The North West Sector Led Improvement Team and the 24 Local Authorities in the North West region work together to improve outcomes for children and young people through a sector-led approach. 

All 24 Local Authorities have each signed a tailored Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support the North West Children’s Sector-Led Improvement Programme. 

The MoU sets out the agreed areas and activities in which the Regional Innovation & Improvement Alliance will work together to support Sector Led Improvement with the shared aims of:

• Securing a journey of continuous improvement to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people 
• Building on existing capability in Children’s Services, corporately and with partners, to identify good practice, diagnose improvement challenges and identify risks to performance.
• Systematically sharing knowledge about what works across the sector and ensuring that there is effective brokerage of good practice solutions.

The core Children’s Sector Led Improvement Team support and co-ordinate the activities defined in the Memorandum. 

The Children’s Sufficiency Programme exists in order to support the region’s internal and external children’s social care provision. The principal aim is to improve outcomes for children and young people and provide value for money through a regional approach to commissioning and managing placements. 

Key objectives for the programme include:

• Improved placement choice and routes to market for North West local authorities.
• Improved quality and value for money in placements across the region. 
• Co-ordinated monitoring standards for provision leading to services that better meet the needs of young people.
• Enabling sector led improvement in relation to social care commissioning, placement finding and market development to ensure that local authorities have teams who are confident and knowledgeable to enable them to develop and manage a range of placements that are good quality and value for money. 
• Promoting a detailed understanding of current market spend and activity to inform future commissioning. 
   

Paul Bunker 
Head of Children’s Sector Led Improvement
Paul’s overarching roles seeks to ensure the North West Association of Directors of Children’s Services (NWADCS) and the NW Sector led Improvement Board (NWSLIB) continue to deliver a trusted, effective and coherent sector-led improvement model.  This is achieved through facilitation of effective NWADCS networks for Directors and senior leaders including for School Improvement, Children’s Social Care and SEND. By identifying, growing, and sharing emerging practice, the role supports the conditions for a learning system - one which unites all stakeholders, from regulation to delivery, in a robust and collective approach to improvement.   
Email: paul.bunker@stockport.gov.uk   

Amy Lythgoe
Children's Sufficiency Programme Manager
Amy manages the strategic commissioning service to support the development of sufficiency, quality placements for Looked After Children and Care Leavers across the North West. This is delivered through; the development of intelligence on the cost and quality of services and their impact on outcomes, management of commissioning mechanisms and contribution to sector led improvement activity and regional development. 

Email: amy.lythgoe@stockport.gov.uk

Angela Gibbons
Quality and Outcomes Manager
Angela’s role is to develop relationships across North West authorities, provider networks and other key stakeholders to identify, evaluate and promote high quality planning and commissioning practice. This will be done through managing monitoring and development activity which improves the quality of placements and the outcomes and experiences of children and young people in care and care leavers and acting as a key enabler and focal point for effective links across commissioning and practice leadership roles. 

Email: angela.gibbons@stockport.gov.uk

Julia Mather
Data Hub Manager
Julia manages the collation and analysis of Children’s Services data and intelligence to support benchmarking; challenge; early identification of concerns and evidence based activity. She will also work with relevant stakeholders to promote the use of data to support high quality commissioning and delivery of services at local, sub regional and regional levels.

Email: julia.mather@stockport.gov.uk

Jenni Howard
Policy and Improvement Officer
Jenni’s role is to support NWADCS to deliver a trusted and coherent sector led improvement model through producing and maintaining policies, procedures and systems to support early identification of concerns, improvement and evidence based delivery.

Email: jenni.howard@stockport.gov.uk

Sarah Halsall
Contract and Markets Officer
Sarah is the key enabler for the effective operation of purchasing systems for fostering, residential, supported and independent living and SEND services to support the ongoing development and design of purchasing systems and other commissioning projects to deliver sufficiency, quality and value for money. Sarah develops relationships across the North West authorities, provider networks and other stakeholders to promote effective market development.

Email: sarah.halsall@stockport.gov.uk 

Zelda Massey

Improvement Support Coordinator
Zelda is the primary contact for the North West Sector Led Improvement Programme. Zelda’s key role is to provide co-ordination and support to all regional improvement activity, supporting North West Association of Directors of Childrens’ Services (NWADCS), North West Sector Led Improvement Board and the NWADCS Sub Groups.  Zelda provides streamlined communication to all key partners and stakeholders by acting as the conduit for all communication, information requests, resources and document flow.

Email: zelda.massey@stockport.gov.uk

Jessica Kippen

Contract and Quality Monitoring Officer
Jessica's role is to support with ensuring that providers on all purchasing systems are compliant with contract requirements, in particular looking at Alternative Provision. 

Email: jessica.kippen@stockport.gov.uk

Bella Ryan

Contract and Quality Monitoring Officer
Bella's role is to carry out monitoring to ensure that providers on all purchasing systems are compliant with the requirements of the contracts. This includes carrying out the interim monitoring assessments for supported accommodation providers in the period before they receive their first full inspection from Ofsted. She also supports with collating and disseminating information relating to the quality of provision in the market. 

Email: bella.ryan@stockport.gov.uk