Calderdale councillors are to draw up an action plan to reshape the district's education system.

The Council has decided to request the services of a team of educational specialists to assemble the blueprint to put before the Office of Standards in Education (Ofsted).

The announcement follows the early retirement of Calderdale's Education Director, Ian Jennings, in the wake of a damning Ofsted report which condemned senior management.

A meeting of Calderdale Education Committee has decided to contact the Department for Education and Employment and the Local Government Association to identify appropriate experts. Ofsted inspectors had drawn up a series of recommendations to be met by the authority. But a recent assessment reported poor progress.

The assessment found:

l The education authority still had a poor relationship with schools, despite efforts to inform them of the reasons behind rulings which affected them. A mistrust of the LEA was still evident.

l The creation of a strategy for supporting children with behavioural difficulties had been "partial, fragmented and slow".

l Progress had been made in working with school governors, heads and parents to raise standards in schools in central Halifax - but activity was uncoordinated.

l A database set up to ensure the LEA's policies were based on full and accurate information from exam results was not understood by schools.

l Insufficient action had been taken to define the roles of LEA officers and Education Committee members.

The report stated: "The first Ofsted inspection report called for a change in the corporate culture of the Council with clearer and more appropriate working relationships between members and officers, more transparent decision making, and a more consultative approach to schools.

"The second report finds the Council has not made the necessary shift and because of this has not dispelled the mistrust and hostility many schools still feel towards the Council.

"It is clear there has been a sustained problem in Calderdale for many years.''

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