Medway Council has revealed its new director of children's and adult services.

Barbara Peacock, pictured, will take on the £121,000-a-year top role in September from previous director Rose Collinson, who resigned in March.

Currently the corporate director for people at Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, West Midlands, she will lead one of the council's biggest single briefs.

It includes schools, adoption, fostering, adult social care, youth work and physical and learning disabilities.

She said: "Medway is a fantastically vibrant area with a large population that is continuing to grow.

“I am looking forward to taking up the challenge of building upon the successes of Medway’s children’s and adult’s services and leading the strong teams the council has in place who provide such important and necessary work for the whole of the local community.”

Her appointment was announced in the same week as new figures showed a huge increase in Medway children being taken into care. There were 44% more referrals in 2011-12 than the year before.

The department is also opening a 600-place primary school in 2014 to cope with population increases, a few years after it closed Chatham's Ridge Meadow Primary School.

Ms Peacock was noted at Sandwell Council for turning around its children's services department, which Ofsted ranked "inadequate" in 2009.

An inspection earlier this year said it had made satisfactory progress and had a "positive trajectory".

Sandwell’s Key Stage 2 results also became the fourth most-improved in England under Ms Peacock's tenure, and the council’s adult residential care homes transferred to a local social enterprise.

Medway Council faced a similar situation when it planned to close the Balfour Day Centre in Rochester earlier this year. The centre was recently "saved" for a six-month trial to be run by Medway Community Healthcare.

Prior to her role at Sandwell, Ms Peacock was second in charge at Croydon Council's children's services department, and worked at Action for Children, the UK’s largest children’s charity.

Born in Liverpool, she lives in south east London with her partner and has three grown-up children.

Her role will be one of the highest-profile in the council, carrying a £121,000 salary plus allowances and pension.

Medway Council chief executive Neil Davies said: “Barbara is joining us with an impeccable pedigree.

“I am confident her impressive career record working across large councils and major charities will ensure she has the strong leadership skills needed to oversee and drive forward the important and vital work of the children’s and adult services department.”

Current director Rose Collinson, pictured below, resigned in March and is due to leave the council on July 31.

She was with Medway Council from its inception in 1998 and became director of children's services in 2006.

Her resignation, announced in a six-paragraph statement, prompted calls from Labour councillors for the size of the children's services department to be scaled down.

The claim followed controversies around the department, including complaints from parents over the organisation of 11-plus tests and a "catalogue of errors" in building an extension at Woodlands Primary School, Gillingham.