Nicola Clemo, the chief executive of Slough Children’s Services Trust, has announced that she is to retire at the end of April.
Ms Clemo, 62, has been with the Trust since July 2015, ahead of its official launch in October 2015. In 2016, she was awarded an OBE for her contribution to children’s services.
‘This has been an incredibly hard decision for me, but I have made the decision to retire. I have been thinking seriously about it for a while and I will be leaving at the end of April. I shall feel very sad to leave such a fantastic workforce but after almost three years at an unbelievable pace, I have decided that I need to slow down and spend more time with my family.’
Robert Tapsfield, the Trust’s board chair said: ‘Nicola’s dedication and hard work has put the Trust on the path to success. We are all very sorry to see her go but she has worked tirelessly to get the Trust to where it is now and all of us are very grateful to her for her passion, commitment and energy.
‘The timing of Nicola’s decision to retire now is to fit in with family commitments and is not related to the publication of the latest Ofsted monitoring visit. She had hoped to see the Trust through its next full inspection but, as that is now delayed, she had to make a difficult decision. She made that on the basis that the Trust – despite the improvements we are aware we need to make – is in the strongest position it has been for some time. We respect her for that.
‘We have a strong leadership team in place and we will look to recruit an interim before Nicola goes. She has been a very dynamic and strong leader and will leave hard shoes to fill, so we will take our time to recruit a permanent replacement.’