All about the role of ... Director of children's services
Friday, November 9, 2012
Managing substantial budgets and ensuring that children's services are delivered to the highest standard within a local authority are part of this highly responsible role. Anne Hayes outlines the career path to this position
Every upper tier local authority is required to appoint a director of children's services (DCS). The functions of the role, as set out in the Children Act 2004, include responsibility for children and young people receiving education or children's social care services in their area, and all children looked after by the LA or in custody. It is a politically restricted statutory child officer post and the only job in local government that has a national job description. The holder has responsibility for substantial budgets.
Working closely with the lead member for Children's Services, the DCS provides strategic local leadership and development to meet the safety, educational, social and emotional needs of children and young people. He or she creates opportunities for co-operation with local partners in health, police, schools, housing services, early years, youth justice, probation, higher and further education and employers with the aim of providing a holistic package of services.
The DCS must ensure that there are effective arrangements to protect children and young people and co-ordinates the effectiveness of arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in their area. The DCS also ensures that disabled children and those with special education needs can access high quality provision that meets their needs and fund provision for children with statements of SEN.
QUALIFICATIONS AND TRAINING
Directors of social services come from a variety of backgrounds within education and social care. They hold professional qualifications at degree level including a management qualification such as the MBA. Applicants should have at least five years' senior management or board-based experience with responsibility for leading and developing education and/or children's services in a sizeable organisation and with evidence of successful outcomes.
The Virtual Staff College is the body which is accountable for all of the DCS leadership provision up until 2015. It delivers training programmes both for serving and aspirant directors, in particular the DCS Leadership Programme. This programme is offered on an annual basis with individual programme components changing each year to reflect developments in the sector and the needs of participants. Its modular format gives participants opportunities to shape their personal programme in response to their learning needs balanced against their commitments. The programme that begins in April 2013 is comprised of the following elements:
- Core concepts modules
- Strategic leadership seminars
- Applied leadership seminars
- Action learning
- Coaching
- Work-based learning.
Programme delivery is through a range of media both face-to-face during residential events, group sessions, one-to-one coaching and online. For the current cycle, all events are free to eligible participants with the exception of personal coaching. Directors of children's services choose which modules to participate in for the coming year during the annual registration. A learning co-ordinator and the Virtual Staff College team support them throughout. Residential events are held at the National College for School Leadership's Learning and Conference Centre in Nottingham and other elements of the programme are delivered regionally.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Association of Directors of Children's Services
CASE STUDY: PETE DWYER
Pete Dwyer became York's DCS in July 2007 having already been employed in the city for six years as the assistant director for Children's Social Care. Prior to that he spent 18 years working for Leeds City Council, initially as a social worker and then in management roles of increasing seniority.
Mr Dwyer says, 'Being DCS is the most remarkable role. It is a privilege to be in a post whose aim it is to lead improvement in the lives and futures of our most precious and valuable asset - our children and young people.
Our work not only makes a difference to the here and now and to individual outcomes but as a result it is potentially helping to influence the future. Young people are that future and their skills, attitudes, value base and confidence will dictate the nature of that future.
'In York, our greatest strength is our partnership working which Ofsted recently described as outstanding.
The sense that wherever organisationally people sit, whether they are in the public or voluntary sector, employed by health, school or the local authority, they are working to the same collective ends and espouse the same values and commitment to our children and young people.
'We are working extremely hard in York, to safely reduce the numbers of children in the care of the local authority. We believe that children are best cared for wherever possible within their own or extended family and yet like most authorities we have seen increases in the numbers of children in care over recent years. We are working hard putting new services in place which should create more capacity to help families remain safely together.
'The challenges of being director of children's services are continuous, whether it be steering a route through council budget setting, responding to the requirements of inspectors or dealing with the call that says a local school is on fire - there is no shortage of opportunities to collectively extend our leadership skills.'
