Pembrokeshire County Council has appointed a new Director of Education.
He is Steven Richards-Downes, a former Cardiff headteacher, who has been the Authority’s Acting Director for Children and Schools since the 1st February.
He succeeds Kate Evan-Hughes who left the Council earlier this year to take up a post in England.
Mr Richards-Downes came to Pembrokeshire in May 2017 as Deputy Chief Education Officer from the Central South Consortium – a school improvement service based in South Wales – where he was Strategic Lead Advisor.
He began his career in education as a teacher with the former Mid-Glamorgan local authority.
Mr Richards-Downes was congratulated on his appointment by Guy Woodham, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning.
Councillor Woodham said:
“Following a rigorous recruitment process, Mr Richards-Downes impressed not only myself and other Councillor colleagues but also the headteacher and local authority senior officer representatives and – most important of all – a young persons’ panel, that he is the right person for this new role of Director of Education.
“I look forward to working collaboratively with Steven and the whole Pembrokeshire education community (including learners and their families) over the coming months as we develop further our aspirational vision for the efficient and effective delivery of education across the whole of Pembrokeshire.
“This will be undertaken with a clear focus on improved learner outcomes delivering the recommendations for improvement in the Authority’s recent Estyn inspection report and insuring that every learner achieves more than they thought possible.”
Mr Richards-Downes takes up his appointment with immediate effect
