The Office of Children and Young People's Services (OCYPS) is the County Council's department responsible for:

• education
• social care for children and families
• youth offending services
• the Connexions service
• SureStart services

Here are some quick links to our most frequently accessed pages:

Education and learning

• term dates
• admission to school  
• schools contact details
• complaints about schools
• school meals
• early years and childcare

Social care for children

• adoption
• fostering
• children with disabilities

Youth Offending Services

Connexions

Our vision for all these services is "Helping all children and young people achieve their potential".  We aim to achieve this by:

• delivering services which are of the highest quality
• involving children, young people, partners, carers and other stakeholders when making any decisions which affect them
• developing services that are inclusive and accessible
• reducing inequalities and raising achievement

This will require from us:

• early intervention
• an emphasis on prevention
• multi-agency activity
• effective partnerships

Information about our Key partners can be found here.

Integrated working is central to achieving our aims.  Our locality teams, for instance, are multi-disciplinary, bringing together workers with a wide and varied range of skills and experience.

OCYPS is led by Gordon Jeyes, Deputy Chief Executive.  He is supported by three County Directors (for Inclusion, Learning and Planning and Development) and three Area Directors.

The Area Directors are responsible for Area Social Care Teams, Area Additional Needs Teams and a number of multi-disciplinary Locality Teams

Also Children and Young People can participate in the development of OCYPS services, for more information click on Get Involved