Daily round up: Blackburn DCS drafted into Rochdale, Ofsted complaints, and profit-making schools

Rochdale Council has appointed an interim director of children’s social services after the previous head resigned in the wake of the child sexual exploitation scandal in the area. Gladys Rhodes White was previously director of children’s services at Blackburn with Darwen, during which time their Ofsted rating moved from inadequate to outstanding, and is currently good. She said: “I am very familiar with the challenges in this area and the complexities of some of the issues, but I think Rochdale is learning from its recent experiences and is well placed to progress further. I firmly believe that strong multi-agency working is absolutely crucial in improving outcomes for children, young people and families.”

A teaching union has hit out at Ofsted, claiming the watchdog is making it harder to challenge its rulings at a time when complaints about the inspectorate are on the rise. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said it is “alarmed” that proposals for a new complaints framework will shorten the time allowed to make a complaint against Ofsted, but lengthen the time it has to respond. Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT, said: “Ofsted's work is of highly variable quality. These proposals severely limit schools' ability to raise common and legitimate concerns and will drive further wedges into an already troubled relationship between the inspectorate and the profession.”

Profit-making firms should run persistently failing schools, a report by a think-tank has suggested. The report, authored for Policy Exchange by the Prime Minister’s former policy chief James O’Shaughnessy, calls for private trouble-shooting firms to be brought in on a “three strikes and you’re out” rule. The suggestion has come in for criticism from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL). Mary Bousted, ATL general secretary, said: “The international evidence clearly shows that schools run for profit are not run for pupils and their performance is not good. Every penny of tax-payers’ money given to a school should go towards children’s education; none of it should go into shareholders’ pockets.”

Universal services for families are facing increasing pressure as council cuts continue to bite, research by the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI) has found. Based on anonymous interviews and spending figures from eight local authorities, the charity found that school improvement, education welfare, youth services and early years provision have been worst hit, while children's social care teams are being forced to focus on child protection over and above early support. Katherine Rake, chief executive of the FPI, said: “We’re concerned for the future as the options for local authorities to make efficiency savings are narrowing, and cuts will have to come from frontline services.”