Unit for children replaced in government shake-up

The Children and Young People’s Unit (CYPU) has been
replaced by the Children and Young People’s Directorate and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.”