Negotiations to resolve disputes between rail maintenance workers and Network Rail will resume later. The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union and Network Rail will meet at the conciliation service Acas. Four days of strikes were called off last after a successful legal challenge to the union’s ballots by Network Rail. Meanwhile, Scottish rail workers on First ScotRail have begun a three-day walkout in a dispute over introducing ticket inspectors. ScotRail said it would operate 95% of services during the strike. At Acas on Monday, the RMT and Network Rail will discuss the maintenance workers dispute about plans to axe 1,500 maintenance jobs and change rosters to allow more work in the evenings and at weekends. A separate dispute over signal workers will be discussed at a later date, Acas said. Network Rail’s legal challenge concerned only the ballot of signallers, and did not relate to the RMT’s ballot of maintenance workers and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) ballot of supervisors. But after the ruling, RMT and TSSA announced the two other strikes would be suspended and fresh ballots would be held, the timetable for which has yet to be announced. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Rail strike negotiations resume

Key court documents have been released relating to the sacking of social services chief Sharon Shoesmith after the death of Baby Peter in London. The High Court has taken the unusal step of sending out the documents ahead of a decision in Ms Shoesmith’s case. She is taking action against Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, Ofsted and Haringey Council over her dismissal. There have been claims, denied by Ofsted, that inspection reports were re-written after the toddler’s death. The High Court judge has taken all the evidence in the case but his verdict is not expected until after Easter. The former head of Children’s Services at Haringey claims she was removed from her post unlawfully and is seeking damages. 1300 pages The judge hearing the judicial review has released 1300 pages of documents given to the courts by the various sides, including those relating to the Ofsted report into Haringey Council, written submissions and statements from witnesses. This follows a request from media organisations, including the BBC. Ms Shoesmith, 56, was dismissed from her post as children’s services chief at Haringey in December 2008, following a damning report from Ofsted which concluded there was “insufficient strategic leadership and management oversight” in the safeguarding of local children. Her lawyers argue she was unfairly and unjustly dismissed after Mr Balls allowed himself to be influenced by a “media storm and witch-hunt” over the Baby Peter case. Mr Balls rejected the claims in his submissions to the court and said as secretary of state, he had been given “broad” powers to intervene when he judged local child protection arrangements to be inadequate. He sent Ofsted inspectors into Haringey in November 2008 after the trial of those responsible for the death of 17-month-old Baby Peter Connelly. The child’s mother, Tracey Connelly, 28, her partner Steven Barker, 33, and Barker’s brother Jason Owen, 37, were all jailed for their part in his death. The three were all convicted of causing or allowing Peter’s death. The child was found dead in his cot at his home in Haringey in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Shoesmith court papers released

Key court documents have been released relating to the sacking of social services chief Sharon Shoesmith after the death of Baby Peter in London. The High Court has taken the unusal step of sending out the documents ahead of a decision in Ms Shoesmith’s case. She is taking action against Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, Ofsted and Haringey Council over her dismissal. There have been claims, denied by Ofsted, that inspection reports were re-written after the toddler’s death. The High Court judge has taken all the evidence in the case but his verdict is not expected until after Easter. The former head of Children’s Services at Haringey claims she was removed from her post unlawfully and is seeking damages. 1300 pages The judge hearing the judicial review has released 1300 pages of documents given to the courts by the various sides, including those relating to the Ofsted report into Haringey Council, written submissions and statements from witnesses. This follows a request from media organisations, including the BBC. Ms Shoesmith, 56, was dismissed from her post as children’s services chief at Haringey in December 2008, following a damning report from Ofsted which concluded there was “insufficient strategic leadership and management oversight” in the safeguarding of local children. Her lawyers argue she was unfairly and unjustly dismissed after Mr Balls allowed himself to be influenced by a “media storm and witch-hunt” over the Baby Peter case. Mr Balls rejected the claims in his submissions to the court and said as secretary of state, he had been given “broad” powers to intervene when he judged local child protection arrangements to be inadequate. He sent Ofsted inspectors into Haringey in November 2008 after the trial of those responsible for the death of 17-month-old Baby Peter Connelly. The child’s mother, Tracey Connelly, 28, her partner Steven Barker, 33, and Barker’s brother Jason Owen, 37, were all jailed for their part in his death. The three were all convicted of causing or allowing Peter’s death. The child was found dead in his cot at his home in Haringey in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Shoesmith court papers released

