Three permanent jobs at the Department of Education, Sport and Culture went to members of the transition team set up after an independent report called for major reforms.

Education Minister Dr Alex Allinson insisted it had been an ’open and transparent’ recruitment process.

He was responding to questions in the House of Keys from Julie Edge (Onchan), following on from the damning Beamans Report, which revealed a ’fractured’ relationship between the Education Department and its teaching staff. The report’s publication, which called for sweeping reform, was followed swiftly by the resignation of the department’s chief executive Ronald Barr.

A transition team, including interim chief executive Graham Kinrade and officers seconded from other government departments, was appointed to handle the reform of the department.

It led to the creation of four new roles - three permanent and one limited to two years.

The limited term role is head of business support and the three permanent roles are head of service delivery, legislative policy and research manager and a director of strategic advice for education.

In addition, the previous role of direct of corporate service was ’repurposed’ into a deputy chief executive role.

Ms Edge pressed Dr Allinson on whether members of the transition team had landed any of the new roles.

The minister said: ’In terms of the transition team, as far as I can recollect, three of them are now in permanent roles within the Department of Education, Sport and Culture.

’But as I say, this was an open and transparent process, and I am confident, as the minister for the department, that the best people were selected for those roles.’

Ms Edge also asked how many meetings had taken place with employees, at the department’s Hamilton House headquarters, since the publication of the Beamans Report.

Dr Allinson said: ’A period of dialogue and a number of meetings have taken place with staff who are directly affected by the Beamans Report and the subsequent implementation plan.’

They included confidential and informal one-to-one meetings, divisional meetings and regular staff briefings.

’The wider team, including schools and unions, were sent the implementation plan in order for them to understand how the organisation at the centre will perform going forward and the briefings were offered to anyone who would like them,’ he said.

Structural changes had not had a significant direct impact on team members, although some teams may have been realigned into new divisions, the minister added.