Slough Council takes control of children’s services trust

The trust was established in October 2015 after the Department for Education intervened to remove responsibility for children's services from the council.

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This followed "inadequate" Ofsted ratings in 2011, 2013 and 2015, as well as highly critical monitoring reports, which included concerns over delays in taking action to help at-risk children.

However, following a rating of “requires improvement to be good” from the inspectorate in March 2019, the trust will transition to Slough Children First, a company wholly-owned by the council, on 1 April.

As part of the transition, several elements of children's services currently run within  the council, including the Early Help Hub and Family Information Services, and services to assist young people into education and employment, will move to Slough Children First. 

The role of chief executive has been combined with the director of children's services role at the council. 

This change has already taken place with Eleni Ioannides named as interim chief executive in October last year.

Ioannides was director of children’s services at Bury Council until 2011 when she retired to take on a string of interim posts including interim director of Brighter Futures for Children in Reading and interim director of children’s services in Croydon.

She has also held similar roles in Middlesbrough and Birmingham.

Ioannides said: “This is a pivotal moment for children's social care in Slough. The trust has made tremendous strides since it was set up and the team has done an incredible job to achieve substantial improvements in services.

"However, we recognise that to take us to the next level we need to work more closely together with the council, wholly focused on our mutual prize of the best possible services to children and families in Slough. The company will remain operationally independent of the council, but will be more strategically aligned.”