About

The DCS Leadership Programme is a new and aspiring DCS programme, designed to grow England’s talent pool of future Directors of Children’s Services, and also help recently appointed Directors to thrive in their new roles. It’s co-created and delivered by a trusted consortium of expert partners; The Staff College, Institute of Public Care, Skills for Care and GatenbySanderson.

Now into its fifth year, this innovative leadership programme was launched in response to the DfE identifying significant challenges in attracting and retaining talented leaders in DCS roles. With the continued uncertainty in which Local Government and the public sector operates coupled with the many challenges facing our children, their families, and our communities now and in the foreseeable future, we anticipate that there will continue to be an increasing need for those in the role to be supported and for a pool of people ready to step into the role of DCS for the first time.
It is vital that new leaders are identified and developed, and succession planning is key to this. The DCS Leadership Programme supports this by inspiring ambitious and courageous future leaders to step up and move into DCS roles, staying in post for longer to achieve even more positive transformation.

We are committed to offering the same level of support and encouragement to recently appointed DCSs. Whatever their past experience, our future leaders will be fired-up to develop their skills, build resilience, take responsibility and thrive as part of the next generation of positive change-makers the UK’s young people depend upon.