Celebrating our colleagues
Genette Laws
Position: Director of Commissioning
Team: Commissioning
Division and department: Children’s and Adults Services
Length of service: 3 years
When I was asked to write a statement about my career for Black History Month, my first reaction was to decline the opportunity. Then I remembered that I stand on the shoulders of those who came before me, and I have often been inspired by seeing people who looked like me making a difference to people’s lives, so here goes.
I’m Genette Laws, Director of Commissioning in the Children’s and Adults Services department. I have been with Southwark for over 3 years. I got here via a civil engineering degree and masters in Property Development, which took me to work with British Rail and Balfour Beatty; I moved away from engineering to the, now, Legal Services Commission, and then local government and commissioning.
I joined Southwark because I had the opportunity to work in a department that supported different generations within families and communities - from the cradle to the grave. My professional achievements, to-date, are listed in LinkedIn. I am very proud of my team, colleagues and partners during the initial response to the pandemic; I was particularly humbled but the frontline care workers of our providers when supporting our most vulnerable residents during very difficult times. A non-Covid achievement that I am most proud of are the ones that I am most proud include seeing members of my team or colleagues creating their best work and inspiring others to do the same: The creation of the Nest was led by Cynthia Davis, our AD for Commissioning, with members of her team – all of them being flexible with their time to ensure that engagement with young people and their families were at times that suited our residents rather than our 9 to 5 jobs.
For the remainder of the year, I am keen to support colleagues and partners to deliver the objectives in Partnership Southwark’s Recovery Plan for Health and care as well as the ambitions in our refreshed Council Plan and Southwark Stands Together report
Page last updated: 20 August 2021
