Buckinghamshire Council’s director of children’s services has quit the authority following an Ofsted inspection.
John Macilwraith left the £180,000-a-year role on March 28 to ‘seek new opportunities and challenges’.
The outgoing exec told colleagues in email it was ‘time for someone new to work on the post Ofsted inspection action plan’.
His departure comes just weeks after Ofsted concluded its inspection of the council’s children’s services in February.
Ofsted is understood to have shared its findings with the council, but the inspectorate’s report is under strict embargo until after the May 1 local elections.
A council source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “If they received a report before the election, it seems only fair that the public know the contents of that report before they cast their votes on the first of May.”
The council’s previous joint Ofsted and CQC inspection in 2022 identified weaknesses such as speech and language therapy services unable to meet demand, and long waiting lists for autism and ADHD assessments.
However, inspectors praised the council’s ‘clear governance structure’ and ‘good track record of identifying SEND in early years’.
The council’s children’s services include social care, education and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
A council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Whilst we don’t comment on individual staffing matters, we can confirm that following the announcement of the departure of John Macilwraith we ran an internal recruitment process with the Council’s senior appointment committee and have appointed Sarah Ashmead as our new director of children’s services.”
By Charlie Smith
Local Democracy Reporter
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