specialists: in the public sector, with the ability and experience to advise on both executive and non-executive appointments. We see vacancies to be filled not as isolated incidents but as opportunities to analyse, reshape and motivate an organisation, drawing candidates from as wide a field a practicable, including the private sector.

Guarantee: if an appointed candidate leaves within twelve months, we will work with our client, for no fee, to find a replacement.

Fees fixed: based on the estimated difficulty of the assignment, not on the basis of a percentage of the first year’s salary.