When she was appointed in 2010, Meera Spillett was one of five directors of children’s services in England from black, Asian and minoritised ethnic backgrounds.
More than a decade later, and the picture has changed somewhat. The latest data from the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) shows there were at least 11 directors of children’s services from racially diverse backgrounds as of September 2023.
Of 115 directors or children’s trust chief executives who took part in the ADCS’s annual survey, five identified as mixed or multiple ethnicity, four as Asian and two as black.
“There is progress, but it is at a glacial pace,” says Spillett. “It is not going to improve until people in these senior leadership groups, which are majority white, look around the room and say ‘Why are we so over-represented?’”
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