Executive Director, Arts Planning and Investment
Althea Efunshile has held senior leadership positions within DfES since 2001. Her recent achievements include the development and launch of the Children in Care Green Paper. From 2003-06 she was director of the Safeguarding Children Group at DfES, where she led and delivered the department’s response to the Bichard Report following the Soham murders. As director of the DfES’s Children and Young People’s Unit from 2001-03, Althea set up the £450 million Children’s Fund programme to ensure every local authority delivered preventative programmes for 5-12 year olds at risk of social exclusion, and she led the development of the 'Outcomes Framework' which has since become an essential aspect of children’s services across the country.
Prior to this, Althea was Director of Education and Community Services, then Director for Education and Culture at the London Borough of Lewisham. Among her achievements was the development of Lewisham’s Cultural Strategy. Althea gained a BA (hons) in Sociology from the University of Essex and a PGCE from Goldsmiths College, University of London.