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?

I am a friend of the Director of Children and Family Services for Leicester. She is a middle aged woman, with a strong background in the field, and a very nice and capable person. What she is not is a 19 year old young man!

It's also not correct!

I know the real Director of Children's Services for Leicester and she's not a 19 year old young person.

She has, and is indeed very experienced and a thoroughly nice person to boot! edit to say (in a personal capacity, never been to work with her)

Having worked in several local Councils and had dealings with numerous Councillors, I can say that very many if them have no prior knowledge of the Departments that they oversee. They have no knowledge of the relevant legislation. They rely on the professional officers of the Council (the staff) to provide them with the relevant information.

This. So much of CS relates to its statutory duties (e.g. schools under its control, cared for children, etc.) so there’s very little discretionary spending. Council budgets have been cut to the bone anyway so this is really about oversight. If you were, of course, concerned about any aspect of CS, you should write to him or send him an email. It’s important to find out if story time is on at the library, what books Year 1’s should be reading, whether the local leisure Centre does children’s swim time…

The outgoing person said the following: "This is a huge role with over 200 statutory duties as set out in the Children Act 2004"

Charles Pugsley is claiming to 'know the challenges our community faces'.

The only other information about him online is that he's just left his 35K a year private school. 😂

Quite!

Anyone who's ever worked at a senior level in local government will know how easy it is for officers to get councillors to make the decisions the officers want made, and to prevent them from making decisions they don't want. That's especially true in an area like children's services, where there's a strong statutory framework and where powers are fairly limited, since so much is devolved to school leaders.

Tbh, I'm more concerned that he's a Reform councillor than that he's only 19.

If you are good enough you are old enough... plenty of people who have worked in industries for years and are useless at their jobs. I don't see your point.

Do not doubt he will be pushing Farage's views on SEND and that is very worrying and yes, he is too young no matter what his views. 19 is not old enough to be a portfolio holder

Anyone actually working in local government will be very well versed in dealing with inexperienced, hard of thinking elected members with no experience in the areas they’re ’responsible’ for.

I’ve missed this information, is that 6 in one council or over them all?

Councillors (of any age) are not actually in charge of running anything.

there are full time paid experienced professionals in place who run the services

councillors are there to hold the paid professionals to account on behalf of the electorate.

your thread fundamentally demonstrates that you don’t understand how democracy and local services work.

Very true, I have a couple of friends who are salaried employees of our council and both say that some of the councillors they have to sometimes meet and liaise with do not have even a basic grasp of facts and issues.

Yes this! It won’t be the first time they’ve had to ‘manage upwards’.

I worked with a guy about 15 years ago who was a complete nightmare. He was a temp and was hugely difficult particularly with women. In the end I think he was asked to leave. He ended up becoming the leader of a council in London . I saw his face in the newspaper (I remembered him as he was the most horrible person I have ever encountered in a work environment) and I couldn't believe it. He knew absolutely nothing about anything but was very rude and aggressive in quite a scary way. From what I remember he was caught up in some controversy in approving some sort of multi-million housing project and he was sacked. It feels like the people we most need to be involved in politics (rational and sane with actual knowledge) are the people who would run a mile from politics as the environment is so toxic.

What is the problem with the department currently?

Haven’t a clue.

Because of the abuse they're getting.

Just because he's 19 and probably shouldn't have been appointed, you'd condone potentially wrecking his life?

Not everyone shares that opinion

What is fabulous about an inexperienced teenage boy having oversight of educational services? Including how budgets are spent?

Not that he’s not capable but that he doesn’t have the experience.

I’m learning Italian, I can order in a restaurant & have a basic conversation. I wouldn’t put myself forward as an interpreter at the UN

Or because they have to attend meetings and they didn’t understand what being a councillor entails.

Prior incumbent was possibly much worse than a 19 year old.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.