Independent chair has been appointed to West Sussex County Council’s Children First Board

The news of Emily Brock’s appointment was shared during a meeting of the Health & Wellbeing Board.

Jacquie Russell, cabinet member for children & young people, had been serving as chair of the board but was happy to hand over the reins.

She said she was ‘absolutely delighted’ with the decision, adding: “One of the down sides as cabinet member in terms of chairing those boards is you become the facilitator rather than a contributor and observer – and I’d much rather be in that stance as opposed to chairing.”

The board was formed four years ago – not long after Ofsted rated children’s services ‘inadequate’ – and held its first meeting in October 2020.

The watchdog has since reported that things have ‘substantially improved’, and an improvement adviser from the Department for Education still works with the council.

Mrs Russell said that as and when the adviser ‘stepped away’ the board would be ‘the vehicle to continue to oversee the vital improvement within children’s services’.

The board has three main objectives – to improve outcomes for children and young people who live in the county or are cared for by West Sussex children’s services; to ensure that all agencies providing services for children and young people work together effectively; and to listen and respond to the views of children, young people and their families.

It meets four times a year and is made up of a wide range of organisations and groups, as well as young people, parents and carers.

Mrs Russell said it was felt that a restructure had been needed in order to engage more with young people and increase the number of partnership groups who attended their meetings.

She explained that as the board evolved it was felt that the voice of the children involved in their meetings ‘probably wasn’t as strong as it needed to be’.

So the meetings were split, with the second half dedicated solely to working with the children and young people.

The next meeting of the Board will be on July 23.