This just in from the council. Ed
The Isle of Wight Council has appointed a new Deputy Director of Children’s Safeguarding to work within its Community Wellbeing and Social Care directorate.
Ali Matthews will join the council on 17 January 2011 and take responsibility for children’s social care. She replaces Margaret Dennison who has been in the role for the past year on a temporary basis.
Ali brings with her 16 years experience working within local authority Children’s Services.
She was most recently at Plymouth City Council overseeing their Assessment and Support team and previous to that spent four years at Torbay Council as Executive Head: Early Intervention.
During her time in Torbay she oversaw many aspects of Children’s Services, while increasing the department’s performance and managing large budgets.
Ali is committed to putting children and families at the heart of service delivery and has a strong record of developing initiatives to enable parents to have a say on how services are delivered. She has also worked closely with the voluntary sector, contracting them to deliver a number of services for the council, including a Runaways Project, Young People’s Counselling and Children’s Centres.
Ali is also experienced in putting new ways of working into practice across the areas of health, youth and social care and has successfully engaged staff and service users throughout the process to deliver improved outcomes for children and families in the Torbay area.
Looking ahead to her new role at the Isle of Wight Council, Ali said: “I am looking forward to adding my skills and energy to the talented group of staff that are already working so hard to improve services and make a difference on the Island.
“However, I am painfully aware of the very difficult time that staff and members of the community are facing and will be very mindful of this as we progress through 2011. In the midst of uncertainties, I will be striving to ensure that standards remain high and that I support staff to deliver the very best to children and families.”
Ian Anderson, Isle of Wight Council Strategic Director for Community Wellbeing and Social Care, said: “Ali was an excellent candidate and I look forward to working with her as we strive to continue to drive up standards within children’s services. Although assessed as adequate by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission following a recent inspection, we still have work to do and look to draw on Ali’s experience and skills to assist us in building on our improvements to date in what are difficult times for the council.”
Dawn Cousins, Isle of Wight Council Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, said: “I am delighted to welcome Ali to the council and look forward to working with her as we continue to improve and develop children’s social care on the Island.”
