Rutland County Council is on the hunt for a new director of children's services as the current boss is set to leave.

Dawn Godfrey, who has been the director of children's services since 2021, will leave the authority later this month to take up a new role at Cheshire East Council according to a council spokesperson.

A qualified social worker, she has worked in local government for more than 25 years and has previously worked at Nottingham County Council, where she was in charge of child protection and looked after children. She has also been a HMI inspector of local councils children's services.

The authority held a specially convened chief officer appointment meeting yesterday afternoon, in which candidates were interviewed by a panel of councillors including council leader Gale Waller (Lib Dem) and cabinet member for children's services Tim Smith.

The meeting was held in private and the committee will make a recommendation to the full council to approve. The post being recruited to is an interim position. The salary for the children's services director in the most recent published pay scales was just under £100,000.

The chief officer team at Rutland is led by Mark Andrews, and he is supported by an all female team of senior directors.