Education - Working for Essex
Working with others to
help children and young
people get the most out
of their lives.

Welcome to Education

Hi, I am Clare Kershaw, Director of Education at Essex County Council.

I have worked for ECC now for 14 years and have been Director for 6 years.

There are many functions within the Education Directorate that fall under my remit including school improvement, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) , youth services, early years, pupils excluded from school, school safeguarding, NEET tracking, education data and communications, music and school meal services, school attendance and early years.

Much of our work is undertaken in partnership with schools and settings and with over 500 schools and 2000 settings across the county they keep us very busy and whilst almost 50% of schools in Essex are academies, one of the things I am very proud of is that ECC continues to work with all schools across Essex, whether they are maintained by us or are academies, which is not the case in many other local authorities.

We are supported by a number of innovative strategies including our work around Trauma Perceptive Practice, Disadvantage, SEND Improvement, Early Years and the Inclusion Framework, so it really is an exciting time to be joining the Education Directorate.

I’m very proud of the work that our Education function does and look forward to receiving your application.

Clare Kershaw, Director of Education at Essex County Council

Within Education, we are transforming the way we work with and support schools and are continuing to develop a countywide school-led improvement model that will enable them to access the support and challenge needed to continuously improve. We are firmly committed to ensuring all Essex pupils receive the best possible education and have ambitions for every school in the county to be rated at least good by Ofsted. We also aspire for educational outcomes to be among the best in the country and for the achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their peers to be reduced.​

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