Welcome from Director of Children’s Services

Dear Applicant,

I am very pleased that you are taking a serious interest in this exciting and challenging vacancy within Herefordshire Council’s Children and Young People’s Directorate.

We have restructured the department to ensure we are moving ahead with our work to develop Teams Around the Child and services in the field with co-location as a major target. This key role will have a major part to play in leading and developing our safeguarding service. We are ambitious – aiming to be an excellent authority and fully committed to the ECM agenda. We have recently reviewed the effectiveness of our Children’s Trust with a view to providing better cohesion and greater impact. We now need to drive forward the necessary improvements and changes required in safeguarding services for children as part of our overall strategy for improving children’s lives. We realise that safeguarding is a vital service and yet should also be an integral part for all children’s services workers and that good and effective responses are needed at all times and not just in light of heightened national interest.

We want the successful candidate to add momentum and energy, leadership and direction to our staff and partners. You will need to work closely with the senior management team to help achieve our aims but we hope you will bring new ideas too. I am looking for a galvanising of our departments and our schools to work with the local primary care trust, the hospital trust, the voluntary sector and all our other partner organisations to focus on achieving high standards against the five ECM outcomes.

From your point of view this could be the move that makes your career. I expect to appoint a fast moving manager who will ultimately become a director of children’s services and thus you will need to prove to me that you have the motivation, managerial skills and relevant experience to take on this challenge.

I would be very pleased to discuss this with you further and hope that you will apply.

Yours sincerely 

Sharon Menghini
Director of Children’s Services, Herefordshire Council.