Leading children's services in the 21st century

Those who lead children’s services need great school leaders in their local schools and those who lead schools need great children’s services leaders in their local authority.

When that partnership and collaboration works well, it is the children and young people who benefit. That is what we want to help to achieve as the whole range of children’s services is delivered in a more collaborative and personalised way.

The recent schools White Paper - Your child, your schools, our future – places schools firmly at the heart of this, with a key role in influencing the provision of services for all children in their local area and in narrowing the gap in achievement for the most vulnerable children. Headteachers will be supported in this role by their local director of children’s services, who will have a statutory responsibility to do so under the new statutory guidance on the Roles and Responsibilities of the Lead Member for Children’s Services and the Director of Children’s Services

Building on our long-standing experience of commissioning development programmes for school leaders, the National College is pleased to be working closely with the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) to provide a range of new leadership development programmes to eventually support every DCS and those close to stepping up to the role. These high quality leadership programmes will help children, young people and their families by further honing the leadership skills, knowledge and capability of DCSs and their teams, based on their own learning and development needs.

In a range of recently commissioned think pieces, current directors of children’s services describe the key priorities and challenges of their role. These think pieces highlight just how much the work of a director of children’s services is focused on schools. They also highlight how vital the link between schools and their DCS will be as the whole children’s services sector works to keep vulnerable children safe, narrow attainment gaps and secure the best possible outcomes for children, young people and their families.