FOR an officer of Worcester County Council - albeit the director of education - Julien Kramer has been a high-profile and headline-grabbing figure over the past seven years.

But all that is set to change because, although he will be just 56 years old, he has announced his retirement this October.

"I have been a chief education officer for 12 years and I have been in Worcestershire for seven," he said.

"I promised the council five years and we achieved excellence in six. It's now time for me and the council to have a change."

The move coincides with the merger of the education and social services departments into Worcestershire Children's Service - a government plan, which is not popular in all quarters.

His decision to step aside will undoubtedly ease this transition for the council, but Mr Kramer, who says he still has 'bags of energy', insisted there was no subtext to his early retirement.

Indeed, he has readily agreed to stay for as long, or as little, as it takes to find a suitable director of children's services to follow him.

"We have a brand new council and we are on the cusp of some major changes," he said.

"We have taken some difficult decisions - we have just closed 45 schools in Wyre Forest, there is the special educational needs (SEN) review and nine area reviews at the moment.

"There is no subtext to my decision. I just feel I've played my part and it's probably time for someone fresh to come in."

After five years as chief education officer in Greenwich - with notable success stabilising a struggling authority - he moved to Worcestershire in 1998.

Then a newly-formed county council, he and his fellow officers were charged with setting-up the new local education authority from scratch.

As such, he was the leading architect of county education as it appears today, restructuring support services, developing new policies and setting up budgets.

"Worcestershire was new and, helping build it, I've had a fabulous time," he said.

"I shall miss the creativity, talent, music and arts in each and every school.

"We now have a national profile for the quality of this work in these areas and I am very proud of the progress made by students and commitment of teachers."

Mr Kramer has been at times colourful - he was banned from driving for six months for speeding - and controversial - fiercely criticised by parents during the on-going SEN and Wyre Forest reviews - but his legacy will be the quality of Worcestershire's education.

The LEA was ranked 'excellent' and among the top five in the country in its most recent inspection, while exams results are better than the national average and rising fast.

Under Mr Kramer, Worcestershire:

n Is the lead authority in the Midlands in Arts Mark and the top LEA nationally for Sports Mark.

n Has won two national awards for its early years provision.

n Leads the work on eco-schools and forest school projects in the country.

n Completed its first Fresh Start, at Elbury Mount Primary School, which has since become the hugely successful Fairfield Community Primary.

All these achievements have come about on a shoe-string budget for the county - a fact that represents one of the Welshman's only major disappointments during his time here.

"Funding is the only issue we haven't really addressed - but we haven't let it hold us back," he said.

"I suppose I also wish things could have been achieved quicker. The council has taken some difficult decisions but sometimes it took a bit longer than everybody wanted."

SEN campaigners, who are hoping the review will be halted after Baroness Warnock's comments that inclusion 'is not a very bright idea', might well disagree with both points.

But Mr Kramer, who has never shied away from taking unpopular decisions or facing the resultant fall-out, can point to a CV that proves he is right far more often than not.

From November, he plans to continue his interest in writing - he was an English specialist before director of education - and even contribute to national learning initiatives.

With 'bags of energy' still left, I suspect his headline-grabbing days are not quite over.