Fears after schools shake-up

WORRIED school governors have warned Camden’s chief executive Moira Gibb (pictured) not to gamble with the borough’s top-performing education department in a massive shake-up of council services.
As the New Journal revealed exclusively last week, the Town Hall is facing its biggest ever shake-up with five departments being funnelled into just three in a bid to improve child protection.
Ms Gibb confirmed plans to create a new post titled director of children, schools and families last week, although approval is still needed from the Town Hall’s Labour cabinet of senior councillors for the changes to be implemented. No appointment to the new job will be made until May at the earliest but the uncertainty of how the restructuring will unfold means Camden has not replaced education director Bob Litchfield, who retired earlier this year. The shake-up has alarmed school governors who say great care must be taken to find the right candidate. A group of senior governors met Ms Gibb for a crunch meeting last week.
Dorothea Hackman, chair of Camden’s school governors, said: “We are not convinced that the proposal to split social services will be beneficial. How splitting it and attaching half to education would help strengthen social services except by weakening education is not clear at all.
“It is just not possible to keep tacking massive additional responsibilities onto schools without jeopardising the whole structure. We are to extend hours and embrace the whole community. Are we also to secure social services for the 10 or 20 per cent or children at risk in Camden at the expense of education for 100 per cent of the children in Camden schools?”
The three super-departments would be titled “Children, Schools and Families”, “Social Care, Housing and Community Safety” and “Culture and Environment”.
Ms Gibb said: “The three directorates will help services work together more effectively, provide balance by being of a similar size and be large enough to sustain effective services.”
A council press official added: “If Camden’s executive approves the new structure the council will appoint a director of children, schools and families by July 2005. Until then Yvette Stanley is the acting director of education.”