I am the Director of Local Delivery for West quadrant and have been in Essex for eight-and-a-half-years. Before coming to Essex I worked in five different London boroughs and the move to a county was very interesting, as it requires a different scale of working with lots of opportunities and challenges.
I’m responsible for all the social work teams in West quadrant, which takes in the districts of Uttlesford, Harlow, Epping Forest and Brentwood. I also have overall responsibility for the county-wide fostering, SGO and adoption and placements services, and the Emergency Duty Service.
I hold the strategic lead for children-in-care and young people leaving care, including Corporate Parenting. This area of work has been a particular love of mine since before I qualified as a social worker and this hasn’t changed. I am one of the Adoption Decision Makers for ECC.
Working in Essex has been exhilarating and hugely rewarding as we’ve worked hard together to create the conditions that have seen children’s social care move from inadequate to outstanding. We’ve developed some truly creative innovative projects which have made a real difference to children’s and families lives. Never complacent, we know there’s so much more to do – not least, of course, managing the impact of Covid-19. But we’re confident we’re ready to step up to the challenges ahead.