Ofsted loses second national director of social care in three months as interim leaves

Ofsted’s director of social care improvement, and interim national director of social care, has left the organisation to become the director of children’s services in Cheshire East.

Kathy O’Dwyer was in post at Ofsted for just over a year. She will be the second person to vacate the national director of social care job in three months, after she took up the role on an interim basis following Debbie Jones’ departure in April.

‘Instrumental’

She will remain in the national director of social care role until September, where she will work on the development of new multi-agency inspections and ensure changes in the single inspection framework are implemented successfully.

O’Dwyer was “instrumental” in implementing Ofsted’s improvement offer to local authorities, chief inspector Michael Wilshaw said.

O’Dwyer said her time at Ofsted had been “incredibly rewarding”. “It has been particularly pleasing to see more local authority children’s services performing well and attaining good judgements in recent inspections,” she said.