Michael Gove, the shadow children's secreta - sorry shadow SCHOOLS secretary - devoted his conference speech this morning to raising school standards, creating more academies and curtailing Ofsted's remit to inspecting purely on attainment rather than a school's record in promoting children's welfare and wellbeing. Barely a word on early years, child protection, youth work, you know more general CHILDREN'S issues?
So as he sauntered into the press centre fresh from his speech to conference, I nabbed him for a few precious seconds. Given the content of his speech, I asked, could we assume the Conservatives would reinstate a Department of Education in power and would children's issues contrinue to have a government department and a presence at the Cabinet?
Gove told me it was fair to infer from his recent RSA speech that there might be a standalone education department....before adding quickly that he was "happy with the current structures" and that it was up to David Cameron to make decisions on changes to the machinery of government.
So that's cleared that up then. Anyway, approachable, if somewhat evasive, I've met him now.
