Gill Steward will join Cumbria CC as chief executive in August once the move is approved by full council. Ms Steward is the current chair of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies thinktank. She was chief executive for Bexley LBC from 2016 to 2018 and interim chief executive of West Sussex CC between 2014 and 2016.
Gillian Beasley, chief executive of Cambridgeshire CC and Peterborough City Council, is retiring. Ms Beasley has been at the helm of Peterborough for 19 years and, in addition, was six years ago appointed to run Cambridgeshire in a unique county council/unitary arrangement. In 2008 she was awarded an OBE for her work in local government.
A mother who wants to permanently home-educate her children has launched a High Court challenge against a bullying local authority which she claims is trying to force them to go to school.
Christina Goodred, a member of the Portsmouth Home Educators Group (PHEG), believes Portsmouth City Council is acting unlawfully by saying her children should be in school despite the parents meeting home-schooling requirements.
This does not refer to parents who are educating children at home because of the pandemic, but to those who permanently do not send their children to school.
Ms Goodred has now instructed solicitors Irwin Mitchell to investigate her concerns and to apply to the High Court for a judicial review to challenge the council s policy and how it applies it.