GAIL HOPPER: COVID-19 LEARNINGS & PREDICTIONS
I’m sure you’d agree that our weeks and months in lockdown have been a challenge. We’ve all had our trials, but the one thing that’s common between us, is that we’ve learned. Learned how to adapt. Learned how to cope. And learned how to remain optimistic. Some of us have had to learn quicker – our incredible key workers. Here, we share comments from Gail Hopper, DCS Rochdale, about what she’s learned, and what she predicts for the future of Children’s Services when some kind of normality is restored. THINGS I’VE LEARNED You can do so much using conference calls – why do we spend an hour and a half travelling around when you can do the business just […]
Ellie Garraway: COVID-19 LEARNINGS & PREDICTIONS
I’m sure you’d agree that our weeks and months in lockdown have been a challenge. We’ve all had our trials, but the one thing that’s common between us, is that we’ve learned. Learned how to adapt. Learned how to cope. And learned how to remain optimistic. Some of us have had to learn quicker – our incredible key workers. Here, we share comments from Ellie Garrway, CEO of Grit, about what she’s learned, and what she predicts for the future of Children’s Services when some kind of normality is restored. THINGS I’VE LEARNED 1. Immediacy – in ordinary times a lot of the relationships and information about what is happening comes to senior leaders second or third hand. During […]
Colin Foster: COVID-19 LEARNINGS & PREDICTIONS
I’m sure you’d agree that our weeks and months in lockdown have been a challenge. We’ve all had our trials, but the one thing that’s common between us, is that we’ve learned. Learned how to adapt. Learned how to cope. And learned how to remain optimistic. Some of us have had to learn quicker – our incredible key workers. Here, we share comments from Colin Foster, DCS Bedford Borough Council, about what he’s learned, and what he predicts for the future of Children’s Services when some kind of normality is restored. THINGS I’VE LEARNED Keep children and young people at the centre of your thinking – Even in a crisis, we have to be careful about using oppressive language […]
Carole Brooks: Covid-19 Learnings & Predictions
I’m sure you’d agree that our weeks and months in lockdown have been a challenge. We’ve all had our trials, but the one thing that’s common between us, is that we’ve learned. Learned how to adapt. Learned how to cope. And learned how to remain optimistic. Some of us have had to learn quicker – our incredible key workers. Here, we share comments from Carole Brooks, Director of Carole Brooks Associates and a Senior Associate of The Staff College, about what she’s learned, and what she predicts for the future of Children’s Services when some kind of normality is restored. THINGS I’VE LEARNED Less time travelling to or in meetings gives diverse benefits including reduced travel time and expenditure […]
The Staff College leads consortium to deliver Future Leaders Programme
THE STAFF COLLEGE & CONSORTIUM WINS MAJOR DfE BID TO SUPPORT FUTURE LEADERS OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES With a three-year investment of £3m (1 year guaranteed, with two further years proposed), the Department for Education announced a recent initiative aimed at increasing the pool of talent able to become Directors of Children’s Services and supporting newly appointed Directors. The DfE’s “Future Leaders Programme for Directors of Children’s Services” invited suppliers to design, develop and deliver a national leadership programme, attracting a diverse range of participants with strong potential to progress to DCS roles whilst equipping them with the core behaviours, skills and capacities necessary to do so. The tender process began in late 2019, inviting single contractors and consortia to […]
Introducing Project 2035: A creative exploration of the worlds our children could inhabit in 2035
Will the 2020s be a decade remembered by how we improved the lives of children, young people and families, in the same way we talk of the revolutionary freedoms gained in the 1960s? Research compiled over the last two years, by The Staff College, involving Chief Executives and Directors and young people from across the UK, has outlined four potential future scenarios for our children. While two of them are positive, where future technology and activism creates a country that listens to its children, we could just as easily slip into a world where young people feel betrayed in a country of division and inequality. The result of which could see 1 in 2 children living in poverty. None of […]