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

[MmeChoufleur]

Reform have appointed a 19 year old, Councillor Charles Pugsley, to run Children’s Services for Leicestershire County Council, . How would you feel about this if you lived in the borough and had SEND children?

Does this make a mockery of democracy, handing over such an important role to a person with no experience in the workplace, certainly not at any high level?

Will this make Reform voters sit up and think about the consequences of voting for this party?

Democracy means that anyone can stand as a councillor and they win an election if they receive enough votes. Any of you can do it and if you’ve SEN experience you’ve probably something incredibly valuable to offer, but don’t complain if the democratic processes throw up people you don’t like when you’re not prepared to do it yourself.

Brilliant.

@MmeChoufleur

Once he is presented with a brief setting out the Council's statutory duties and a complex budget he will realise how little flexibility he has.
I imagine the officials will run rings around him.
As for hiring and firing Directors, he is not Elon Musk and this is not the good old US of A. We have employment laws and staff belong to unions.
I think he will very quickly realise he is way out of his depth. Whether he admits it and withdraws his services is another matter.

She was a moron

This.

Give the guy a chance. You can't say someone isn't capable just because of their age FGS.

That’s because councillors so far have generally been broadly community-minded individuals who want to improve their local area. This lot are fag packet politicians, people who’ve spent more time in the pub getting riled up about Daily Mail articles than doing even the most basic research into the role of a councillor. Look at the idiots in Durham who ran for election and then discovered they couldn’t be councillors whilst being employed by the council, resigned, and have triggered expensive by-elections, already wasting tax payer money.

I don’t believe the newly elected Reform councillors will listen to a stern word from their Heads of Service. They think they’re kings of their own little kingdom, and they’re going to cause a lot of damage.

23 Reform councillors have resigned as of today.

How on earth is this possible if it was a job that was advertised. There is no way a 19 year old would be the most qualified applicant.

If it's a political position, then presumably he has no actual practical role.

Edited to add: apologies to PP who have made the same point, did not RTFT. However, glad to see I was right!

I am definitely not a Reform supporter either but I don't think age is necessarily a problem. As a pp said, people praised Mhairi Black. Pitt the Younger was PM by 24! There have been very successful teenagers throughout history.

It's not a "job" - it's a political role. I imagine he'll be well out of his depth.

This.
The services are run by professionals.

Overall though there's an issue whenever a newly elected Councillor immediately gets given a portfolio, as there's a lot to learn. This year a number of councils are suddenly being run by whole groups of councillors with zero understanding of how local government works. Time will tell how that goes.

He is a Councillor not the Director, he is not going to be operational.

Wonder who he's related to

But older people including myself haven't 'been there' in the same way that he has as he's experienced it so recently.

The childhood experience since the advent of smart phones and social media is unrecognisable to previous generations.

And i'm in my late 40s so not 'old'

Personally I only vote for people who have some solid work history behind them. I think anyone under 30 is too young for a role like this.

It's all good, it's MN after all.

Less than one year out of private school. Yes I sure he will in-depth knowledge of children's services.

Well no. Decision making is so slow as it has to go through set processes, and various layers. The councilor with portfolio does not get to make all the decisions. They will present recommendations to scrutiny and full Council, but full Council will make the significant decisions.

The professionals will be running the department. As they always do.

Of relevance to the discussion?
www.marfantrust.org/articles/charles-story

I think values and intelligence count for more than an arbitrary age.

Look how how many dreadfully incompetent people have loads of experience! Recent example - Post Office scandal - all very experienced.

As others have said, he’s a councillor and has been appointed as the cabinet member for children’s services, so won’t have any involvement in the day to day running of the department. Children’s Services will still be run by the Director and the senior officers in the department. I’ve worked in local government for over 50 years and have seen many changes from Labour to Conservative and vice versa over the years, and there has generally not been a significant impact on the way the day to day services are run.

It gets better, apparently a degree in computer science leads you to be a people person, he's highly educated and clever and he states my ( very privileged) background gives me an understanding to do the job, having worked with social services for 10 years he wont last 6 months, because the public won't engage with him and will be putting in complaints about him so I wouldn't panic, let's see how he copes when an angry father squares up to him because his child has been removed,

In France, the Rassemblement National (far right) have a 25yo at its head. Will be their candidate at the next general election. Never worked but started as a local councillor around the same age.

Do I think he is best placed to be at the head of the country? Nope. No experience if life in any shape or form.
Will be elected? That’s a possibility. And I’d assume people would have taken his lack if experience into account before voting.

Same applies here. People voted for him. They knew and thought it was ok 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
The only other way would be to change the law and have an age limit to become a councillor/MPs. Let’s note that some MPs have been very young too. Just out if Uni….. I dint remember them being that useless.

The Council as a whole votes through the budget. Then officers spend the money.

Recruitment is done through the Council with both officers and councillors on panels.

The strategy has to be legal, officers can refuse to take actions that would break the law.

He will have influence, oversight and decision-making powers, but he isn't directly in charge.