Wokingham reinstates dedicated DCS post
Joe Lepper
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wokingham Borough Council has been forced to backtrack on a senior management overhaul that saw its director of children's services also serve as interim chief executive.
Under the original plans, director of children’s services Andy Couldrick had been appointed as interim chief executive for up to 12 months from December last year.
In a report presented to councillors this week it emerged that combining the two roles contravenes statutory government guidelines.
New plans agreed by councillors mean Couldrick will only handle the chief executive brief and former London Borough of Newham director of children’s services Pauline Maddison will join as interim director of children services.
Another factor in the decision to appoint an interim, dedicated director of children’s services (DCS) was the likely inspection of the department by Ofsted this May.
The department was judged as "inadequate" by the inspectorate in 2009, but successfully turned around its performance when inspectors returned a year later.
The report to members states: "For these reasons, it is deemed appropriate to re-establish, on an interim basis, the discrete dedicated DCS function, to add assurance to the council and to add capacity to the leadership team in children's services."
