Children’s services boss quits Northants council

Charisse Monero has left the authority suddenly after just one year in post and opposition councillors say they want to know why.

By Sarah Ward

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After a year Charisse Monero has had enough of North Northamptonshire Council.

The boss of children’s services in North Northamptonshire has suddenly quit.

Charisse Monero, who has been in charge since last June, has departed with councillors unclear as to the reason why she had decided to go.

Councillors were informed yesterday and this afternoon North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) today gave us the following statement:

“Our Executive Director of Children’s Services, Charisse Monero, has decided to leave the authority and the council wishes her all the best for the future.

“As this is a statutory role the council’s deputy Chief Executive, George Candler, will fulfil the position of Director of Children’s Services for the next few weeks, alongside his current role as Executive Director of Place and Economy.

“The authority has already started work on finding a replacement for a permanent Executive Director of Children’s Services and updates will be issued in due course.”

Charisse Monero, who previously worked in a London borough, was the third director of children’s services in four years of the authority. Cathi Hadley and Anne-Marie Dodds had gone before her.

The spend of the children’s services department is one of the largest in the department, as the day-to-day running of children’s services is managed by an independent trust, led by Colin Foster. Largely due to high costs of private companies looking after children in care, the budget has been exceeded every year since 2021. Following the Covid pandemic there has also been a huge increase in the numbers of children being put under Education Health Care Plans - in the North of the county alone this had risen to 5,000 children.

When she came into post Monero said she was concerned about the high numbers of children in elected home education and said the local authority was ‘not getting the basics right.’

The council has been led by Reform UK since May. Due to national statements, many officers in Reform led councils have been concerned about their job security. We tried to contact the new cabinet member for children’s services Cllr Elizabeth Wright, but have not been able to speak with her.

Opposition parties on NNC are concerned.

Cllr Wendy Brackenbury, who is the shadow portfolio holder for children’s service said would be sorry to see the officer go as she was ‘very vocal and fought for the rights of children.’

Leader of the Green Party, Cllr Fedorowycz said:

“Honestly, it’s really sad news to hear that Charisse has left, especially after only being with us for a short period - it will really set this council back. I was on her interview board and I saw that she had so much to give to our area and the children of North Northamptonshire.

“Sadly, it does highlight that there is certainly some discontent amongst officers and this was something we warned of when we raised our motion last week. We asked for officers and members of the public to be made to feel more supported, but instead Reform chose to bury their head in the sand about the impact of their actions. I do not want to see this, but I will not be surprised if more officers start leaving.”