New assistant director for Children’s Social Care in Plymouth

Plymouth City Council has announced the appointment of a new key senior manager to lead children’s social care in the city.

Alison Botham has been confirmed as Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care in the newly formed People Directorate of the Council. She will oversee the city’s social work teams for children and young people including children in the community and children in care, adoption and fostering services, family support services and children leaving care.

This appointment follows a national recruitment campaign which yielded a wealth of potential candidates. Those shortlisted took part in rigorous local assessment centres, before the top candidates were interviewed by a cross-party panel of councillors, chaired by Council Leader Tudor Evans.

Alison will take up her position in March next year in a vital role that will focus on safeguarding children and young people and implementing the Council’s early intervention and prevention work that aims to reduce the number of families needing intense social care support.

Alison has gained extensive experience supporting children and young people services since qualifying and taking up her first social worker role in 1980. She has worked for a number of local authorities including Islington, Hammersmith and Fulham and more recently Haringey.

Her roles have included service manager for Children in Need and Child Protection as well as service manager for Referral and Assessment and Safeguarding.

Alison joins Plymouth from Haringey where she is currently Head of Integrated Working and Family Support. She says: “I am excited about moving to Plymouth and joining the senior management team of the new People Directorate. I am looking forward to working with colleagues and partners to ensure the continued delivery and development of safe, effective, innovative, and high quality services for the city’s most vulnerable children and young people.’

Councillor Nicky Williams, Cabinet Member for Children and Yong People, said: “I’m looking forward to working with Alison in the future to shape children’s social care in Plymouth and ensure children and young people are kept safe. We have challenging times ahead as our budgets are reduced but demand for social care services is likely to increase. It’s crucial we implement our early intervention and prevent work so that we proactively manage this situation, ensuring children and young people receive timely, targeted services to tackle issues early.”