Croydon Council is bidding farewell to Robert Henderson, executive director of children, families and education, who will be leaving the council to take up a new role with another local authority.
He has led Croydon through its transformation of children’s services, which saw the council awarded a ‘good’ rating by Ofsted earlier this year.
Rob came to Croydon in December 2018 with a strong track record in driving transformation in children’s services. He had recently led Richmond Council to a ‘good’ Ofsted outcome in October 2017, and previously was part of the leadership team that oversaw Kingston’s improvement journey from ‘inadequate’ to ‘good’ within two years.
Leader of the council, Councillor Tony Newman said: “Rob has done an outstanding job for Croydon and he has been instrumental in achieving our ‘good’ Ofsted rating. He leaves us in a strong position to continue our journey to ‘outstanding’ children’s services, and to keep on getting better. I want to thank him for all he has done, and wish him the very best for the future.”
Councillor Alisa Flemming, cabinet member for children, families and learning said: “Rob has a genuine passion for improving the lives of children and families. He has made a real difference to our services for some of Croydon’s most vulnerable young people, and to the frontline staff who provide them. Most importantly he has helped us to develop a service in line with our vision – to put children and young people at the heart of all we do.”
Jo Negrini, Chief Executive, Croydon Council, said: “Together with our directors, Nick Pendry and Shelley Davies, Rob has provided great leadership to our children’s services team. His energy, experience and expertise have brought real pace and momentum to our transformation programme, which resulted in a ‘good’ Ofsted judgement earlier this year. He has achieved much in his time with us, and I want to thank him for his hard work and dedication to Croydon. We are really sorry to see him go and he will be much missed by staff across the council. I wish him all the best in his next role.”
Rob Henderson said: “I’ve loved working in Croydon. It’s a fantastic place, with a great and talented management team and some absolutely fantastic social workers, and education and early help staff, in the service. They have achieved so much in the last two years – I’m incredibly proud of them and I have every confidence that they will go on achieving and doing what they do best – making a difference to children and families.”
