SCHOOL finance, catering and home-to-school transport have been taken away from Blaenau Gwent council’s education department and moved to other areas within the council.

A meeting of the council’s executive committee heard yesterday that a review had found that there would be merit in transferring a number of services to other departments to improve services to schools.

The school finance team has moved from education’s school management services to corporate resources, under the management of the chief accountant. The staff will relocate to Ebbw Vale Civic Centre this month.

The school catering service was moved to the neighbourhood services division of the environment and regeneration portfolio last month, while education human resources (HR) moved to the corporate HR team at the end of February.

The integrated services team has gone to social services while the home-to-school transport team transferred to the technical services division of the environment and regeneration portfolio last month.

School admissions is now part of the education transformation service; student finance is being looked after by the transportation strategy manager pending a review; and leisure services now report directly to the chief executive officer, pending the outcome of another review.

Chief executive David Waggett said there would be no cost to the council as staff were being relocated, but education commissioner Bethan Guilfoyle requested a cost review of education staffing.