Blogs
Tag Cloud
Press
ADCS LOGO LG
✕
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Board of Directors
    • Council of Reference
    • Membership
      • ebulletin
      • Get Involved
    • Policy Committees
      • Research
    • Regions
  • News & Publications
  • Meetings & Events
  • Directory
    • General Contacts
    • Directors of Children’s Services
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications England
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications Wales
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications Scotland
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Board of Directors
    • Council of Reference
    • Membership
      • ebulletin
      • Get Involved
    • Policy Committees
      • Research
    • Regions
  • News & Publications
  • Meetings & Events
  • Directory
    • General Contacts
    • Directors of Children’s Services
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications England
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications Wales
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications Scotland
✕
ADCS LOGO
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Board of Directors
    • Council of Reference
    • Membership
      • ebulletin
      • Get Involved
    • Policy Committees
      • Research
    • Regions
  • News & Publications
  • Meetings & Events
  • Directory
    • General Contacts
    • Directors of Children’s Services
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications England
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications Wales
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications Scotland
✕
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Board of Directors
    • Council of Reference
    • Membership
      • ebulletin
      • Get Involved
    • Policy Committees
      • Research
    • Regions
  • News & Publications
  • Meetings & Events
  • Directory
    • General Contacts
    • Directors of Children’s Services
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications England
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications Wales
    • Out of Area Children in Care Notifications Scotland

Rainbow worrier

January 26, 2024

Tim Aldridge

ADCS Honorary Treasurer

Executive Director of Children and Learning  

Camden Council

If I was going to choose a word for 2024 (which I’m not, as that would be quite strange) I think it would be coherence. I spent New Year in Tenby, which was beautiful although mostly very wet, and best enjoyed from indoors. When we weren’t inside hiding from the rain, we were out walking the dog (and occasionally the kids) on the beach, admiring the view and the many rainbows. It might have been on one of those walks that I began mulling this over and thinking about my own experiences as a Director of Children’s Services.

One of the greatest challenges I’ve had has been to make sense of the complex and fragmented context that we work in and working out how best to make a difference as a leader. Having started my current role quite recently, I suppose I’m still making sense of the new environment. Getting back to the office, I’ve been thinking about my role as a leader in creating greater coherence. If I’m honest, after being on leave for two weeks, the first step was just to construct a coherent sentence.

In our role as system leaders, seeking, achieving, and communicating a coherent interpretation of how we see the world is a crucial component of what we do. Without meaning to state the bleeding obvious, circumstances are often working against us. Whether it’s health, education, the youth justice system, or the myriad of social care reforms, sometimes the organisational and policy context can feel somewhat bewildering.

The ADCS policy paper A future vision for the education system makes an excellent case for creating greater coherence. This calls on the government to set out a clear long-term vision for the future. This includes an approach to education that is rooted in place and considers the needs of local children and communities. The paper makes a compelling case for the local authority to play a key role in shaping the response to local needs through place-based school partnerships.

I am very privileged to have joined Camden where there is a well-established place-based education partnership, and a strong commitment to working together across the local authority and the family of schools. The vast majority of schools in Camden are still local authority maintained, and whilst this is not a prerequisite for an effective place-based partnership, it certainly makes things simpler. In Camden we have established Camden Learning, a formal partnership which is a joint enterprise between the local authority and schools, established as an independent company in 2017. This partnership is based on a collective moral purpose and a shared set of values. All Camden schools have chosen to sign up to Camden Learning and take collective responsibility for their performance and to improve outcomes for children across Camden. This shared approach is rooted in local vision, relationships and networks.

This partnership has enabled the council to work with schools to develop innovative approaches to increasing access to enrichment and learning opportunities. This includes the development of formal and informal school partnerships to respond to the needs of our communities. The STEAM Hub (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) is a great example of using the power of place to draw in local industry partners in tech, life sciences, and academia to offer career activities and experiences for young people who would not normally have access to these opportunities.

Through our Education Strategy ‘Building Back Stronger’, with its focus on achieving both excellence and equity, we have set out an ambitious approach which places collaboration and co-operation at the centre of what we do. This enables us to work together as one system to respond to a number of challenges including falling school rolls, attendance, SEND and closing the disadvantage gap. This brings schools together in the spirit of collaboration, not competition, and with the explicit aim to bring about even greater coherence to the local system.

As I conclude this, my first ADCS blog, I feel optimistic and the words of Jimmy Cliff spring to mind. Whilst I’m not necessarily certain that ‘all the dark clouds that had me blind’ will be gone, I’m pretty sure that 2024 will have numerous bright sunshiny days ahead.

Category
  • Blog
Tags
  • Education
  • Schools
Contact the team
Share

Related posts

Ann Graham
July 4, 2025

Let’s Celebrate!


Read more
Diane Benjamin
June 27, 2025

Child Q: A Stark Reminder of the Need for Vigilance in Child Protection


Read more
Ana Popovici
June 20, 2025

It Takes a Village to Raise a Place: People, Place and Digital Imagination in 2025


Read more
Contact us

The Association of Directors

of Children’s Services Ltd

Bloc

17 Marble Street

Manchester

M2 3AW

 

+ 0161 513 4299

Get in touch
Who we are
  • About us
  • Get Involved
  • Regions
  • Membership
  • General Contacts
  • Privacy & Cookie Policy
Our Voice
  • Blogs
  • Consultation Responses
  • News & Publications
  • Press
  • Reports
  • Resources

 Copyright ADCS 2025. All Rights Reserved. Registered in England and Wales. Company number: 06801922. VAT registration number: 948814381

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}