Building a children-first leadership team: West Sussex County Council

How x3 Associates helped West Sussex County Council build a children-first leadership culture across 335 leaders and managers. Read the full case study.

Full Case Study

Lucy Butler, Executive Director of Children, Young People and Learning

“We had the best 3 days as a senior leadership team working on our plan to get to outstanding services for our children and families.”

The challenge

In 2019, Ofsted judged all areas of West Sussex’s children’s services inadequate, and the findings made national news. Inspectors identified serious weaknesses in how staff and partner agencies recognised and responded to neglect, and the services had a culture that was resistant to change. The Council needed sustainable, long-lasting improvement, not a short-term fix.