THE new troubleshooter employed to tackle underperforming Bolton schools has spoken of his vision to ensure every pupil has a lively and enjoyable education.

Tony Birch has been appointed as Bolton's first strategic manager of school evaluation.

He will also work with high performing schools and help them target any weak areas they may have.

Mr Birch said: "My job is to manage local authority services to their best effect to work closely with schools, to create partnerships with schools and to work towards making them as good as they can be."

The new role has been created after an Ofsted Inspection of the local education authority - which while positive overall - criticised the authority for not acting soon enough when schools were experiencing problems.

Mr Birch's mission is to redress that imbalance. He will manage a team of school improvement advisers who specialise in different areas, such as literacy or ICT and will deploy them across the borough.

He explained how he will identify schools that need extra support: "It's a complex thing to do. Traditionally, people have looked at the league tables and how many children get level four or more GCSEs.

"Now we also look at things like trends in schools over time, things like value added - how much progress pupils make between key stages."

A key part of Mr Birch's role is to discover when schools are having difficulties as early as possible so he can intervene and bring about improvements before a serious problem develops.

Currently, Mr Birch is working closely with Withins School in Breightmet, Our Lady of Lourdes Primary, in Farnworth and Washacre Primary School in Westhoughton all of which are in special measures.

Mr Birch is originally from Keighley in West Yorkshire, but his wife is from Bolton and Mr Birch prides himself on being a season ticket holder at Bolton Wanderers.