Director of Children and Families, Mr. Eoin Rush, has announced he will be retiring at the end of July 2023. An interim director of Children's services, Merlin Joseph, has been appointed and will be starting 10th July.
Eoin Rush's name has been featured several times in past blog posts on this site regarding a lack of communication or a completely dismissive nature regarding parent/carer concerns brought to his attention. Mr. Rush also made a public apology to families failed by Special Educational Needs services following an OFSTED area inspection of SEND in the East Riding, you can read more about this here.
Merlin Joseph will be taking on the role of Director of Children and families who held the same role at Oldham, London borough of Hillingdon and Dudley. Before this, she was the Improvement Director, Children’s Services, Kirklees council from February to September 2017. East Riding's Director of Children's Specialist Services also has ties with Kirklees council rather interestingly. In an article published in August 14, 2017 by CommunityCare titled "Social workers threaten strike unless working conditions improve" Merlin Joseph is mentioned as being appointed to its senior leadership team in April of that year but she left the service, jumping ship before the strike action was threatened. you can read the full article here.
Prior to this, in 2015, Merlin's salary whilst employed by Dudley Council was criticized in a news article "£800-a-day Dudley Council worker quits post after 18 months" which can be read here. Dudley council received an 'inadequate' rating form OFSTED in their inspection of Children's Services in January of 2016.
Given this track record it's hard to see Eoin Rush's replacement being an improvement to children and families in the East Riding.
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