A new Assistant Director has boosted Calderdale Council’s Children and Young People’s Services senior management team.
Jemima Flintoff has joined the Council as Assistant Director, Education and Inclusion, leading services supporting schools and delivering strategic improvement in education and inclusion across the borough.
Jemima has joined the local authority from North Lincolnshire Council, where she worked since 2018, most recently in the role of Assistant Director, Education.
In that role, Jemima led on transforming the early years and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) offer for children; driving inclusion and working in partnership with all schools and settings to improve outcomes for children across North Lincolnshire.
Starting life in West Yorkshire, with life-long links to the Calderdale area, Jemima began her teaching career in 1990 in Buckinghamshire and moved into local authority education services in 2003, in South Yorkshire.
Jemima’s career in local government has given her a wide range of experience and understanding of various aspects of children’s lives and education, working in partnership with the public, private, and voluntary and community sector. This has included experience of early years, school leadership and governance, English as an additional language, adult education, SEND and inclusion.
In her new role as Assistant Director for Education and Inclusion at Calderdale Council, Jemima has responsibility for education from early years to post 16, SEND, school organisation and inclusion services across the borough.
Responsibilities of the role include:
- Leading the Council’s approach to ensuring school standards and performance.
- Ensuring there are enough high-quality inclusive learning places for children with SEND.
- Driving inclusive approaches so that more children with additional needs are able to attend local schools and settings.
- Rolling out the reforms and ensuring sufficiency of places in line with improved entitlement for early years education and childcare.
Jemima said:
“I have known and loved the towns, peaks and valleys of Calderdale all my life, from visiting here a child with my parents, through to many happy weekends here as an adult.
“I am passionate about Calderdale’s ambition for children, young people and families to thrive and to achieve, starting and developing well. I am excited to join a Council with embedded values of respect, improving equalities and everyone being able to achieve their potential.
“I believe parents, as children’s first educators, are vital to children’s development, as are the communities they live and are educated in, and the schools and settings they attend. I am thrilled to be able to be part of working together with parents, professionals and schools and settings on Calderdale’s next steps for children and families.”
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Services, Cllr Adam Wilkinson, said:
“We’re delighted to welcome Jemima to the team and look forward to working with her to deliver our ambitions for young people, ensuring they have the opportunities to enable them to reach their potential.
“Jemima brings a wealth of experience to this important role, both in the education sector and within local government and will help us to support our schools in their drive to deliver an outstanding education for children and young people in Calderdale.”
ENDS