Sarah McCarty has been appointed to the role of Chief Executive of Social Care Wales.
Sarah will take up the role this summer, replacing Sue Evans who’s retiring in July after eight years at the helm.
Sue Evans said: “I know that Sarah will be a fantastic Chief Executive and I wish her all the very best in her new role.”
Sarah is currently Director of Improvement and Development at Social Care Wales, a role she’s carried out since April 2016.
Sarah began her career as a youth worker and a founding member of the then-Children and Young People’s Welsh Assembly. Before joining Social Care Wales, Sarah worked in local authority improvement and as Executive Director of Skills for Care and Development.
Sarah McCarty said: “I am honoured and delighted to have the opportunity to build on Sue’s legacy and lead Social Care Wales in the next stage of our development. We will continue to work in partnership and to build on our support for the social care workforce and services in Wales.
“We will all need to draw upon social care, early years and childcare at some stage – whether that be for ourselves, our family or our friends. We are committed to supporting services to provide the very best care and support for people across Wales.”
Mick Giannasi, Chair of Social Care Wales, said: “I am delighted to announce that our current Director of Improvement and Development Sarah McCarty will be stepping up into the role of Chief Executive when Sue Evans retires in July.
“We had an excellent response to our recruitment campaign and Sarah emerged as the outstanding candidate in a very strong field. The recruitment panel were particularly impressed by her track record of delivering strategic change at a national level and her compelling vision for the future direction of Social Care Wales.
“Her passion for fairness and social justice shone through and her ambition to work collaboratively with others at a system level to address some of the difficult and long-standing challenges, which the sector faces, now and in the future, was self-evident.
“Sarah has consistently demonstrated outstanding leadership skills in her current role. I have no doubt that she will uphold and strengthen the values which the organisation aspires to whilst continuing to provide the same compassionate, empowering and collaborative style of leadership, which the people who work in the organisation and our key stakeholders and partners have become accustomed to.
“I look forward to working with Sarah as Chief Executive and I am confident that under her leadership, Social Care Wales will go from strength to strength and increasingly make a positive difference for people in Wales who need care and support to live the lives that matter to them.”
About Sarah
Sarah began her career as a youth worker in Wales. She worked in a variety of statutory and voluntary settings, in particular with vulnerable young people, and in supporting young people’s participation.
She was a founding member of the then-Children and Young People’s Welsh Assembly and went on to hold positions in local authorities in youth work and wider business planning, and service improvement, supported by a Master’s in Strategic Management.
Sarah went on to become Executive Director of Skills for Care and Development where she worked for the UK wide partnership from 2005.
She became Director in 2008 and expanding the work of the Sector Skills Council to address a wide range of workforce challenges faced by the sector.
Sarah joined Social Care Wales as Director in April 2016.