The Roles and Responsibilities of the Lead Member for Children's Services and the Director of Children's Services

While it is the responsibility of local authority Leaders and Chief Executives to ensure political and professional leadership and accountability for delivering the Every Child Matters programme, these arrangements will in the main be provided by the Director for Children’s Services (DCS) and the Lead Member for Children’s Services (LM), who between them should provide a clear and unambiguous top line of accountability for children’s well-being.

This guidance on the roles and responsibilities of the LM and DCS has been updated to take account of the good progress already made, existing practices which have been shown to work, and the importance of the LM and DCS as leaders and champions for children, young people and their families. It also looks to ensure that these arrangements are supported within each local authority and Local Strategic Partnership.

The document aims to explain how the roles are both distinct and complementary, and how by working together as a team, the DCS and the LM can be most effective in driving improvements in outcomes for children, young people and families.