School body ‘lucky’ to have controversial consultant

The state body for monitoring school attendance has said it is “very lucky” to be employing a consultant who quit as director of children’s services in Britain following a damning report.

John Richards stepped down in Sep 2011 following a probe by Britain’s official body for inspecting schools, Ofsted, which found children’s services in Peterborough City Council were inadequate and in need of urgent improvement.

Mr Richards has been working with the National Education Welfare Board since the start of 2012 as an implementation project manager. He is charged with overseeing a new model aimed at tackling chronic absenteeism among some school children in targeted areas. His role is to support senior managers of the three integrated service strands — educational welfare service, home school community liaison, and the school completion programme — to implement an integrated plan to maximise student attendance, participation and retention. Staff working in tackling school absenteeism have privately expressed concern over Mr Richards appointment, but CEO of the NEWB Clare Ryan defended the appointment.