Last week Marsland picked up Knowlsey's Beacon Council Award in the Integrating Children's Services category (Children Now, 23-29 March). But she claims Knowsley will "never be complacent" and "is still at the beginning of the process".
The real beginning of the process, though, was three years ago, when the council, in northwest England near Liverpool, was one of six local authorities invited to join a Department of Health leadership programme on children's services.
"That brought together some senior people to think about our strategic direction," says Marsland.
"We wanted to integrate services but didn't want to do it in a structural way."
Marsland was named as the council's director of social services in August 2000, but it was her appointment to her current, joint role in May 2002 that showed how serious the council was about integrating services.
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