Croydon Council names Debbie Jones as interim DCS
Fiona Simpson
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Croydon Council has appointed former Ofsted national director for social care Debbie Jones as interim executive director for children, families and education.
Jones held the lead Ofsted role between 2013 and 2015 after a year as president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services in 2012.
She will replace Croydon’s outgoing executive director Rob Henderson who took up the role in 2018.
Jones will leave her role as corporate director for children and culture at Tower Hamlets where, under her leadership, children’s services went from an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating to achieve ‘good’ within two years.
She has also worked at local authorities including Lambeth, Luton, Stoke-on-Trent, Durham, Slough and Oxfordshire.
Jones also holds a post with the Department for Education, as local authority facilitator for safeguarding reform, which she will continue alongside her new role at Croydon.
Councillor Alisa Flemming, cabinet member for children, young people and learning, said: “Children and young people have always been our top priority and through our improvement programme, we have ensured that they are firmly at the heart of all we do.
“We were pleased to achieve a ‘good’ Ofsted rating earlier this year and despite the challenges we are facing post Covid-19, we are determined to keep on getting better, ensuring our most vulnerable children and families get the right help, at the right time. I look forward to working with Debbie, our staff, and children and families, as we develop our services to meet their needs now and in the future.”
Jones added: “I’m delighted to be joining Croydon at this time and look forward to working with members, staff across the service and organisation, and all of the council’s partners, all of whom have played a vital role in transforming and improving children’s social care to date.
“Croydon has made much progress in the last two years and put some solid foundations in place, creating the right environment for high quality practice to flourish. I look forward to working with the team across children’s services and education to build on these and together, drive forward even further improvements in a way that is sustainable for the council we want to become.”
Last month, the council put forward plans to make 36 staff redundant in an effort to save £4.1m from the children's services budget.
