Daily roundup 9 December: Charity leadership, Morgan criticism, and voting age

Former Action for Children chief executive Dame Clare Tickell is to become the new chair of trustees at the Early Intervention Foundation. Tickell, who became chief executive of Hanover Housing Association at the start of the year after leaving Action for Children, will start as chair on 5 January 2015. Her appointment comes after Graham Allen MP, who launched the foundation in April 2013, stepped down as chair recently.


Education Secretary Nicky Morgan knows little about schools and is unlikely to make a mark, even on her priorities such as character development, Sir Anthony Seldon has said. Writing in the Times, Seldon, master of Wellington College, argues Morgan must embrace far more radical approaches to education than she currently has, but fears she will be distracted by retaining her seat at Westminster. He also hailed Morgan’s predecessor Michael Gove as “the outstanding post war education secretary” for his focus on expanding acadmies, free schools and reform of teacher training.


Labour leader Ed Miliband has vowed to lower the voting age to 16 from May 2016 if the party wins the general election next year. The Daily Mail reports that Miliband is expected to formally announce the pledge, made during a YouTube debate, during a manifesto speech next week.


The government is to set up a College of Teaching, to drive up standards and put teaching on an equal footing with high-status professions like medicine and law. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and schools minister David Laws, writing in the Guardian, say a professional body will allow teachers to set their own standards for members and to take a lead in improving the profession’s skills.


Birmingham City Council is to outsource the running of five children’s homes after admitting that an outside operator would do a better job, according to the Birmingham Post. The authority is set to appoint a provider next year.


Oxfordshire County Council has announced plans to make further cuts to its children’s centres budget just one year after agreeing to reduce the service’s spend by £3m by 2016/17. The BBC reports that the authority is considering cutting the budget by an additional £3m over the next two years.