I am very privileged and proud to lead the Children’s Services team in Northumberland and very fortunate to work alongside amazing colleagues and partners.
I was born in Northumberland and now feel I have returned to my home county to work. I joined Northumberland in 2019 just ahead of the pandemic and was appointed Executive Director for Children, Young People and Education (and Director of Children’s Services) in 2023.
Growing up in Northumberland has definitely helped me to understand some of the challenges a large rural county faces. Whether that is place-based service delivery with front line services, supporting our rural schools with less than ten pupils, considering school and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) transport budgets or working with businesses and our wider council services to support the career ambitions and aspirations of our young people, context is everything.
Setting out clear priorities for our services was a defining approach. This helps all of our teams to anchor their work, understand the direction in which we move and supports the service strength when faced with reforms, consultations, local issues, political change and often individual points of view that we respond to knowing where our priorities and moral purpose lie.
‘Meeting needs as close to home as possible’ is a phrase that trips off many of the teams’ tongues routinely, and at the time of developing this phrase (at a strategic planning session in a barn in open space when we could meet in small groups during the pandemic!) little did we know just how important this would become.
Here are just three of the ways in which we have considered our approach:
Our first example includes the investment and development of our children’s residential footprint for our young people who need more of our care and support, placing them closer to connected services and their communities.
Secondly, the rebuilding of school partnerships and setting an education vision, developed by our Headteachers in their partnership, has been made possible by being inclusive and investing in meeting the needs of all of the children in the partnership area when designing buildings, co-locations, settings and facilities.
And our third example is developing and implementing a SEND place planning strategy, mapping where our future geographical needs would be in Northumberland to ensure the places and facilities investment are in the right place and meet our children’s need as close to home as possible on so many more occasions.
Most of my career has been in education, in Further and Higher Education, and two spells with Ofsted, but throughout I reflect that every role has connected with or been so closely tied to Children’s Services in the widest sense and has definitely underpinned where I am today.
Today is a great place to be, working in many brilliant teams (as part of a children’s services team, as an Executive Director and Director of Children’s Services, an officer in a local authority, in strategic partnerships and our regional ADCS work to name a short few), working with really committed partners and colleagues in the region who role model our work every single day. Listening to colleagues advocating for the very best every day for our children and young people, supporting their ambitions and making magic happen, but also when needed providing the warmth and security as close to home as possible.
Audrey Kingham
Executive Director of Children, Young People and Education and Director of Children’s Services, Northumberland County Council