Jacky Tiotto announced as new Cafcass Chief Executive

Cafcass is pleased to announce that Jacky Tiotto will be joining Cafcass as its new Chief Executive in Autumn 2019. Jacky will be joining Cafcass from the London Borough of Bexley, where she is currently Director of Children’s Services.

As the Chief Executive, Jacky will lead Cafcass’ social workers and corporate staff in achieving the best possible outcomes for children, young people and their families who are going through the family courts. The strategic leadership role is accountable to the Cafcass Board, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and to Parliament.

Prior to her role at Bexley, Jacky was the Director of Social Care inspection development at Ofsted. She has also held senior professional roles, including as Head of the National Safeguarding Delivery Unit, Lead Professional Adviser to Professor Eileen Munro, and as the Lead Official to Lord Laming’s Review of Child Protection in England.

Commenting on her new role, Jacky said:

“Being offered the opportunity to lead Cafcass as their new Chief Executive is a complete privilege. I will take great care to do it well so that the lives and futures of children, young people, families and carers continue to be the greatest priority for all of us working to support them.

“The protection of children, the needs and experiences of families and the responsibilities of the State in this regard are issues of huge importance to our society and for me personally. Cafcass negotiates these issues on behalf of children within the family courts on a daily basis. The demand and complexity of the work cannot be underestimated and I am delighted to be able to lead the organisation and to learn from its work as we continue to give a loud and authentic voice to the children who need and deserve our help.”

Cafcass’ Chair of the Board, Edward Timpson CBE commented:

“We are delighted to have Jacky joining Cafcass as our new Chief Executive. Jacky was an exceptional candidate and has a wealth of experience from across many different areas of children’s services. Her unique insights, proven leadership and deep understanding of children and families will be vital to Cafcass as we continue to drive forward in our mission to provide an outstanding service for every child.”

Councillor Teresa O’Neill OBE, the Leader of the London Borough of Bexley said:

“We are very proud that Jacky has been appointed as Chief Executive of Cafcass. She built a strong team here and led them on the challenging journey to last year’s outstanding Ofsted report. Although we will all be extremely sad to see her go, this is a fantastic opportunity and Jacky will leave Bexley with our best wishes and thanks.”