Mayor Chris Cooke announces shakeup of Middlesbrough Council Executive squad

Middlesbrough Mayor Chris Cooke this week announced changes to his executive, with one departure and two new faces joining the team.

Labour Councillors Luke Henman and Jan Ryles will be joining the executive team, with Councillor Zafar Uddin standing down “for work and family reasons”. Cllr Henman will be taking on the role that Cllr Uddin previously held: executive member for children’s services. Meanwhile, Cllr Ryles will be taking on responsibility for adult social care and public health.

Previously, the mayor had balanced the adult social care and public health role alongside his other responsibilities. Middlesbrough Council has said that he will now dedicate more time to the council’s transformation programme. He will additionally be taking on the governance portfolio from Councillor Nicky Walker. Cllr Walker will remain the executive member for finance.

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Cllr Henman was elected for the ward of Acklam on July 4, earlier this year. He outlined his vision for the executive role, answering questions posed by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. One of these questions was what would success look like in his role between now and the next set of council elections?

Cllr Henman started his answer by describing the finances and governance of Middlesbrough Council “on the brink” when Labour came to power in 2023. He also pointed out that children’s services in Middlesbrough “had been rated inadequate and subject to government intervention”.

He said that since this time, a “huge” amount of work has been undertaken to improve the service. “I want to do everything I can to support that work. Keeping our young people safe and ensuring they have the best possible start in life is one of the most important jobs of the council. I will be focussed on supporting the staff, partner organisations and the young people in our care to cement the improvements we are seeing and ensure we are doing just that.”

He was also asked what he thought about the challenge of 491 young people in care in the council area (this figure was cited at last month’s corporate parenting board meeting). This figure is down from nearly 700 children approximately five years ago. Cllr Henman responded: “We all know that our area faces huge challenges. What is important is that young people and families get the right type of support. I’m hugely proud of the Early Help service our council does to support people early on - before things reach crisis point.

“We need to make sure we continue to work with partner organisations and families to make sure that people get support early and at the appropriate level. I want to focus too on making sure that those young people who are in the Council’s care are listened to and included more and that they get the same level of support from us that everyone has the right to expect from a parent.”

On her new role, Cllr Ryles commented: “I’m looking forward to supporting our Adult Social Care staff who do such a challenging and rewarding job for people across Middlesbrough.”

Meanwhile, other executive members saw their portfolios change names. Councillor Theo Furness’s department was formerly titled “regeneration”. He will now be the executive member for “development”. Likewise, Councillor Janet Thompson will now be in charge of “neighbourhoods”, although Middlesbrough Council has confirmed that “community safety” (the previous title of her portfolio) is still part of her brief.

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