MiP’s workplace reps come from all walks of life, bringing the same breadth of experience to representing members that they bring to their day jobs as managers. None more so than Catherine McCarthy, MiP’s new rep at the Health Research Authority (HRA) who, as head of the organisation’s corporate portfolio office, is now into her third different career.

A geography graduate, Catherine joined Sainsbury’s as a junior programmer from university. “It was almost by accident — it was the only IT job I applied for,” she recalls. Recruiting arts and social science graduates was an “experiment” for the supermarket giant, she explains. “They wanted to grow the business analysts and project managers of the future and none of the maths and computer science people wanted to take that route. So that worked out well for me.”

For a non-IT specialist, the learning curve was steep, she says. “I did programming. I did some testing. I did design work, business analysis and worked my way up to become a project manager and then a programme manager.”

Her 15 years at Sainsbury’s stood her in good stead, but before joining the HRA in 2016, Catherine went in a very different direction: teaching computer studies at north London’s Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ school for 11 years. “I really enjoyed teaching but then changes came in which meant a lot of excessive paperwork and the workload went through the roof,” she recalls.

Looking for another change of direction, an analyst vacancy in the HRA’s project management office caught her eye. “Looking back over my career, the bit I’d enjoyed most was the project and programme management,” she says. “I got a real sense that this would be the right job for me.”

Set up in 2011, the HRA is the arm’s length body that oversees and regulates health research in England. All health research proposals — from NHS bodies, universities, charities or pharmaceutical companies — must be submitted to the HRA for approval.

As head of the corporate portfolio office, Catherine manages the process for deciding where the HRA should invest its money. She and her team review the business cases for internal projects, monitor progress and make recommendations on where the organisation should focus its efforts and resources. Currently, those projects include the HRA’s ‘research systems programme’, which involves the replacing the core system for submitting research proposals, and a review of its procedures for clinical trials, which need to be brought into line with new legislation.

“I particularly enjoy developing people,” Catherine says. “Six of us have just gone through the government accreditation process for project delivery — that was a massive achievement. I also enjoy improving our capability and maturity in delivering our projects and programmes, and knowing that we’re helping the organisation to use its money wisely.”

But there are frustrations too. Getting accurate financial information on projects and programmes can be “tricky”, she says, while not having a dedicated project management tool — “we’ve been waiting eight years and we’ve got nowhere” — means relying on spreadsheets and PowerPoint files. Previous cuts to project manager posts have also had a negative impact on the team. “What we do is not always understood or valued,” she says.

Like many managers, it was a brush with organisational change that persuaded Catherine to join MiP and become active in the union. Unhappy with proposed changes to management structures and a potential increase in workload, she contacted MiP national officer Steve Smith. “Steve was absolutely fantastic. He told me to just stick to my job description. Knowing I could just say ‘no’ felt like a weight being lifted from my shoulders,” she recalls. MiP supported Catherine with a formal grievance, resulting in an improved outcome for her and the team.

Invited to become a rep earlier this year, Catherine quickly completed MiP’s training course. “I thought, the union has been really good to me,” she says. “If I hadn’t joined, I would just have left, I suppose. But I didn’t want them to get away with it.”

Catherine sees further changes in the pipeline having a big impact on MiP-level staff at the NRA. “There’s going to be more digital roles and I think a lot of operational roles will disappear. So that penny is starting to drop with people,” she explains.

She hopes to expand MiP’s small membership at the authority and is looking out for another rep to join her. While being a senior manager and union rep can be “a weird position”, Catherine says, “I feel quite empowered by it really. I can do a good job in helping the organisation avoid problems… It’s an almost unique position to do good.” //