The executive director of Cheshire East’s crisis-hit children’s services team is stepping down, it emerged today.
Deborah Woodcock, executive director of a department facing huge debts, has handed in her resignation.
Councillors were told of the move last night. Ms Woodcock had been in the position for two and a half years.
It comes just days after CEC Leader Cllr Sam Corcoran resigned his position.
This came amid the damning Ofsted report into the “inadequate” children’s services department, and the hard-hitting peer review report on the council from the Local Government Association.
This report warned Cheshire East is at risk of effective bankruptcy if it doesn’t take quick action.
The council is also facing a huge Special Educational Needs (SEN) debt of £80 million, which could rise to £1 billion by 2030.
Conservative Group leader Cllr Janet Clowes said today: “All members were informed of this decision yesterday, that she will be leaving at the end of July and the council is now beginning process of appointing a replacement.
“Given the recent report, it’s not a surprise, but there are no details why she is going, just that she is.
“We are being pushed towards a Sec 114 (bankruptcy) notice and we need a stronger pair of hands. Maybe it’s now time for a clean sweep through children’s services.”
Cllr Jos Saunders, Conservative opposition spokesperson for Children & Families, added: “What we need now in children’s services is stability and good leadership.
“However, following on the heels of the leader’s resignation, we now have the resignation of the Executive Director of Children’s Services.
“It is up to the new leader to steady the ship but will he continue his support for the current chairman of the Children and Families Committee (Carol Bulman Labour) or decide to have a reshuffle
“Either way, he needs to get a grip on this service and drive the improvements that are desperately needed.”
In his resignation speech to the council, Cllr Corcoran said: “The Labour group has always stressed supporting children so the Ofsted inadequate rating was a particular blow.
“As the leader of the council I feel the pain of these setbacks and I have to take responsibility.”
A Cheshire East Council spokesperson said: “Deborah Woodcock, the executive director for children’s services, will be leaving the council at the end of July after two and a half years.
“We would like to thank Deborah for her leadership in children’s services and steering the improvement journey to this stage.
“Deborah is a valued and respected member of the corporate leadership team and will be missed.
“She has been a committed champion of children and leaves in place an integrated structure to better meet children’s needs and the council’s challenging financial context, and ambitious colleagues who will continue the important work across children’s services.
“The council will now begin the process of recruiting a new executive director for children’s services.
“Deborah will remain in this key leadership post until the end of July and on behalf of the corporate leadership team and the wider organisation we wish Deborah every success for the future.”
Cheshire East Council seems to be very inept. So many ‘higher’ management jumping ship, after failing miserably in their jobs. Current council cannot do their jobs.
Simple answer to save money is to sack Mark Small, stop wasting money on so many cases needing to go through tribunal and meet needs. Offer Ian Donegani the directors job, at least he cares about the children and the impact not meeting needs has on families.
My grandson,like many other children have been let down very badly,he has no allocated school to go to in September, waiting on a tribunal this Monday coming up,this could take weeks for a decision,we could be looking at October,when the paper work has been finalised,a big thank you to Mark Small who has created a lot of this through his time wasting and arrogance,this teem has left parents feeling beyond demoralised,Cheshire East have been disgraceful.All these children want is to be treated with compassion.
Utterly criminal how these children have been let down, they will now struggle to achieve things we all take for granted, a steady job, prospects and ability to pay their way, sadly their needs have not been met, many will fall by the wayside through no fault of their own, to end up losers in life, the prisons are full of these young people sadly, just when we need effective leadership we have lack lustre candidates woefully incapable of creative thought and ambition such a waste, an epic failure wall to wall
It is sad to say, these Directors and Executives who fail and leave the cost of failure with the tax payers to foot the bill should be barred from taking Directorships or Senior Executive roles in the future.
Residents of Cheshire East are being punished for the incompetence which prevails in part within Cheshire East Council.
Enough is Enough.
The increase in Council Tax in April was above the rate of inflation, we face the charge for garden bins. Increased car parking charges. I am sure this is just the start.
If a Section114 Notice is issued we only have to look at Birmingham to see the consequences and the massive increase in Council Tax .
Probably gets rewarded for failure with a nice fat pension .
Also why do you need to recruit someone from outside of the organisation, surely the council will have a succession plan which gives people the opportunity to progress within, though that would make sense so let’s spend an enormous amount of money on recruitment in a department that is already in the red.
It’s not funny us bloody idiots are picking up the bill for this lot of incompetent people who run this council