I take exception to my photograph being used to illustrate letters about “conflicting advice from Inspectors and SCAA” (TES, December 6). As a local education authority inspector in Solihull, my main task is to offer advice and support to schools, helping them, I trust, to make sense out of national policy that is sometimes conflicting and frequently difficult to manage.

Even more irritating, the photograph of me that you used, and which must have been in your archive, was taken when I and Solihull colleagues conducted one of the last of our local education authority inspections. These were rigorous, but were regarded by our schools as constructive and valuable. They ceased to happen when large amounts of money were withdrawn from the LEA to set up the Office for Standards in Education.

I hope you will publish this correction and ensure that archive photographs are not used in this misleading way in future.

MIKE HOWELL General Inspector, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council

We apologise to Mr Howell for using his photograph in the wrong context - Editor.