Leading for Every Child: Becoming a Director of Children’s Services

Stepping into the role of Director of Children’s Services (DCS) is one of the most demanding, rewarding, and high-stakes leadership positions in local government. It’s not just about managing services it’s about shaping lives, safeguarding futures, and leading with integrity in a complex, ever-evolving landscape. As a DCS, you are entrusted with the wellbeing of thousands of children and families. You become the moral compass of your council’s children’s agenda, responsible for ensuring that every child regardless of background, ability, or circumstance has the opportunity to thrive. The role demands not only technical expertise in safeguarding, education, and social care, but also the courage to challenge systemic inequalities, the vision to drive transformation, and the resilience to lead through scrutiny, crisis, and change.

This is a role where leadership is personal. Every decision you make has real-world consequences. Every policy you shape, every budget you defend, and every partnership you build must be rooted in a deep commitment to children’s rights, voice, and outcomes. As one former DCS put it:

“You don’t just lead a department you lead a promise to every child in your borough that they matter.”

In a time of rising demand, stretched resources, and increasing complexity, the DCS must be both strategist and servant leader. You’ll need to navigate political pressures, regulatory frameworks, and workforce challenges, all while keeping children at the heart of every conversation. It’s a role that requires clarity of purpose, emotional intelligence, and an unwavering belief in the power of public service.

What You Need to Know to Be Ready

Preparing to become a Director of Children’s Services (DCS) is not simply a matter of climbing the career ladder it’s about cultivating a mindset, a skillset, and a moral compass that can withstand the pressures of one of the most scrutinised roles in local government. The best DCSs are not just operationally competent they are visionary, values-driven, and relentlessly focused on outcomes for children. To be ready, you must develop a blend of strategic, operational, and relational capabilities.

According to the Department for Education, the role demands:

• Strategic leadership: You must be able to translate national policy into local action, aligning children’s services with broader council priorities such as health inequalities, housing, and community safety. This means thinking beyond your department and influencing the corporate agenda.

• Expert knowledge: A deep understanding of safeguarding legislation, education policy, SEND frameworks, and social care law is essential. You’ll need to interpret complex statutory guidance, respond to inspection regimes, and ensure compliance while driving innovation.

• Financial acumen: Children’s services budgets often run into the tens or hundreds of millions. You’ll be expected to manage these resources wisely, balancing statutory duties with preventative investment, and making tough decisions under financial pressure.

• System leadership: The DCS must operate across boundaries working with NHS partners, schools, police, voluntary organisations, and other council departments. You’ll need to build trust, broker collaboration, and lead integrated responses to complex challenges.

• Emotional intelligence: Perhaps most importantly, you must lead with empathy, humility, and resilience. The role involves navigating crises, supporting staff through trauma, and engaging with families in distress. Your ability to remain calm, compassionate, and clear-headed will define your leadership.

As Sally Rowe, former DCS and Ofsted HMI, wisely noted:

“Leadership development is critical. You need to adopt a corporate mindset and understand the complexities of internal and external partnerships.”

This means recognising that children’s services do not exist in isolation. The DCS must be a corporate leader, a community advocate, and a strategic thinker. You’ll need to be politically astute, media-aware, and inspection-ready often all at once.

You must also be prepared to lead through ambiguity. The landscape is constantly shifting: new legislation, changing demographics, evolving risks. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. The best DCSs are agile, reflective, and committed to learning. Above all, readiness is not just about knowledge it’s about values. You must believe in the power of public service, the importance of equity, and the potential of every child. That belief will be your anchor when the role becomes difficult, and your compass when the path ahead is unclear.

Day One Priorities

Your first day as a Director of Children’s Services is not the time for sweeping reforms or bold declarations. It’s the time to listen, observe, and begin building the trust and credibility that will underpin your leadership. The tone you set in your first week will echo throughout your tenure. It’s about presence, not performance. Here’s what should be top of mind:

1. Know Your Children

Before you lead, you must understand who you are leading for. Familiarise yourself with the demographics of your borough ethnicity, deprivation levels, care population, SEND prevalence, and youth justice statistics. Go beyond the data: seek out the lived experiences of children and families. What are their hopes, fears, and barriers? What does “thriving” look like in their context?

2. Build Relationships Fast

Your success will depend on the strength of your relationships. Prioritise meetings with your Lead Member for Children’s Services, Chief Executive, and key partners in health, education, and the voluntary sector. Equally, make time for frontline staff social workers, early help teams, and school leaders. Be visible, be curious, and be human. Trust is earned through presence and consistency.

