Sara Tough

Executive Director, Children Services Norfolk County Council

Sara Tough, Executive Director for Children Services, Norfolk County Council started her career as a social worker and also trained as a play therapist. Over a period of 33 years, Sara has worked in senior roles across four other local authorities and two independent organisations, delivering, managing, and leading services for children and young people.

In many of those roles she has managed large scale organisational change. At the time of Every Child Matters, Sara worked closely with the Department of Children Schools and Families and contributed to the creation of the Children Act 2004. At that time, she presented at the House of Lords and was invited to number 10 in recognition of her contribution to the production of the legislation and guidance.

Passionate about outcomes and evidencing how we make a difference, Sara was part of the team that published the influential reports “Narrowing the Gap” and “Grasping the Nettle”. Promoting the importance of Prevention and Early intervention, the importance of working together across the whole system, and the importance of strong statutory interventions, underpinned by relationship-based practice, all influence her work as a leader.

Sara was an Elected Director on the ADCS board for a four-year term, and on 1 April 2019, was elected to chair the ADCS Policy Committee for Families, Communities and Young People.

In Norfolk, Sara is also the Children's NHS STP Lead for the system, working to achieve an Integrated Care System, with children’s mental health and wellbeing as a priority. With her leadership team, she is leading a large-scale transformation program to reduce duplication to maximise collective resources and make an impact at each stage of children’s development, with the school system central to that success