Stephen Ashley

6 March 2026

With 30 years’ senior experience in policing and inspection— including Assistant Chief Constable in HM Inspectorate of Constabulary – Steve led national work on vulnerability and child safeguarding. He has spent his career working to help strengthen safeguarding systems in complex environments.

Steve chaired and scrutinised a range of children’s and adults’ safeguarding partnerships, including chairing the Tower Hamlets Children’s Safeguarding Partnership when moving children’s social care from an Ofsted judgement of Inadequate to Good within two years. He chaired the Rotherham Children’s Safeguarding Board as part of the leadership team in Rotherham during a major rebuild of safeguarding services. He has also served as an Associate of the Local Government Association, undertaking peer reviews and delivering safeguarding lectures. Stephen has conducted over twenty safeguarding serious case reviews and domestic homicide reviews.

Steve previously held NHS governance roles as Non-Executive Vice Chair at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, sitting on Audit, Safety and Finance Committees and chairing the HR Committee. He became Interim CEO of the CSSA in October 2022 and was appointed permanently in February 2023.