The head of children’s services overseeing murdered baby Preston Davey’s fostering arrangements received a £23,000 golden goodbye, it has emerged.

There were at least eight chances to save the 13-month-old, including a string of instances when social workers could have intervened.

Searching questions are now being asked of Oldham Council – responsible for Preston’s adoption by ‘evil’ Jamie Varley and John McGowan-Fazakerley – and Blackpool Victoria Hospital, where Preston was admitted three times including with a broken elbow.

Gerard Jones, 68, who ended his tenure as Oldham Council’s managing director of children’s services in October 2024 after five years, said he felt ‘blessed to end my time in Oldham on such a high’.

Just 15 months earlier on July 27, 2023, Preston was sexually abused and murdered by secondary school head of year Jamie Varley, 37, after suffering ‘a litany of psychological and sexual ill-treatment’.

Varley’s sales executive boyfriend John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, turned a blind eye and even joined in with an incident of sexual abuse.

Oldham Council oversaw Preston’s care because his mother, convicted murderer Sarah Davey, 42, is from the town.

Varley and McGowan-Fazakerley were put forward as adoptive parents via agency Adoption Now, owned jointly by local councils in the North West, after two years of intensive preparation. Preston was placed with them at the end of March 2023.

Gerard Jones was managing director of children’s services at Oldham Council for five years

In 2023/24, the year Preston was murdered, Jones received £163,000 pay and pension contributions.

He stood down half-way through 2024/25, receiving £83,000 in pay and pension contributions, plus £24,000 for compensation for loss of office.

The circumstances of his departure and the reason for the payment is unclear.

A new role of Strategic Director of Children’s Services was created on October 1, 2024, on a slightly cheaper £159,000 pay and pension package.

Oldham Council Children’s Services was last inspected by Ofsted in May 2024, under Mr Jones’s tenure, when it was rated good.

Inspectors found that ‘consideration was given before children’s removal (into care) about whether they can remain living in their family network’ and most children who are placed outside of Oldham ‘live in safe and stable homes that meet their needs well and they make good progress.’

In a LinkedIn post in October 2024, at the time of his departure, Mr Jones wrote: ‘Last week I retired from my role as Managing Director of Children’s Services with Oldham Council.

‘You never know where you will be when you step off the merry-go-round but I have been blessed to end my time in Oldham on such a high.’

Murdered baby Preston Davey, whose adoption was overseen by Oldham Council

Foster parents Varley, 37, left, and McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, have been branded ‘evil’

‘Our schools and settings have never done better for our children and young people.’

Back in 2021, Mr Jones defended social workers after the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, six, from Solihull, West Midlands, who was murdered by his father and stepmother the previous year.

Police and social workers were criticised for failing to investigate bruises. After his death, 130 bruises were found on Arthur’s body.

The little boy had also been subjected to salt poisoning, deprived of food and drink and made to stand alone for hours on end. 

Mr Jones said at the time: ‘It doesn’t help to blame social workers, social workers don’t kill children.

‘Safeguarding is a whole system of responsibility for everybody.’

Mr Jones was originally a social worker in London and his first senior role appears to have been assistant director for children, young people and families in Birmingham between 2010 and 2013.

He spent five years as deputy director for safeguarding and early help at Central Bedfordshire Council from 2013 to 2018, before short spells at Sandwell Children’s Trust, West Midlands, and Luton Borough Council.

He became managing director of children’s services at Oldham in December 2019.

After leaving Oldham, Mr Jones spent 10 months as a ‘leadership and improvement’ consultant before, most recently, taking up a six-month post as interim director of children’s services in Dudley.

He said he has worked ‘across the sector to support service improvements and secure positive outcomes for children’.

Oldham Council’s chief executive during Preston Davey’s short lifetime was Harry Catherall, who was paid £156,000 in 2023/24, rising to £160,000 in 2024/25.

Last year, Mr Catherall moved to neighbouring Tameside Council and was awarded the MBE in the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours for his ‘outstanding contribution to public service’.

An Oldham Council spokesman said the payment to Mr Jones came after he took redundancy following a ‘wider management review’.