Hodge appointed minister for children
Margaret Hodge was today given the new high-profile role of children's minister in the second day of ministerial reshuffles.
Alan Johnson, ex-employment minister, replaces her as higher education minister.
The newly created post will see children's services come under the mantel of the Department for Education and Skills for the first time. The children's minister is not expected to be a cabinet-level position, leaving the education secretary, Charles Clarke, as head of an expanding department.
Mrs Hodge, who has been minister for higher education since 2001, is expected to take over responsibility for policy that affects the welfare of children. Her remit will include early years and childcare provision, special education needs and the children's and young people's unit. She will also be responsible for the teenage pregnancy strategy, transfered from the Department for health, the family policy unit, transfered from the Home Office, and the children and families courts supports service.
Another role will be spearheading reform in services for young people in the light of the Victoria Climbié inquiry
Mrs Hodge is best known for her combative style, and has been at the centre of several high profile debates, including that over "Mickey Mouse degrees" and the dumbing down of universities. In recent months she has been touring the country trying to convince the university sector of the government's plans to reform funding, which includes the introduction of a political hot potato - top-up fees.
Before 2001, Mrs Hodge was minister responsible for early learning in the DfES. She entered Parliament in 1994 and quickly led an inquiry into provision for the under-fives.
She spent some time working as a consultant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers after leaving Islington council, where she was leader for 10 years.
Her stint at Islington was not without controversy. She was dogged by a high-profile inquiry into abuses at a care home in the council in the early 1990s. The home was found to be rife with systematic sex abuse, which the council failed to investigate despite please from children living there. The accusations about the home were first reported in the Evening Standard, which she dismissed as a "sensationalist piece of gutter journalism" - something she had to retract after the inquiry report.
Former education secretary Estelle Morris returned to government as minister for arts.