City of York Council has appointed two new directors to its children and education team.
The news was announced the day after Ofsted published a critical report into children’s services at the authority.
Martin Kelly has been appointed corporate director of children and education at the council. He will begin work in summer.
Martin will move from North Yorkshire County Council where he is now the assistant director of children and families.
Danielle Johnson has been appointed director of children’s safeguarding. She joins on 1 August, again from North Yorkshire County Council where she is the senior head of safeguarding and partnerships.
According to the Ofsted report published yesterday (Wednesday), the quality of children’s services in York has declined and improvements are not being made quickly enough.
It says the service requires improvement. Inspectors found that some children remain in neglectful situations for too long, and that there was “significant variation” in the quality of services and social work practice.
Education lead Cllr Ian Cuthbertson welcomed the new faces, and thanked Anne Coyle for her work as interim director of children’s services. “She has driven significant improvement across the service since she started with us in October,” he said.
Martin Kelly said: “As well as supporting families I am looking forward to working with colleagues to advance the work they are doing with a real focus on the quality and consistency of our support and interventions.”
And Danielle Johnson said: “It is an exciting time: there is a huge amount of great work across the service and I am looking forward to exploring how we can build on this further and deliver the very best service for children and families across the city.”