Director of children's services must remain its own post

In her recent review, Eileen Munro recommends that local authorities should give due consideration to protecting the discrete roles and responsibilities of a Director of Children’s Services and Lead Member of Children’s Services before allocating any additional functions to those roles.

Bringing together these individual roles, and even merging the posts of Director of Children’s and Adult’s Services, is not only unwise, it is retrograde.  The post of Director of Children’s Services is already a substantial one, created to ensure that there is a holistic approach to the services we provide children, including child protection. This post is already responsible for safeguarding, planning and funding education, support for vulnerable children and young people amongst other duties.

Whilst I understand that localism is the order of the day, having a single Director of Children’s Services is a point which should not be conceded. The responsibilities that this post holds are fundamental to the protection and development of young people across the country. This should be non-negotiable.