Finding the best for children
The post of children's services director is a demanding one but there are still managers up for the challenge, says Shahidul Miah
An article written by Navigate for the MJ (04.03.10)
Being a director of children's services is a tough job and it didn’t get any easier with the high profile dismissal of Sharon Shoesmith in the wake of the Baby P affair.
Suddenly the men and women in charge of children’s safeguarding were thrust into the spotlight and the difficulties of managing what is generally acknowledged as local authority’s most sensitive service were exposed once again.
It would be foolish to claim that the Baby P case and its fall-out in Haringey has not had an impact on the recruitment market for directors of children’s services. There is no doubt that many second tier officers are now thinking twice about putting themselves in the firing line for a post which entails such a detailed and sometimes harsh scrutiny of their professional lives.
But that’s not the whole story. A recent survey showed that nearly one in five authorities is looking to replace their directors of children’s services. The vast majority of these changes were due to impending retirement or because the incumbent had been promoted or had moved to another job.
And there are a lot of people out there who are still up for the challenge of running children’s services. Working in leadership development, we have come across many senior managers who are ambitious but who also want to make a difference to children’s lives. They aren’t just content to keep the wheels of the system oiled and they are not going to be deterred by the prospect of tabloid headlines.
It’s almost like the market for football managers. Despite the pressures, there are still people willing to have a crack at the job. Our task is to work with local authorities in finding the right calibre of people who can not only have a crack at it, but do it well.
However, the Baby P case has changed the mindset of many local authorities as to what the right kind of candidate will be. When children’s services departments were first set up, having an education background was seen as the priority area. Now we find that clients emphasise the need for a strong social care background when they are weighing up the kind of people they need to take charge.
But that does not mean that those with an education background can forget about aspiring to the top job in children’s services.
For example, in local authorities where there is a confidence about the strength of their social services then councillors and chief executives may be willing to look at someone from an education background to run their children’s services, because they know the underlying system is sound.
Post-election, things may change yet again if a new government decides to radically alter the education landscape or restructure Ofsted’s responsibilities.
But regardless of what happens politically, what’s really needed in a director of children’s services is the right kind of leadership qualities. Those qualities include the ability to know what’s really going on at the front line, whether it be in the school music service or a social work department.
It’s about being able to forge partnerships with health service, with youth justice and third sector partners. It’s having the negotiating skills to work with other agencies and having the intellectual capacity to see the bigger picture rather than the departmental brief. And finally, it’s the ability to build support and communicate your ideas in such attractive terms that people want to be part of your team.
Those skills can be found amongst educationalists and those with a social care background. They can be found in local government in the health service or in the voluntary sector.
Part of our task is to identify the individuals who have those skills and help local authorities recruit them and it’s a task we take seriously. But in the long term, we also want to assist councils to “grow their own” leaders who can step up to the challenge of leading children’s services. Succession planning is already recognised as a sensible approach to providing the school leaders of the future. There is no reason why authorities cannot plan to create a leadership pool of their own for the wider area of children’s services. Navigate is currently working with the National College on a number of contracts including Succession Planning for Children's Services.
In the end, that may be the best insurance against the tabloid headlines that every local authority fears.
Navigate Group is a specialist leadership consultancy bringing a fresh and creative approach to finding, recruiting and developing leaders in education and children’s services for schools, colleges, local authorities and government agencies. Navigate provides the permanent and consultant leadership needed to deliver improvements in education and children’s services through school improvement, recruiting headteachers and college principals, supporting children’s services, developing leaders and providing flexible leadership capacity.
