Cheshire East agrees new director post for children’s services

Cheshire East Council has agreed to create a new director’s post in children’s services to oversee its safeguarding practices, writes Belinda Ryan.

The post had to be agreed at full council as the salary could be in excess of £100,000.

Ofsted, which recently rated the service as inadequate, and the Local Government Authority both referred to the lack of capacity in the department in their recent reports.

Cllr Carol Bulman (Middlewich, Lab), chair of the children and families committee, told the full council: “Since Ofsted, we have had an improvement and impact action plan.

“It’s going well, but it reviewed the capacity of children’s services and concluded that, to achieve an effective leadership structure, we needed a director of commissioning, quality assurance and partnership.

“This new director will ensure that resources are used effectively and that budgeting, funding allocations and workforce development deliver sustainable, high-quality services for our children and families.

“Safeguarding children is clearly paramount, and having a director dedicated to overseeing our safeguarding practices will give the council, the DfE, Ofsted, our parents, our residents, absolute assurance regarding the welfare of our children.”

Cllr Jos Saunders, who was portfolio holder for children and families under the previous Conservative administration until 2019, said the council had held vacancies in the department over recent years to reduce costs.

“However, these vacancies have not reduced costs, in fact they’ve probably contributed to our financial difficulties,” she said.

“There’s only so much a hollowed-out service can achieve.”

She asked how staff could be expected to achieve good results when there were so many empty posts.

“And I personally think that this approach contributed not only to the highly critical report of our services for children at risk of exploitation, where we still face challenges two years on, but also to our inadequate Ofsted inspection,” said Cllr Saunders.

Nantwich Cllr Geoff Smith (Lab) said: “I think we need to put it into context in terms of what we’ve been having to deal with over the past 14 years, in terms of recruitment and the significant, significant under investment from central government.”

Cllr Becky Posnett (Bunbury, Con) asked if the council could afford the post and was assured by Cllr Bulman it was fully funded.

The majority of councillors voted in favour of creating the new post, with six abstaining.