Meet our directors
Our directors tell you a bit more about their roles in Gloucestershire's Children's Services.
- Andy Dempsey - Director of Partnerships and Strategy
- Wendy Williams - Assistant Director for Integrated Children and Families Commissing
- Chris Spencer - Director of Children’s Services Gloucestershire County Council
- Kirsten Harrison - Director of Education
- Ann James - Director of safeguarding and care
Andy Dempsey
Andy has worked in local government since 1986 and as a Director since 2004. Working primarily in the North West region, Andy has had responsibility for an eclectic range of services, including neighbourhood development, community safety, drug and alcohol treatment, youth services and youth offending services. In 2011, he took on the role of DCS in St Helens in Merseyside and led them through two inspections with judgements of good and requires improvement.
His journey to Gloucestershire came via South West ADCS and meeting Gloucestershire’s recently appointed DCS, Chris Spencer, in 2018. Chris outlined an expansive vision for children’s services and a commitment to building something that had a lasting impact beyond any judgement by Ofsted. That won’t be realised without the support and commitment of our partners and much of Andy previous work had been in building and sustaining partnerships. As a consequence, Andy’s focus in Gloucestershire has been on developing a collective, strategic focus on children and young people working through a range of partnership arrangements, some of which he chairs. Andy also has responsibility for our quality assurance, performance and early help arrangements.