Council presses on with children task

Gloucestershire has become one of the first councils to appoint a
senior manager to develop the role of new children’s services
directors outlined in the Children Bill.

The new head of children and young people’s strategy role is
managed jointly by the executive directors of social services and
education and sits between the two services.

Moira Swann, the council’s head of services for children and
families, has been appointed to the position. Darren Shaw has
joined the council in her previous post. The new role crosses
education and social services, with direct managerial
responsibility for services such as early years and reintegrating
children with behavioural problems into school.

Swann also has strategic responsibilities for looking at how the
council should address the director of children’s services role
structurally.

Margaret Sheather, the council’s executive director of social
services, said the role gave the council the chance to create some
“capacity” before appointing a children’s services director.