An appointment has been made to the Chair of the new Bradford Children’s Company – with Eileen Milner taking on this critically important role at almost the same time as she becomes Chair of Council at the University of Bradford.
Eileen is an experienced senior leader who brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to both roles that will benefit children and young people across the district.
Until October 2021, Eileen was Chief Executive Officer of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
The ESFA is an executive agency of the Department for Education and, in this role, Eileen was the accounting officer responsible for a budget of over £60bn, as well as having significant policy and delivery responsibilities across the education and skills landscape.
“I’m delighted that our work with the Department for Education brought forward an outstanding candidate like Eileen to lead our children’s company. This new company will use all the talents we have nationally and locally to manage children’s services in the district through its next phase of improvement.
“Eileen’s commitment to the district will ensure that improved outcomes for children and young people are at the heart of the work of both organisations.
“We look forward to working with her and benefiting from the wealth of experience she brings.”
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council
Prior to this she was an Executive Director at the Care Quality Commission, the regulator of health and adult social care in England.
Eileen has recently announced that she is standing down from her current role with the Combined Authority for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and will be focusing on a small number of non-executive appointments.
In the coming months, Eileen will be working with us to agree the scope of the new children’s company and to recruit a Chief Executive and Board.
Significant strides forward have been made in preparing to set up The Bradford Children’s Company – the working name given to it. We are creating a company to run children’s services as part of our commitment to improvement.
This change will benefit vulnerable children and their families across the district by speeding up improvements to the services which support them.
Read more: University appoints education and skills expert as its new Chair of Council (bradford.ac.uk).