A Bradford Council boss has outlined plans to replace an influential education panel.

The Education Policy Partnership committee is expected to meet for the final time in March.

It was established in 2001 at the same time Education Bradford started a £360 million, ten-year contract to run the district's schools.

The committee, which includes teachers, councillors, education officers, religious groups and school governors, has played a key role in shaping education issues.

As previously reported in the Telegraph & Argus, the Department for Education and Skills is set to ask Education Secretary Alan Johnson for permission to disband the committee.

It follows a Government announcement which compels every local authority in the country to set up a children's trust to co-ordinate health services, social services and education for young people. The Bradford trust has to be in place by the end of this year.

Kath Tunstall, Bradford Council's interim director of children's services, said she was keen to see a "focused, transparent body" of experts continue to monitor the Education Bradford contract.

She said: "We are having discussions with the DfES and a report outlining these plans will probably go to the Council's executive committee at the end of February."

Mrs Tunstall has written to every member of EPP to ask them what format the new panel should take.

She said: "We want to try and develop a more comprehensive framework which has to remain transparent."

Meanwhile, Mrs Tunstall will be working with council colleagues and Education Bradford to ensure pupils at Usher Street Primary, set to close at the end of the school year, were catered for.

"All options are open," she said.

"We think we may need to have two new primaries.

"We now need to wait for the final decision of the Schools Organisation Committee on March 15 before acting. However, once that is done parents will expect hard information."

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