3. Review Safeguarding Systems

You are the statutory safeguarding lead. On day one, ensure you understand the governance arrangements, escalation pathways, and thresholds for intervention. Review recent serious case reviews, audit findings, and whistleblowing reports. Ask: are children safe? Are staff clear on their responsibilities? Is there a culture of openness and accountability?

4. Understand Your Ofsted Profile

Whether your service is rated Outstanding or Requires Improvement, you need to know the narrative behind the grade. What were the strengths highlighted? What are the areas for development? How have things changed since the last inspection? Read the report, but also speak to those who lived through it. Their insights will be invaluable.

5. Check Workforce Stability

Children’s services are only as strong as the people delivering them. Review vacancy rates, agency spend, caseload averages, and sickness absence. Ask about morale, supervision quality, and professional development. A stable, supported workforce is the foundation of safe and effective practice. As Ofsted noted in their Joining the Dots report:

“Leadership style was found to be a critical feature… the way leaders engage staff, partners and the community is central to driving improvement.”

Your leadership style will be under the microscope from day one. Be authentic, be inclusive, and be clear about your values. The best DCSs lead with humility and conviction, knowing that their first priority is not to be in charge but to be in service of children, families, and the professionals who support them.

Long-Term Thinking

Once the dust settles from your first 100 days, your leadership must evolve from reactive to proactive. The role of a DCS is not just about managing today’s challenges it’s about shaping tomorrow’s outcomes. Long-term success depends on your ability to embed a culture of learning, collaboration, and ambition across the entire children’s system. Here are five strategic priorities that should guide your thinking:

1. Embedding a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Improvement must be more than a response to inspection it should be a way of working. Foster a culture where staff are encouraged to reflect, innovate, and challenge the status quo. Use data intelligently, celebrate good practice, and ensure that learning from audits, complaints, and serious case reviews leads to tangible change. Create space for curiosity and professional growth.

2. Championing Early Intervention and Prevention

The evidence is clear: intervening early improves outcomes and reduces long-term costs. Yet, early help services have been among the hardest hit by budget cuts. As DCS, you must advocate for investment in prevention, even when the financial climate is tough. Build the case using local data, national research, and the voices of families. Prevention is not a luxury it’s a necessity.

3. Driving Integration Across Services

Children’s lives don’t fit neatly into departmental silos. Your leadership must break down barriers between education, health, social care, housing, and community services. Develop shared outcomes, pooled budgets, and joint commissioning arrangements. Integrated working isn’t just efficient it’s transformative. It enables holistic support that meets the full spectrum of a child’s needs.

4. Ensuring Equity and Inclusion for All Children

Every child deserves to be seen, heard, and supported. That means tackling disproportionality in the care system, addressing the attainment gap, and ensuring that SEND provision is inclusive and responsive. Use your platform to challenge inequality, amplify underrepresented voices, and embed anti-racist, trauma-informed, and neuro inclusive practice across your workforce.

5. Preparing for Inspection and External Scrutiny

Inspection readiness is not about performance theatre it’s about being confident in your practice and transparent in your challenges. Develop robust self-assessment processes, ensure quality assurance is embedded, and engage staff in improvement planning. Build a narrative that reflects your journey, your impact, and your ambition. Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, and the DfE are not just regulators they are partners in improvement.

The Children’s Social Care Dashboard outlines four key outcomes that should underpin your long-term strategy:

1. Families stay together and get the help they need 

2. Children are supported by their family network 

3. Children are safe in and outside the home 

4. Children in care have stable, loving homes

These outcomes are not just metrics they are moral imperatives. Your leadership must be relentlessly focused on achieving them, even when the path is complex and the resources are constrained.

Long-term thinking means asking: What legacy will I leave? Will children in your borough be safer, happier, and more hopeful because of your leadership? Will your staff feel empowered, valued, and inspired? Will your partnerships be stronger, and your systems more resilient? The answers to those questions will define your impact not just as a Director of Children’s Services, but as a leader for every child.

What to Avoid

Even seasoned leaders can fall into traps that compromise the effectiveness of children’s services and erode trust with staff, partners, and families. The role of a DCS is as much about what you choose not to do as it is about what you prioritise. Avoiding these pitfalls is essential to sustaining high-quality, child-centred leadership.

1. Neglecting Early Help

Since 2010, spending on early intervention has dropped by 42%, while investment in crisis services has surged. This shift has left many families without the support they need until problems escalate. As DCS, you must resist the temptation to focus solely on statutory services. Early help is not optional it’s foundational. Failing to invest in prevention creates a cycle of reactive, high-cost interventions that rarely deliver long-term change.

