Community Care have reported that almost two-thirds of children’s services directors in England are women, the highest since records began, according to a new report.
Annual analysis by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) found that 97 of the 152 upper tier local authorities in England (64%) had female directors as of 31 March 2022.
This is the highest number since ADCS began reporting the figures in 2008, with the proportions of female and male DCSs steadily diverging since 2018, the last time the split was around 50/50.
But it is still lower than the proportion of women in the wider children’s social work workforce (87%, according to Department for Education figures).
Steve Crocker, ADCS president, said: “The DCS community is now much more diverse in terms of gender compared to other domains of diversity and reflects the good succession planning that has been put in place by many councils.”