Key court documents have been released relating to the sacking of social services chief Sharon Shoesmith after the death of Baby Peter in London. The High Court has taken the unusal step of sending out the documents ahead of a decision in Ms Shoesmith’s case. She is taking action against Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, Ofsted and Haringey Council over her dismissal. There have been claims, denied by Ofsted, that inspection reports were re-written after the toddler’s death. The High Court judge has taken all the evidence in the case but his verdict is not expected until after Easter. The former head of Children’s Services at Haringey claims she was removed from her post unlawfully and is seeking damages. 1300 pages The judge hearing the judicial review has released 1300 pages of documents given to the courts by the various sides, including those relating to the Ofsted report into Haringey Council, written submissions and statements from witnesses. This follows a request from media organisations, including the BBC. Ms Shoesmith, 56, was dismissed from her post as children’s services chief at Haringey in December 2008, following a damning report from Ofsted which concluded there was “insufficient strategic leadership and management oversight” in the safeguarding of local children. Her lawyers argue she was unfairly and unjustly dismissed after Mr Balls allowed himself to be influenced by a “media storm and witch-hunt” over the Baby Peter case. Mr Balls rejected the claims in his submissions to the court and said as secretary of state, he had been given “broad” powers to intervene when he judged local child protection arrangements to be inadequate. He sent Ofsted inspectors into Haringey in November 2008 after the trial of those responsible for the death of 17-month-old Baby Peter Connelly. The child’s mother, Tracey Connelly, 28, her partner Steven Barker, 33, and Barker’s brother Jason Owen, 37, were all jailed for their part in his death. The three were all convicted of causing or allowing Peter’s death. The child was found dead in his cot at his home in Haringey in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Shoesmith court papers released

Key court documents have been released relating to the sacking of social services chief Sharon Shoesmith after the death of Baby Peter in London. The High Court has taken the unusal step of sending out the documents ahead of a decision in Ms Shoesmith’s case. She is taking action against Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, Ofsted and Haringey Council over her dismissal. There have been claims, denied by Ofsted, that inspection reports were re-written after the toddler’s death. The High Court judge has taken all the evidence in the case but his verdict is not expected until after Easter. The former head of Children’s Services at Haringey claims she was removed from her post unlawfully and is seeking damages. 1300 pages The judge hearing the judicial review has released 1300 pages of documents given to the courts by the various sides, including those relating to the Ofsted report into Haringey Council, written submissions and statements from witnesses. This follows a request from media organisations, including the BBC. Ms Shoesmith, 56, was dismissed from her post as children’s services chief at Haringey in December 2008, following a damning report from Ofsted which concluded there was “insufficient strategic leadership and management oversight” in the safeguarding of local children. Her lawyers argue she was unfairly and unjustly dismissed after Mr Balls allowed himself to be influenced by a “media storm and witch-hunt” over the Baby Peter case. Mr Balls rejected the claims in his submissions to the court and said as secretary of state, he had been given “broad” powers to intervene when he judged local child protection arrangements to be inadequate. He sent Ofsted inspectors into Haringey in November 2008 after the trial of those responsible for the death of 17-month-old Baby Peter Connelly. The child’s mother, Tracey Connelly, 28, her partner Steven Barker, 33, and Barker’s brother Jason Owen, 37, were all jailed for their part in his death. The three were all convicted of causing or allowing Peter’s death. The child was found dead in his cot at his home in Haringey in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Shoesmith court papers released

