MANCHESTER'S education department has been a ship `without a rudder' for the last two years, critics have claimed.
Earlier this month, we revealed how chief education officer Alan Irving was taking early retirement through ill health after only five months at work.
The post was last fully occupied in April 2005 when former education boss Mick Waters resigned. His role was overseen by two interim officers before Dr Irving's appointment.
Council bosses have decided to replace the £110,000 role with a new position of deputy director of children's services.
The council merged its education and children's social work departments two years ago following national recommendations to ensure social workers and teachers work more closely.
Key role
While the chief education officer will now work under the new Children's Services department head Pauline Newman, who has overall responsibility for social care and education, they will still play a key role in determining strategy.
Teachers have complained the failure to find a permanent replacement for this key role has made it difficult to do their job.
Last year, representatives of the city's headteachers held an emergency meeting with education bosses to raise concerns over the `lack of continuity in leadership'.
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As one of the group of headteachers who originally expressed concerns about the leadership of the education authority I would like to confirm that we have been pleased by the council's response. Constructive steps have been taken to engage with headteachers and there is a clear commitment to genuine consultation on the way forward. (Examples include the MEP review, the formation of District Teams and better communication between the authority and schools.)Reconfiguration of services to children through the creation of 'joined-up' services delivered increasingly at a district level is a massive and complex task. Some headteachers are understandably impatient to make progress on behalf of their pupils and colleagues but the Local Authority is clearly moving forward in a thorough and planned way.
Reading the crux of this report, the words `at last¿ need adding to the end of the Don Berry comment.