ADCS presidency to be focused on recovery Derren Hayes Tuesday, April 27, 2021
New ADCS president for 2021/22 Charlotte Ramsden sets out her key priorities and how she will apply a collaborative style of leadership.
Charlotte Ramsden is director of people at Salford City Council Register now to continue reading Thank you for visiting
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New ADCS president: this is the year to ‘reset the ambition for children’
Charlotte Ramsden says she will use her platform to urge a long-term plan for children and families as part of pandemic recovery, and that the care review will only succeed with the investment to back it up
Charlotte Ramsden (source: ADCS)
With a feeling of hope at lockdown restrictions lifting, incoming Association of Directors of Children’s Services president Charlotte Ramsden says this year “feels like the year to reset the ambition for children and young people” and that now is a “really exciting time for children”.
Children and families need £12.5bn over three years, says new ADCS president
The growing number of children and families who need support to thrive, not just survive in the wake of the pandemic will need investment of around £12.5bn over three years, says England s new children’s services chief.
In her inaugural address yesterday, incoming president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) Charlotte Ramsden said ‘everyone has everything crossed for a multi-year spending review settlement for April 2022 onwards’.
She added: ‘There are crystal clear moral and economic imperatives for investing now in children and their life chances. ADCS members believe that’s a lot of money but it would be worth every penny to create a country that works for all children.’
New ADCS president criticises ‘child-blind’ health white paper
The new president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services has criticised the health and social care white paper for its “silence around children’s health needs”.
In her inaugural address, Charlotte Ramsden said she felt strongly that structural health reforms “regularly overstate the benefits that structural reform can achieve and routinely underestimate the disruption they cause”.
Ms Ramsden, who is strategic director for people at Salford City Council, said the “emerging operating model” for Integrated Care Systems that will underpin the reforms “appears to have forgotten children”. “This is so infuriating particularly given the efforts recently of the Department for Education and the Department for Health and Social Care to bring mental health support closer to schools”.
More than 75,000 children are being home schooled this year with over 20,000 children falling off the school roll amid the Covid pandemic.
An estimated 75,668 children and young people are being home educated across England, according to figures gathered on the first school census day of the 2020/21 academic year.
This represents an increase of some 38 per cent from the year before - with parents citing health concerns relating to Covid as the main reason for keeping their children at home.
But it comes amid fears that vulnerable children are falling through the gaps.
The chief inspector of schools in England, Amanda Spielman, said the figures were concerning .