The Children and Young People’s Unit (CYPU) has been replaced by the Children and Young People’s Directorate and will be controlled by the former head of the teenage support service, Connexions, writes Natasha Salari.
From next month the new directorate will come under the jurisdiction of Anne Weinstock, encompassing Connexions, the Teenage Pregnancy Unit and the Children’s Fund, which aims to tackle child poverty and exclusion.
The directorate will run alongside four others, Starting Early, which covers Sure Start and will be headed by the director of Sure Start, Naomi Eisenstadt, and Safeguarding Children and Supporting Families, headed by Althea Efunshile, the former director of the old CYPU.
Heads of the other two other directorates, Local Transformation and Workforce and Common Assessments, have not been appointed as yet because the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has said that it is still in the initial stages of restructuring, and that the details are still being established.
From this week Tom Jeffery will oversee all the directorates as the first director general for children and families at the DfES.
The department decided to re-structure its senior management team when responsibility for policies on children and families was transferred from the Department of Health in June. Jeffery will play a central role in achieving the government’s aim to deliver fully integrated children’s services and the commitments made in the green paper ‘Every Child Matters’.
Neera Charma, Barnardo's principal policy officer, said: “We hope that the directorate has a clear and transparent structure that is maintained and easy to understand. We want the directorate to be strong on how it can work across government and link into other departments to work positively for children.”
