Creating a culture underpinned by an absolute commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging sits at the heart of everything we do as children’s services leaders. Not just for the children and their families with whom we have the privilege of working with, but for our workforce as well.

Achieving this culture is no easy fix, nor is it a quick journey. It takes time, energy and sustained action to nurture an environment that is psychologically safe and where everyone feels a sense of belonging, purpose and value.

Across children’s services we work hard to ensure that we show care in all that we do; carefully considering how we write records for our children, undertake assessments and craft reports about their lives. In Leicestershire, we have an embedded strategy of writing all records, assessments, plans and reports to the child, so that not only are children placed at the heart of practice, it ensures we consider their lived experience and hear their voice. This approach further strengthens an understanding for children of how and why decisions were made and celebrates their achievements.

Just as important is our use of language. We know words have real power, words used to address or describe us in an unthoughtful way can hurt, make us feel small or humiliated; conversely, when used with meaning and purpose, they can lift us up, make us feel confident, positive and capable. Our language choice can also tell other people something about who we are, our beliefs and attitudes.

Language, inclusion, belonging and the care we show to one another matters for our staff in children’s services as well. I was so proud that when Ofsted visited us in April, they commented that in Leicestershire we have successfully created a culture that is enabling social work practice to develop and thrive, that staff value the investment and support they’ve had from managers and there is an understanding of the importance of relationships. This culture has come from a real focus on recognising and valuing difference, creating an inclusive culture that is built on developing safe environments that enable colleagues to feel secure to speak up, challenge, flourish and be heard.

It is never job done and we remain on a journey to get it right. As leaders, we need to keep stepping into what is not always an easy space…to be challenged, to hear and to understand our privilege. Not just our privilege in our wonderful DCS leadership role, but in the way we view the world, the opportunities that are available to us and the careful use of the power afforded to us as senior leaders in this system. It is inclusive leadership that is needed to support an inclusive climate in which everyone is valued for what they bring to our work with children. The riots right across the country in recent days underline the need for us as leaders to speak out against racism, violence and hate, and to speak up for the values of tolerance and respect. Staff from global majority backgrounds and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and care leavers will be feeling the impact of these events deeply, we need to check in on them too.

As leaders, we need to continue to do all of this with deliberateness; deliberateness in our care, kindness and love for the children and families with whom we work, and in our inclusive, kind, curious and courageous leadership of children’s services that ensures we lead with dignity, with respect, with care and with an unwavering focus on children.