A former Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) president has been appointed chief social worker for adults.
Sarah McClinton will succeed Lyn Romeo in January 2025, a year after the longstanding chief left the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) position.
McClinton, who was ADASS president from 2022-23, will work alongside Robert Lewis, who has been appointed mental health social work lead in the department, a role he has already started.
As chief social worker, McClinton’s role will be to advise ministers on adult social work policy and provide leadership to adults’ practitioners across England.
Long search for Romeo’s replacement
McClinton’s appointment follows a long search for a replacement for Romeo, who was chief social worker for adults from 2013-24.
The DHSC’s initial attempt to recruit a new chief, in late 2023, failed, after which it readvertised the position at a higher salary: £120,000-£130,000 per year, up from £100,000.
This was more in line with the pay of chief social worker for children and families, Isabelle Trowler, whom the Department for Education lists as being on a salary of between £145,000 and £149,999.
Latest recruit from senior council role
Like Romeo, Trowler, and Mark Harvey and Fran Leddra, who held the chief social worker for adults’ role on secondment from 2019-21, McClinton has been recruited from a senior local authority role.
Since 2019, she has been deputy chief executive and director of health and adult services at Greenwich council, her third director’s role since 2010, prior to which she was an assistant director for about eight years.
Before entering senior management, she worked as a specialist HIV social worker, and she has maintained her social work registration during her time in leadership.
While McClinton’s career has largely been in local government, she has previously worked in the civil service, as director of mental health, disability and dementia in the then Department of Health, from 2014-16.
She said: “I am delighted to be appointed to this important role towards the beginning of a new government and look forward to working closely with colleagues both inside and outside the department.”
New mental health social work lead
Lewis, like his predecessors as mental health social work lead, Jason Brandon and Mark Trewin, has been seconded into the role from a local authority management post, in his case, AMHP service manager at Devon council.
The DHSC said his new responsibilities included supporting improvement in mental health social work in councils, the NHS and other sectors, and fostering the sustainability of the AMHP workforce.
The workforce is 35% short of what is required to provide a 24-hour service, according to a survey of AMHP leads earlier this year.
In a post on LinkedIn announcing his appointment, Lewis said: “Having the opportunity to help shape and influence mental health social work, social care, and approved mental health professional policy and practice at such a high level is unique and something I could never take for granted.
“I really do not feel like it is my job, it belongs to all of us and I hope I can represent colleagues in the way that they need and deserve.”
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 
Hampshire County Council 
Lincolnshire County Council 
Norfolk County Council 
Northamptonshire Children’s Trust 
South Gloucestershire Council 
Wiltshire Council 
Wokingham Borough Council 
Children and young people with SEND are ‘valued and prioritised’ in Wiltshire, find inspectors 
How specialist refugee teams benefit young people and social workers 
Podcast: returning to social work after becoming a first-time parent 
Podcast: would you work for an inadequate-rated service? 
Family help: one local authority’s experience of the model 
‘We are all one big family’: how one council has built a culture of support 
Workforce Insights – showcasing a selection of the sector’s top recruiters 
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
Instagram
The wheels turn but the destination is never reached.
Great diversity! 🫣
You can’t be what you can’t see!
The irony is the ‘Chief Social Worker’ is not a grass roots or front line Social Worker, all they are is a person in Senior Management. Big deal, they are out of touch, and have likely not completed a home visit in the last 20 years. Shame on SWE, the Government. I want to see a normal Social Worker who represents ME, not another Senior Manager on a huge salary with no clue.
Surely if the job “belongs to all of us” it’s as diverse as it can be Jen. Mind none of the perks and the salary belongs to all of us so perhaps it’s just words after all.