
Leader of the Year – Chantelle Ross, Service Manager, Derby Changing Lives & EITSS
Since Chantelle took up the post of Service Manager in March 2023 the teams she has managed have continued to grow and continually develop – she had 3 new wave 8 teams to integrate with the staff that had just TUPE’d over from Action for Children and since then she has recruited to 2 new teams in Wave10; managed a TUPE of the Early Intervention and Targeted Support Team from two different providers and is currently recruiting to 2 new wave 12 MHST teams – this will be approximately 128 staff in total. Chantelle approaches any challenge with a smile looking for solutions. With a team this size there will be inevitably be some people issues to resolve on a regular basis but this is always done by putting the service at the heart of any decisions. Chantelle has maintained throughout all this change (and recruitment) a really positive team culture of hard work which is supportive to all colleagues.
Chantelle likes to think creatively looking for new solutions to challenges. She was really keen to introduce a lived experience practitioner into the specialist team to get the voice of children who understand what’s it is like to be referred to a service. Under her direction the Specialist team have really added value to the service, for example overseeing a county-wide black, ethnic minority and boys working group across the system. The value of this is really recognised by the ICB commissioner who has nothing but praise for Chantelle and the team