Gareth Walton has been appointed to the new role of business development director at Partnerships in Children's Services (PiCS).

In his new role, Walton will focus on developing existing and new services to meet local authority demands.

Walton joins from the fostering division at Acorn Care & Education, where he was operations director.

Speaking about his appointment, Walton said: "Joining PiCS is a great opportunity for me personally as the business offers an excellent variety of provision for looked after children and has ambitions for significant development over the next three years."

PiCS chief executive Elaine Young said: "Gareth will be instrumental in developing our services to improve the life chances of the most traumatised children by developing cost-effective solutions to deliver outstanding outcomes for the young people and local authorities that we partner."

The PiCS group provides an array of fostering, education and therapeutic services throughout England and Scotland.

Compass Executives advised PiCS on the placement.