Key court documents have been released relating to the sacking of social services chief Sharon Shoesmith after the death of Baby Peter in London. The High Court has taken the unusal step of sending out the documents ahead of a decision in Ms Shoesmith’s case. She is taking action against Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, Ofsted and Haringey Council over her dismissal. There have been claims, denied by Ofsted, that inspection reports were re-written after the toddler’s death. The High Court judge has taken all the evidence in the case but his verdict is not expected until after Easter. The former head of Children’s Services at Haringey claims she was removed from her post unlawfully and is seeking damages. 1300 pages The judge hearing the judicial review has released 1300 pages of documents given to the courts by the various sides, including those relating to the Ofsted report into Haringey Council, written submissions and statements from witnesses. This follows a request from media organisations, including the BBC. Ms Shoesmith, 56, was dismissed from her post as children’s services chief at Haringey in December 2008, following a damning report from Ofsted which concluded there was “insufficient strategic leadership and management oversight” in the safeguarding of local children. Her lawyers argue she was unfairly and unjustly dismissed after Mr Balls allowed himself to be influenced by a “media storm and witch-hunt” over the Baby Peter case. Mr Balls rejected the claims in his submissions to the court and said as secretary of state, he had been given “broad” powers to intervene when he judged local child protection arrangements to be inadequate. He sent Ofsted inspectors into Haringey in November 2008 after the trial of those responsible for the death of 17-month-old Baby Peter Connelly. The child’s mother, Tracey Connelly, 28, her partner Steven Barker, 33, and Barker’s brother Jason Owen, 37, were all jailed for their part in his death. The three were all convicted of causing or allowing Peter’s death. The child was found dead in his cot at his home in Haringey in August 2007. He had more than 50 injuries, including fractured ribs and a broken back. This article is from the BBC News website . © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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More schools are being judged inadequate under a new inspection regime, figures from England’s schools watchdog are expected to show. Ofsted introduced a new framework in September 2009 which requires schools to achieve higher results to be rated as good or outstanding. The watchdog has insisted its new-style inspections would “raise the bar” on its expectations of schools. Data on schools’ performance under the system will be released on Wednesday. Last week the Times Educational Supplement said the new regime had seen a near doubling in the proportion of schools judged “inadequate”, while the proportion rated “outstanding” was less than half of what it used to be. But inspectors said they now had “higher expectations on behalf of pupils and parents”. ” It is no surprise if there is a rise in inadequate schools – it just reflects the fact that the bar has been raised ” Department for Children, Schools and Families A spokesman for Ofsted said: “We have made it clear that every time an inspection framework is revised, expectations are raised too.” Ofsted said the reaction from schools had been “overwhelmingly positive”, with nine out of 10 who had responded to feedback surveys saying they were satisfied with the way inspection was carried out. A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “We made clear in the schools White Paper last June that inspection from September would be more challenging. “It is no surprise if there is a rise in inadequate schools – it just reflects the fact that the bar has been raised and weaker schools are being inspected earlier in the cycle.” New regime Under the new arrangements, outstanding and good schools are only inspected once within a five-year period – previously it was every three years. Satisfactory schools are inspected every three years and inadequate schools are visited regularly until they make the improvements necessary. The new regime sees inspectors assess twice as many lessons and more emphasis is put on questionnaires filled out by parents and pupils. Inspectors put more emphasis on pupil attainment – a point which has caused controversy, particularly for schools in challenging areas – rather than on improvement. Schools are given two days’ warning of an inspection and the inspections lasts for two days. Ofsted said the new format was introduced in response to teachers’ concerns inspections focused too much on schools data and inspectors did not assess enough lessons. The watchdog said more than 2,000 inspections had been carried out under the new system between September and December last year. Chris Richardson, head teacher at the Kings of Wessex School in Somerset, said the new inspection framework brought “significant improvements”, particularly a sharper focus on student achievement. “A new self-evaluation form meant we felt well prepared for inspection and it gave the inspectors a good overview of the school. “Our students valued the opportunities to engage with the inspectors and give their perspective on the school.” But John Fairhurst, head of Shenfield High School in Essex, said the new inspection framework had downgraded his school from good with outstanding features to satisfactory, simply because the school’s GCSE results in 2008 were weak. “It’s become a rather skimpy inspection with an altered agenda – heavily data driven,” he said. “The framework proved, in our case, superficial and underestimated the good work of the school.” The Association for School and College Leaders and the National Association of Head Teachers are also critical of the regime, saying it puts too much emphasis on raw attainment.

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More schools likely to be failed