John Goldup joined Ofsted in September 2009 as Director of Social Care Development. He was appointed as Deputy Chief Inspector in January 2012. He is also responsible for the delivery of Ofsted’s inspection and regulation activity in all areas of children’s social care, and for the development of social care inspection policy and methodology.

He was a member of the Ministerial implementation working group for the Munro review of child protection.

Before joining Ofsted, his career had been in Local Government, except for five years spent teaching in Higher Education. He has worked in and managed Children's Services in a number of Councils since 1971, across the full range of services provided and commissioned by local authorities.

Until September 2009, he was Director of Adult Social Services in Tower Hamlets, where he led Adult Social Care to the top performance rating for six years in a row.