Director of Adult Social Services to step down from Blackpool Council

Blackpool Council’s Director of Adult Social Services has announced she will step down from the post at the end of this year.

Karen Smith, who has worked for the authority in a variety of roles over the past 24 years, says she has decided to retire after reflecting on her future.

Ms Smith admitted “the pressures on Adult Social Services are many and great”, and her move comes four months after Blackpool’s Adult Services were rated “inadequate” in August this year.

However, she said the department had successfully weathered some “really tough times” and the Care Quality Commission report was not said to be behind her decision.

She began working for Blackpool Council in August 2001 in a variety of roles, and for the past 11 years has held the role of statutory Director of Adult Social Services (DAS).

The long-serving employee said she believed that now was the time to hand over the reins as the authority headed into a period of further changes for local government and health & social care services, both nationally and locally.

For the last three years, she has also undertaken a joint role as Director of Integration with the Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB for Blackpool.

Blackpool Council said Karen had led the oversight of the changeover of the council’s housing stock, the practical response to its communities during the Covid pandemic, and steered Adult Social Services through the turbulent times of budget cuts, shifts in national policy, operational pressures, and the rise in vulnerability in its population.

The council said she had “never once lost focus on the needs of the people who rely on us to support them nor the staff who deliver services day in, day out, 365 days a year.”

Karen Smith said: ‘’It has been a privilege to serve the people of Blackpool over the last 24 years, during a period of significant change and challenge, and I have had the pleasure of working with a great group of people during that time in doing so – both internally and externally to the council.

“The pressures on Adult Social Services are many and great. Together, we have weathered some really tough times – and continue to do so – but we have also achieved many things and even in our darkest days, we must never lose sight of those and the positive differences we make to people’s lives every single day. I am proud to have been able to serve my community.’

The Council said it wishes Karen well for her future and thanks her for the service she has given.

The council is putting in place an interim plan over the short term, with a view to recruiting a new DASS early in 2026.