Better lives.
THE
AMBITION
IS HERE.
Children's Services Directorate
Our vision is for Dudley to be a wonderful place for children and young people to grow up. We are Child Friendly Dudley, where we understand that all partners and people need to work together to create an environment where children can flourish.
In Children’s Services, our mission is children first and at the heart of all we do. We have a crucial role to play in ensuring that children and young people receive the support they need to achieve their full potential.
Our values are:
• Valuing family life
• Good education for all
• Protection from harm
• Embracing diversity
We have recently undertaken a whole service redesign whilst embracing restorative practices and moving towards embedding our Family Safeguarding model that was launched in 2023 and which fits with our valuing family life principles and brings together multidisciplinary teams to focus on supporting parents/carers to meet their children’s needs
Our challenge is to harness the passion and commitment of our staff, to streamline our structure and processes so that capacity is released to work alongside families to improve their experience of our services. We recognise the importance of investing in our workforce and are committed to giving you the opportunity for staff to develop their knowledge and skills through our learning and development offer provided by our innovative and Ofsted-recognised Centre for Professional Practice.
We have reprovisioned our family centres into family hubs, providing a vibrant base in local towns where a range of partners and services come together with children and families. One priority for us is ensuring that our early years provision is closely aligned with partners through the 1001 Days programme. Early help is being redefined to provide clarity about the breadth of definition and we have reshaped our MASH and Early Helpdesk into a single streamlined Front Door that responds swiftly to ensure children are moved to the service they need.
Our SEND Improvement Programme aims to ensure that every child with special needs achieves their full potential. The Dudley Local Area SEND Partnership, made up of the Council, Black Country ICB, Dudley Parent Carer Forum, NHS Health providers, schools, colleges, employees, parents and carers and children and young people, is working together to deliver positive outcomes and improved lives. We await the outcome of the Ofsted and CQC Inspection of the SEND Local Area in March 2025.
Directorate Structure
Led by Karen Graham, as Acting Director, the service is composed of two key areas of focus: Education, SEND and Family Solutions, and Social Care.
We are currently recruiting for two posts:
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Service Director for Education, SEND and Family Solutions
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Service Director for Children's Social Care
Both of these positions will be supported by an experienced senior management team, alongside the director, Karen. The directorate has an establishment of 1149 staff with just over 800 full-time equivalents.
