Val Garrett

I moved into HR by accident. I’d held a variety of roles in local government and when I moved to Burnley Council I spent some time filling in for a personnel manager. I decided to take that forward when a job came up as support services manager.

One of the highlights of my career was receiving Best Companies accreditation at Calico Housing in 2006. It was a real achievement that 80 per cent of senior managers in the organisation were women. We have done a lot to encourage women returning to jobs, allowing them to work flexibly or part time. When my husband died 18 months ago I was allowed to work flexibly, which made a huge difference. I later chose to work three days a week because I wanted to balance my life differently.