Dr Sue Ross, Interim Director of Children’s and Adults’ Services
We are delighted to announce that Dr Sue Ross has been appointed as Interim Director of Children’s and Adults’ Services. Sue joins us on the 26 August and will provide interim leadership for Children’s and Adults’ Services by undertaking the statutory roles of Director of Children’s Services (DCS) and Director of Adults Services (DASS), in order to enable the Council to begin the process of recruiting a permanent Director of Children’s and Adults’ Services. These statutory roles have been most recently covered by outgoing Interim Director of Children and Adult Services, Anne Coyle. Sue and Anne will work closely together to ensure a smooth handover before Sue formally takes over responsibility on 28 August 2025.
Sue is a registered social worker and has held a range of leadership roles in local authorities throughout the UK. She also has experience of working within small, rural local authorities (as Interim Director of Social Services at Blaenau Gwent in Wales), and with island communities (as Interim Head of Children’s services at Argyll and Bute in Scotland).
As a graduate of St Andrews, Sue obtained her Masters degree and qualification in Social Work at Oxford University and was awarded a Doctorate from Keele University for her research on social work with children and young people. In addition to her work in local authorities, Sue also runs her own interim and consultancy services company, spent 3 years as Chief Executive of a Primary Care Trust and, since 2009, has been Independent Chair of 5 Safeguarding Adults Boards in England and a Public Protection Committee in Scotland. She is currently a non-executive Director of the social work regulatory body Social Work England and Chair of Solihull’s Safeguarding Adults Board. She has been involved in child protection consultancy in Western Australia, Romania and Bulgaria, and has carried out a review of a childcare case in the Falkland Islands.
Russell Ashman, Chief Executive of the Council of the Isles of Scilly, said: “I am delighted that Sue will be taking up the role of Interim Director of Children’s and Adults’ Services when Anne Coyle leaves us on 28 August. I’m confident that Sue’s impressive credentials and years of experience in both Children’s and Adults’ will enable her to tackle this challenging role head on and continue Anne’s good work in developing these services on our islands. I very much look forward to welcoming her to the Scilly and working with her to deliver high quality services to the community here.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish Anne all the best in her new role as Executive Director for Children’s Services at Nottinghamshire County Council and thank her for the considerable progress she has made with her teams in her time here. Whilst we are still on an improvement journey following the ‘inadequate’ judgement we received from Ofsted in July 2023, Anne’s leadership has resulted in Ofsted acknowledging a marked improvement during their most recent Monitoring Visit. I’d also like to thank her for covering the Director of Adult Social Services role in recent months and so ably guiding the team through the most recent Care Quality Commission Inspection, the results of which have yet to be announced.”
Sue Ross, Interim Director of Children’s and Adults’ Services, said: “I am so pleased to be joining you as your new Interim Director of Children’s and Adults’ Services. I'm very much looking forward to spending some time on the islands, and getting to know and work with the islands’ communities to provide the best possible services for children and adults who need care and support. One of the things I have loved about working in small, remote communities elsewhere is having the opportunity to really roll up my sleeves and get involved in all aspects of the services I’m leading. I realise that, like other communities I have worked with, the islands will have their own unique challenges to overcome, and I’m looking forward to working with the whole community to ensure that adults and children on Scilly are well cared for and supported in accordance with their best interests and aspirations.”
--
Laura Thompson, Head of Education, Inclusion and Virtual School
In addition to the appointment of our new Interim Director of Children’s and Adults’ Services, we are also thrilled to announce that our current SEND and Inclusion Manager, Laura Thompson has been appointed to our new leadership role as Head of Education, Inclusion and Virtual School. Laura will begin her new role in September.
Anne Coyle, outgoing Interim Director of Children and Adult Services said: “We are all deeply proud of everything that Laura has achieved in the service to date and can’t wait to see her continue to deliver and flourish in this new role. Congratulations Laura!”
Laura Thompson, newly appointed Head of Education, Inclusion and Virtual School said: “Having grown up on Scilly, I am passionate about enhancing the life experiences of children and families here, so I’m really excited to be stepping into this new role. I look forward to working alongside the new Interim Director of Children’s and Adults’ Services to further strengthen our partnerships and the support we provide to the community.”
Councillor Robert Francis, Chairman of the Council of the Isles of Scilly said: “These recent appointments to the Council’s leadership within Children’s and Adults’ Services are extremely welcome. I would like to echo the comments made by my officer colleagues by congratulating both Sue and Laura, and by thanking Anne for everything she has done to make sure that the Council can continue to meet the needs of the community and be optimistic about what we can achieve from here.”