I am pleased to share the news that Ian Budd has recently been appointed to the role of the permanent Assistant Director for Education Services with the local authority. Ian will be joining Warwickshire from Powys County Council in Wales, where he has been undertaking a similar role. He brings a considerable depth of strategic and operational experience within education and will, I am sure, add considerable value in working with local system leaders to progress the collective aspirations and priorities for education in Warwickshire. 

Over the next few weeks I will be able to confirm Ian’s starting date and arrangements to ensure a smooth transition, as I hand over the chief education officer ‘baton’. 

Dr Peter Kent has played an invaluable role in working with a number of local system leaders in helping to progress the work of the Warwickshire Education (WE) Strategy. I would go as far as to say that his input has been one of the critical success factors in ensuring that our schools, settings and leaders are very much at the centre of the work of the WE Strategy. In addition to being a highly respected and effective local headteacher, Peter is well known to many as a high profile lead member of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). 

This month, ASCL has published a new framework providing education leaders with a set of guiding principles to support them in decision-making and in calling out unethical behaviour. Peter Kent was one of 18 commissioners involved in this challenging national project and shares more about this and outlines the key principles in this article.

Paul Senior

Interim Assistant Director Education Services