The pre-election Tory signals looked ominous for Maggie Atkinson. The party made plain its intention to review the role of children's commissioner while Michael Gove, now Education Secretary, said he agreed with the select committee report at the time of her appointment that "she was not the right person".
The controversy stirred by her interview with The Times in March, in which she called for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised as emotions were running high over the return to prison of James Bulger killer Jon Venables, heightened her predicament.
But for all those early knocks in the post, Atkinson has that steely look of a survivor. Gove, she reveals, has promised her and deputy Sue Berelowitz a meeting with all of the Department for Education ministers: "Their diaries have been crazy ... but I'm told they want to talk to us before (parliamentary) recess," adding she is "buoyed with great hope".
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