Meet the Children's Services team

Sukriti Sen - Director for Children and Education

Sukriti Sen joined Coventry as Director of Children’s and Education Services in August 2024.

Sukriti qualified as a social worker 32 years ago and previously worked in two London boroughs in various positions before joining Essex County Council as the Director of Local Delivery, Children and Families in 2015.

Sukriti's been a senior leader since 2005 and has worked across a breadth of areas, including early help, child protection, children in care, children with disabilities, quality assurance and workforce.

Sukriti Sen

Neil Macdonald, Strategic Lead for Safeguarding Practice and Workforce

Neil joined Coventry Children’s Services in January 2017 as the Strategic Lead for Quality Assurance. He became Interim DCS in July 2023.  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 social care. 

Angela Whitrick - Strategic Lead for Corporate Parenting and Sufficiency

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 Children in Care, Children With Disability and

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

Richard Hamblett - Principal Social Worker

Richard joined Coventry City Council in September 2021, as a Team Manager in the Social Work Academy, before commencing as Principal Social Worker in August 2024. 

Prior to joining Coventry, Richard had over 12 years of Social Work experience in children and families’ services within two other Local Authorities, Warwickshire and Leicestershire, after completing his Social Work degree at Coventry University in 2008.

Richard’s experience ranges from working in a Child Protection and Court team, Signs of Safety and domestic abuse Champion, and managing an Initial Response team. Richard has held a long-term interest in Practice Education and supported many students and Newly Qualified Social Workers in different settings throughout his career. 

Most recently Richard was a Team Manager in Coventry's Social Work Academy, where his role was to support the development of Newly Qualified Social Workers practice with an overall aim to strive for the best practice to be completed with children in Coventry.

Richard Hamblett