A former director of children's services, Catherine Fitt is leading the National College's work on leadership development for children's services teams. "It's about recognising that everyone is working to a single purpose — improving outcomes for children," she tells Lucie Carrington.
There are several reasons why Catherine Fitt chose to quit her tough, full-on role as director of children's services in Newcastle for the perhaps more cerebral atmosphere of the National College. But an easy life wasn't one of them.
Catherine has taken over as the College's first strategic director for children's services and it is her job to enable the college to meet its newly-extended remit to provide development and support for children's services leaders. Working in partnership with the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) and the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC), Catherine and her team are developing a set of interventions that will build senior leadership capacity in children's services around the country.
"It's demanding a very different leadership style from me," Catherine says. "With a team spread across the country, there's no more managing by walking around. Nor can I simply get all the partners round the table once a month nor tell them what to do."
A glance at Catherine's CV suggests she won't be fazed by this challenging role. She clearly thrives on change, especially cultural change having been integral in setting up both education and children's services from scratch in two unitary councils. Furthermore, an educational psychologist by profession, Catherine is wholly committed to the children's services agenda; she regards stepping up to the national stage as a logical step in her career.
"I'm a child development professional and my job has never been just about education but about children so I've always worked in partnership with other agencies," she says.
"It is about sharing information and making people work together so that things don't go wrong for families. It's about recognising that everyone is working to a single purpose — improving outcomes for children. It's also about excellent, conscientious case work by everyone."
However, to be successful, all children's services across the country need to build their leadership capacity. There is clear evidence from the National College's work that leadership does make a difference and Catherine buys into this for DCSs too. Nonetheless, their leadership needs are different from those of schools.
For starters, as local government officers, DCSs are managing large, complex budgets in a highly politicised environment. In addition, a DCS has to build bridges between the different and diverse professionals who must work together under the
children's services banner.
There is still a tension and lack of understanding between, for example, teachers and social workers, Catherine points out.
As a result the demands that come with leading children's services are different from those that school leaders face, although there are similarities in the skills needed. "A DCS is more likely to have to lead by influence rather than direction. And don't underestimate the difference of scale. DCSs need schools leaders to be excellent because they are so crucial to the whole system and they will intervene with schools if necessary to ensure that this is the case. In the end both are crucial to they system and they need each other," Catherine says.
Catherine is clear that there is currently a real gap in provision for developing leadership capacity in children's services, although she acknowledges the work that the ADCS has been doing through the Virtual Staff College. She has built her own leadership skills in an ad hoc, informal way over the years. "I've done it largely by watching and learning from other people and picking courses and learning opportunities as they came my way," she says. Often these were generic courses. It's hardly surprising, therefore, that Catherine is delighted with the College's extended remit and the opportunity to develop a bespoke package for children's services.
The College is aiming high and has kicked off with a programme for children's services directors, which launched in November. The DCS Leadership Programme is designed to help participants understand and manage the complexity of their role. It's a 12-month programme that involves 24 directors who will also help design and refine it.
As a personalised programme it includes a variety of delivery methods such as executive coaching, peer support, action learning and e-learning, and the College hopes that within a year at least half of all DCSs will have enrolled.
Catherine and her team are also looking to provide support to other leaders. For example, new DCSs will be able to take advantage of a mentor programme while ambitious, less experienced professionals will be offered an accelerated development programme. These programmes, along with support for those aspiring to be directors, are due to come on-stream later this year.
Looking further ahead, the College also wants to enable children's services teams to develop local solutions to their leadership needs, such as developing a systematic approach to succession planning. This is in keeping with the work it has begun for middle leaders in schools and is designed to encourage interventions that are flexible, relevant and can have a genuine impact on children and families. But Catherine offers a word of caution: "There is a tension here. We need to ensure that we continue to strive for excellence; we won't just hand responsibility back when we think our job is done."
Concerns have been raised that with an exciting new challenge to hand, the College might neglect the work it has been doing with schools and education leaders. Catherine says this simply won't happen. Taking on children's services is not a change of direction for the college but a natural extension of what it does and does well, she says.
"I've always been very impressed by the College," Catherine says. "As a DCS I was well aware that it does what it does with a high degree of excellence. And I am confident that we will serve children's services with the same degree of excellence."
She is clear too, about how she will judge her success at the College. "I simply want to ensure that the people holding senior roles in children's services are equipped to do their job well, and that the system is confident that this is the case."
Next steps:
More information about the National College's children's services development and support is available at www.nationalcollege.org.uk/childrensservices
