New boss at children's services

For the first time in my life I am reproducing, in full, a council press release. Readers of previous blog posts will understand why:


Cornwall Council has appointed a new Director to lead services for Children, Schools and Families in Cornwall.

Trevor Doughty, who will take up his new role on 12 May, has a wealth of experience in social care services. A former social worker, he worked for both East Sussex and West Sussex County Councils before becoming Director of Social Services at South Tyneside Council in 2000 where he helped transform the service from a 'poor rating' to one assessed as serving most people well.

He joined Northumberland County Council as its Director of Children's Services in 2004. The authority had failed its Ofsted inspection the previous year and Trevor successfully amalgamated services to create the one of the first Children's Trust in the country. He also developed and implemented a comprehensive post Ofsted improvement plan which led to children's services being assessed as "good" in 2007, and played a key role in helping the Council to achieve an "excellent" rating in its CPA inspection. .

When Northumberland became a unitary council in 2008, he became the authority's Director of Children's Services and his role was expanded to include all of child community health on behalf of the NHS, as well as additional responsibilities for Fire and Rescue, Community Safety and Emergency Planning. This involved managing a gross budget of £350million and approximately 8,000 staff, including schools. Northumberland's children's services were highly rated in that year's annual performance assessment, with safeguarding services receiving an "outstanding" score.

Welcoming the appointment, Alec Robertson, the Leader of Cornwall Council and Neil Burden, the Council's Cabinet for Children, said "This is undoubtedly one of the most important jobs in Cornwall at this time.

"Cornwall Council is committed to providing a high quality service which meets the needs of all children, young people and families in Cornwall. We have made significant progress in addressing the issues identified in the Ofsted report over the past few months and are currently waiting for our improvement plan to be finally signed off by the Minister. We would like to thank Richard Hubbard and Kevin Peers who have led this vital piece of work in partnership with Lucy de Groot, the independent Chair of our Children's Improvement Board.

"We now need to implement the improvement plan and build on the progress which has already been made. Trevor's background in social care and his impressive track record in working with partners to create high quality and effective children's services make him an ideal person for this job.

"This appointment means that there is now a very strong team in place to lead children's services in Cornwall and we will now be working together to create an excellent service for our children, young people and families".

Trevor Doughty said "I am delighted to be joining Cornwall. There is already excellent work going on to improve Children's Services and I look forward to playing my part in ensuring that Cornwall has the best possible services for its children and young people and their families."