I thought it might be useful to start with a little about myself and my priorities for the coming year now that I am in place at the ADCS. I am the director of children’s services in Kirklees, West Yorkshire.

My background is in social work and my particular areas of interest include improving support for leavers of care and mental health services for children and young people.

The latter issue is a real worry for many of us, so I was keen to represent ADCS on the Department of Health’s children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing taskforce. Dozens of partners were involved in this work as were over 1,600 children and their families. The taskforce’s final report, which offers a whole system, whole journey and whole life plan for the future, published in the same week that the Government pledged £1.25bn to improving mental health services and support for children, young people and new mums in the final budget of this Parliament.