THE eyes and ears of the Department for Education and Skills are everywhere, it seems.

More than a fifth of its senior civil servants, 27 out of 125 top policy-makers, are currently seconded to other organisations and government departments. Five have been brought in from outside.

Education Secretary Estelle Morris says this is an “entirely normal part of career development”, bringing new skills into the civil service. The secondees’ positions are being filled by permanent and equivalent replacements.

But Liberal Democrat spokesman Phil Willis, who has been pursuing the role of a DfES secondee in the long-running A-level debacle, takes a more conspiratorial line.

He also questions whether the DfES is making effective use of key staff on starting salaries of pound;45,000 when, for example, it has not been able to carry out a curriculum and staffing survey for lack of resources.

He believes that Beverley Evans’ placement as deputy chief executive at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority must have led to a conflict of interest during the recent A-level re-marking scandal.

He added: “This is the Government placing people in all the key organisations to which it has to relate.

“Its tentacles are now spread in Russian Politburo-style into all the organisations it needs to control or have influence on.”

Ms Morris has responded that the department and exam watchdog are in regular contact, but that this does not mean ministers are interfering in QCA business.

Currently, DfES staff are to be found at the Learning and Skills Council, the Teacher Training Agency, UK Skills, the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association and two London education authorities, Greenwich and Newham.

Education experts are also plying their civil service skills around Whitehall in the Cabinet Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the departments of health, trade and industry, and work and pensions.

David Normington, Friday magazine, 12