19 year old in charge of Children’s Services for Leicestershire Council

Yeh as pps say, he’s a councillor, not a council staff member. He’s not in charge of anything.

Take planning as an example that I know about - the decisions are theoretically made by the councillors, but if they don’t follow the advice of the planning officers who are the actual experts, they soon get told.

He won’t be running a department. The Director of Social Services will do that. He’ll be the councilor with the children services portfolio. Important decisions wil go through a scrutiny process and full Cabinet for agreement.

I have worked in several councils (still do) and generally the cabinet member with children’s services in their portfolio is a seasoned councillor with a lot of experience, an in depth understanding of the local picture around the complex framework of children's services and a very good grounding in budgets. It is a decision making position and will have delegated powers on some issues.

He's not in charge of children's services. He's just the councillor with oversight.

i wonder if having that on his cv will make a difference to future employers

😂😂😂
And if there was any evidence needed that they haven't a clue how councils are run. The statutory power (in other words, the person who runs Children's Services) lies with the Director, and that is who actually runs the service. Given budgetary constraints and statutory obligations, he might be "heard" but he won't be "listened to" because the service will do what they must. As with most social services, there simply isn't enough money to provide all that is needed, never mind all that is wanted.

Yay but that’s what you get when you elect a Reform councillor. Regardless of their age.

I didn’t vote for reform, but you never know, a 19 in charge might be the kick up the arse the department needs.

Now I get why it feels inappropriate.
But then … theyre over 18yo. They’ve been elected. We’ve had MPs of a similar age.

So…. I’d rather ask why an elected councillor can be put in charge of such a department with no experience in the area. I mean it’s not because you’re 30+yo or 60yo etc.. that you’ll know better how to manage such an area.

Perhaps Reform will say being practically a child himself he has the right experience for the role.

Just enough rope, etc but shame for people who will be directly affected.

He is the decision maker at a strategic level. Imagine the council is struggling to provide school transport for disabled children, for example, and presents a plan to commission a new transport provider. He can (and, given it's reform) may very well choose to block that. Same for any significant spend the department wants to make, including continuation of existing services that are already in place (children's centers, children's homes, respite services for example). It's actually very concerning.

They haven't, perhaps spend a bit more time learning how the council works before posting. Reform aren't my cup of tea but you making up stuff doesn't help.

Why not post something accurate that you find awful about them , start a proper debate. It's a bit like starting a thread about how awful Trump is as he didn't tip in a restaurant one day.

This.
Councillors have less influence than you might think. Often, inexperienced councillors will find themselves differing to council officers.

The Chief Officer of children and families seems to be a woman called Jane Moore. I'd imagine she's got a slightly more impressive CV.

He doesn’t run the department, that is the department head who is a permanent full time paid role. He’s a Cllr so will be what’s called a portfolio holder, or in this case cabinet member, so yes will work with the department in some why but he’s not actually decision maker

Councillors have quite a lot of responsibility though. They have to sign off big project spends for a start. He could block plans that the service wanted to go ahead with. It's not a puppet role by any means.

Although, you know, erm, budgets are quite important

While I don’t think this is a good choice at all, the interpretations of his role in this thread is a bit off. He isn’t going to ‘run’ children’s services. That is the director of children’s services and a non-politicised role, typically held by experienced professionals. The councillors are elective representatives, not managers… they work closely with the DCS and yes, as other posters have said, have some limited influence over policy/budget but it’s always done in collaboration with those actually running children’s services.

He has been appointed into a role. He is an elected official. Entirely different. The head of the service who is employed by the Council will hopefully be competent and experienced and will be use to dealing with incompetence. I would have thought most children’s services are statutory so he won’t really have any power. Except over budgets.

Well I suppose he has very recent experience of being a child. 🫤

This.

He's not in charge of anything.

Get in touch with your concerns if you're in that area.

You need to get your title and OP edited, this is misinformation.

I don't remember all this hysteria when Mhairi Black appeared on the scene in Scotland. People thought that was fantastic

Fingers crossed, or you never know, maybe he'll bring something new and learn.

Yeah, I know. Ever the optimist.