SHEFFIELD education authority has avoided having to hand any of its services over to a private company, following a report by the Office for Public Management, which was called in by ministers after a critical inspection report. Estelle Morris, the school standards minister, praised the council for making progress towards implementing an acion plan drawn up by private consultants.
Meanwhile, Leeds, which received a savaging from the Office for Standards in Education in February, could find that another authority is brought in to help it run its education services. Consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers is considering this as one of five options for the authority.