2. Over-Reliance on Agency Staff

Workforce instability is one of the biggest threats to service quality. While agency staff can provide short-term relief, over-reliance leads to rising costs, fragmented teams, and inconsistent practice. Children need continuity, and social workers need support. Prioritise recruitment, retention, and professional development. A stable, permanent workforce is the bedrock of safe and effective services.

3. Ignoring Lived Experience

Children and families are not just service users they are experts in their own lives. Too often, their voices are heard in consultation exercises but ignored in decision-making. As DCS, you must embed co-production at every level. Create structures for meaningful engagement, act on feedback, and ensure that lived experience shapes policy, practice, and culture. Listening is not enough responding is what builds trust.

4. Failing to Challenge Poor Practice

Leadership means holding the line on quality. Avoiding difficult conversations or tolerating underperformance can have serious consequences for children. “Settled and stable” teams, as Ofsted often highlights, are key to delivering high-quality social work. That stability must be matched by a culture of accountability, learning, and high expectations. Challenge poor practice early, support improvement, and never compromise on safeguarding.

5. Losing Sight of the Corporate Agenda

You are not just a service lead you are a strategic leader of the council. Children’s services must be embedded in the wider corporate plan, influencing decisions on housing, finance, community safety, and regeneration. If you operate in isolation, you risk missing opportunities for joined-up working and shared outcomes. Be visible at the top table, advocate for children across the system, and ensure your service is seen as central to the council’s mission.

Avoiding these pitfalls requires vigilance, humility, and a commitment to reflective practice. The best DCSs are not perfect but they are purposeful. They learn from mistakes, listen to feedback, and lead with integrity. In a role where the stakes are so high, that mindset is not just helpful it’s essential.

The Stats That Matter

Understanding the scale, complexity, and urgency of children’s services in England requires more than anecdote it demands a firm grasp of the data. These statistics are not just numbers on a page; they reflect the lived realities of children, families, and professionals across the country. For any aspiring Director of Children’s Services, these figures should inform your priorities, shape your strategy, and fuel your advocacy.

£11.1 Billion Spent on Children’s Social Care in 2021/22

This represents a 41.6% increase since 2009/10, driven by rising demand, increasing complexity, and the growing cost of placements. While this investment is substantial, much of it is reactive focused on crisis intervention rather than prevention. As DCS, you must ask: Are we spending wisely? Are we investing in outcomes or just managing risk?

83,000+ Children in Care in England

The number of children in care has risen by nearly 40% over the past two decades, reflecting both systemic pressures and societal challenges. This increase places enormous strain on local authorities, particularly in securing stable, high-quality placements. It also raises critical questions about thresholds, family support, and the effectiveness of early help.

Over 80% of Children’s Homes Rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted (2024)

This is a testament to the dedication of residential care staff and the regulatory improvements across the sector. However, quality does not always equal sufficiency. Many councils still struggle with placement availability, geographic mismatches, and rising costs. Your role is to ensure not just quality but the right placement, at the right time, for every child.

17% of Children Entering Care Are Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers

This figure highlights the growing humanitarian dimension of children’s services. These young people often arrive with complex trauma, language barriers, and limited support networks. As DCS, you must ensure culturally competent, trauma-informed care and advocate nationally for fair funding and policy reform.

These statistics should not be viewed in isolation. They are interconnected, and they tell a story of a system under pressure but also full of potential. Your leadership must be data-informed, but people-centred. Behind every number is a child, a family, a frontline worker. Understanding the stats is the first step. Acting on them is the real work.

Final Thought

Being a Director of Children’s Services is not just a job it’s a vocation. It’s a role that demands not only technical expertise and strategic vision, but also deep moral purpose. You are entrusted with the lives, safety, and futures of children across your borough. That responsibility is profound, and the opportunity to make a difference is unparalleled. As Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s National Director for Social Care, powerfully stated:

“Great leadership in children’s social care goes hand in hand with great social work. It’s a golden thread from the top of the department to the frontline.”

That golden thread is woven through every conversation, every decision, and every policy you shape. It connects the boardroom to the family home, the strategy paper to the social worker’s visit, the budget line to the child’s lived experience. Your leadership sets the tone for the culture, the standards, and the values of your entire service.

To lead well, you must be courageous willing to challenge poor practice, speak truth to power, and advocate for children even when it’s politically difficult. You must be compassionate able to understand the pressures your staff face, the trauma families carry, and the resilience children show. And you must be clear about your vision, your priorities, and your expectations. If you’re ready to lead with courage, compassion, and clarity then the future of children’s services might just be yours to shape. And in doing so, you won’t just change systems. You’ll change lives.