Meet the Children's Services team

Neil MacDonald - Director of Children's Services

Neil joined Coventry Children’s Services in January 2017 as the Strategic Lead for Quality Assurance. Prior to this, Neil was Head of Service for Localities and Children with Disabilities in the London Borough of Brent. Neil is a qualified social worker and has held a variety of different roles across a number of Local Authorities including Midlothian, Haringey, Islington and Brent.

Neil has worked with different specialist teams and services and has a broad understanding and knowledge of the challenges facing children’s Services.

Neil MacDonald

Angela Whitrick - Strategic Lead for Looked after Children (Corporate Parenting)

Angela has been working in Coventry since January 2018. She holds a BA in Family & Child Care Studies (Dip SW), Practice Teachers Award, ILM level 4 in Leadership and Management and Certificate in Commissioning and Purchasing for Public Care.

Angela has spent the majority of her career working directly with looked after children and in 2013 took on the role of service manager in another local authority, until joining Coventry as the Operational lead for Placements. Angela recently progressed to the role of Strategic Lead, with a specific focus on corporate parenting and placements. She is the Responsible Individual for the 5 children’s homes run by Coventry City Council, alongside overseeing the Fostering service, Placement Team and Children with Disabilities Team.

Angela Whitrick

Matt Clayton - Strategic Lead for Looked after Children (Practice)

Matt joined Coventry in 2013 from the voluntary sector. He is qualified in social work with a Master’s degree in Leadership and management in social work. Matt has led and developed a number of services within Coventry primarily around looked after children and care leavers. Matt has a reputation for innovative practice young people at the centre. This has included leading on the BAFTA nominated documentary Superkids, piloting the first automatic water bill discount to care leavers and the rollout of social media in social work practice in Coventry. Matt is chair of the West Midlands regional care leavers forum and part of the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum steering group.

Matt Clayton

Chris Heeley - Strategic Lead for Help and Protection

Chris joined Coventry in December 2021 as Strategic Lead for Help & Protection. Prior to this, Chris was the Assistant Director for Early Help, Safeguarding and YOS in Staffordshire County Council. When Chris began his career as a qualified social worker in Walsall working in an area team that had responsibility for all statutory interventions for children.

Since 2010, Chris has held management roles within the Early Help and Safeguarding Service in Walsall and then Staffordshire.

Chris Heeley

Rupal Jayaswal - Principal Social Worker

Rupal joined Coventry City Council in December 2023, as a Principal Social Worker. Rupal brings to Coventry over 12 years of Social Work experience in children and families’ services within London Local Authorities, having completed her Master’s in Social Work from India in 2004 and MSc Health Policy, Planning and Financing from LSE in 2008.

Rupal’s experience ranges from working in the assessment team, long-term intervention team as a Consultant Social Worker for Frontline Programme Students; Practice Improvement and Audit Officer in a Quality Assurance team; after which she progressed to the role of Practice Development and Court Work Lead. Before starting her social work career in the UK, Rupal has worked in social health research in India.

Rupal Jayaswal

Judith Jones - Strategic Lead for Quality Assurance

Judith has been working for Coventry City Council Children’s Services since January 2018, initially as Operational Lead for Quality Assurance and since July 2023 as the Strategic Lead for the service. Judith joined Coventry from Leicestershire where she was Service Manager for IRO, CP Chair and Children’s Rights and Participation Services.

As a qualified social worker with over 30 years’ experience in statutory social work settings, she has held a variety of practitioner, manager and senior manager roles in a number of Local Authorities prior to joining Coventry.

Judith’s career history has furnished her with a wide-ranging appreciation and expertise in respect of delivering good quality, effective Children’s Services, with her roles latterly having a particular focus on quality assurance, performance and improvement.

Judith Jones