Directors of children's services are concerned that their roles will be downgraded by the Government's plans for foundation schools.

Kevin Crompton, the new chair of the Association of Directors of Education and Children's Services, said he was worried that the new schools could trump directors in key areas of children's services.

He said: "If we ended up with a secondary school system in which the majority of schools were foundation schools controlling their own admissions, I believe that is going to make it difficult for directors of children's services to ensure they play their full role in delivering the Every Child Matters agenda. I would point to those key areas about how do we deal with exclusions, hard-to-place pupils and places for looked-after children."

Crompton, who is also director of children's services at Solihull council, added: "I am not at all opposed to local management of schools, I'm for it. However, I think the right model is the sort of collegiate, partnership federation of schools-type model that is promoted in other Department for Education and Skills policies."