However, for Gateshead's director of children's services Maggie Atkinson, her inauguration today (9 April) as the first female president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) is less noteworthy, than the fact she is the first person to head up the organisation alone.
Atkinson, who was vice president of the ADCS, says: "I have two very big pairs of shoes to fill, following former joint presidents John Coughlan and John Freeman. That's quite a double act to follow - and there's only one of me."
She is full of praise for her predecessors: "If we look back to 2005/06 what we had was the Association of Directors of Social Services and Confed. To get to where we are now, in terms of the ADCS being one organisation to whom government turns to for advice, working group presence, feedback and reflection on matters to do with children and young people less than two years in, is a remarkable achievement."
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