A CONCERNED person has demanded answers to questions surrounding the move by Elgar Technology College's headteacher to a top post at County Hall.

Bryan Haines, of Callow End, near Worcester, said a number of questions needed to be answered surrounding Tony James' secondment as director of 14-19 Education for Worcestershire.

"How can Colin Weedon support an appointment to a very senior managerial post at County Hall, in effect managing other high school heads', when Worcester's Elgar's Ofsted clearly marked both leadership and management as very poor?" he said. "Why was the appointment filled at all if cabinet member Adrian Hardman is suggesting he may need to freeze all pay."

In a list of questions to county council cabinet member for children and young people Coun Liz Eyre, Mr Haines asked when the first draft Ofsted report was produced and who would have seen a copy.

He was told the confidential first draft was received by the school on March 2 and shared with link inspector Jane Paterson, county council principal inspector Ray Westwood, and head of raising achievement and access to learning Colin Weeden.

Coun Eyre said the post was approved in autumn 2004 and was jointly funded by the local authority and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Director' was an LSC, not county council, term. She said national and local advertisements had failed to produce a shortlist and the position had previously been filled by a secondment from December 2004 to October 2006, and Mr James secondment was on a 12-month basis with the opportunity to be extended to 15 months.

She added: "This is a genuine job that needs doing. My position both as cabinet member and council member on the LSC can fully confirm this. Tony James's expertise is very valuable."

Mr Haines called on the county council's scrutiny committee to investigate the situation and said he was sure Elgar's head being moved sideways was "just the tip of a huge great iceberg" of questionable employee competence.

But Coun John Buckley, chairman of the scrutiny committee, said it planned on looking into the direction Elgar was being taken and how it would fit into the community but added: "We would not look at Tony James' appointment. That would not be something for us to look at."