As part of a progress report on Herefordshire Children’s Services at today’s cabinet meeting, it was announced that Tina Russell, who joined the council on 1 July 2024 on a temporary basis as Corporate Director of Children and Young People, has been made permanent.

Ms Russell, a highly experienced senior officer in children’s services has been responsible for driving forward the Herefordshire Children’s Services Improvement Programme.

Paul Walker, Herefordshire Council’s Chief Executive, said:

“I’m pleased to confirm that we have appointed Tina Russell as the council’s permanent Corporate Director of Children and Young People.

“Tina has worked tirelessly since joining us, using her wealth of experience to successfully drive forward our children’s services improvement programme at pace.

“Earlier today Ofsted has published the outcome of the latest Herefordshire Children’s Services monitoring visit, and the findings of the report confirm that we are making good progress with our improvement programme.

“Our Herefordshire Children’s Services and Partnership Improvement Plan (Phase 3) has also been unanimously endorsed by cabinet today and sets out our achievements so far, as well as the next steps for continued improvement.

“While this is positive news, we are not complacent and remain committed to ongoing improvements. I remain confident that under Tina’s leadership and with the support of our partners and our families, we will achieve our ambition of achieving a ‘good’ status for social care services for our children and families in Herefordshire.”