A council leader - now a Conservative MP - was warned his authority's money may have been misused two months before winning a seat in the General Election.

But Northampton Borough Council says it can find no record whistleblower concerns were passed on to them by David Mackintosh.
The MP says this is "incorrect" and the printed emails were "immediately passed to senior officers".
He added: "The officers were also aware of these emails."
Mr Mackintosh said the emails "had been published on an internet blog at the same time resulting in press queries to the borough council".
Months earlier, Mr Mackintosh's election campaign had received what later turned out to be a disguised donation of £30,000.
It came from developer Howard Grossman, accused in court papers of misappropriating millions of pounds of the council loan. The claim was settled out of court and the parties signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Millions of pounds out of £10.25m given to Northampton Town Football Club to redevelop its stadium is missing and the subject of a police investigation for "alleged financial irregularities".
On 18 February 2015, architect Stuart Loxton, using an alias, emailed his concerns to Mr Mackintosh and former council leader David Palethorpe.
A week later, on 25 February, he also sent Mr Mackintosh, now the Conservative MP for Northampton South, invoices detailing how some of the money may have funded unconnected schemes.
A council spokesman said: "We cannot at this stage find any emails or forwarded emails from Mr Mackintosh to council officers regarding the whistleblower and can find no record of any officers being alerted by Mr Mackintosh.
"In April 2015, the borough council's chief executive was made aware of the whistleblower by another person".
That "other person" was the then Labour councillor David Palethorpe.
Mr Palethorpe says he was surprised it fell to him to initiate a meeting between Mr Loxton and the council:  "There are really serious questions which need to be answered."
The council says it was only after David Palethorpe had emailed them the whistleblower's details on 1 April that officers discussed the issue with Mr Mackintosh.
Mr Loxton had been commissioned by Mr Grossman and his associates to draw up a string of planning applications in Hertfordshire in 2014.
He was instructed to entitle the invoices 'Northampton Football Club' and send them to Mr Grossman's company, 1st Land Ltd.
The firm was set up for the purposes of redeveloping Sixfields stadium and received more than £7m of the council loan money.
Work was halted on the stadium when contractors were not paid by 1st Land.
Mr Mackintosh was elected MP for Northampton South in May last year, having received £30,000 in three donations to his campaign fund in April and May 2014.
A BBC investigation has established this money did not originate from the individuals declared to the Electoral Commission but from Mr Grossman's company 1st Land Ltd.
One of them, Leonard Western, subsequently said he was unaware of the payment made in his name and told the BBC he was a Labour supporter.
The Electoral Commission was handed the BBC's evidence back in April but has yet to respond.
Mr Grossman has denied any loan money was misappropriated. He has described the allegations in court papers as "outrageous and deeply offensive".
In a statement, the Northampton Borough Council said: "The whistleblower was asked to provide evidence of his claims.
"We also asked him to report the allegations of criminal activity to Northamptonshire Police.
"He did provide us with copies of invoices subsequently, but they did not show any direct misuse of council loan monies.  All of this information was kept on file.
"When further concerns then began to emerge, we made the police aware of the whistleblower's allegations and the information began to fit in to our wider picture of what has happened, which is now being investigated both by auditors and by Northamptonshire Police".
Mr Mackintosh told the BBC he welcomed the police investigation currently taking place.
"All legal responsibility for the negotiation and background security checks relating to the loan rested with senior officers of the council. No elected members were directly involved in this," he said.
"During the General Election, the allegations were, and remain, unproven and were still being investigated, but I did convey my concerns about Sixfields whenever I was asked."
'I have repeatedly told the BBC, all donations were made to, and processed by, Northampton South Conservative Association. No donations were made to me personally."


Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor is unsure about his international future after he was stripped of the captaincy for their match against Liberia.

He was only told on the day of the 2017 African Cup of Nations tie that the captain's armband had been given to Mathieu Dossevi for Sunday's 2-1 win.
The 31-year-old scored the winner but says he is unsure if he will play against Djibouti in September.
"For now, I don't know - I'll be here and I'll talk with the coach," he said.
"I need to know whether he really needs me in the team or not.
"I have been the captain for seven or eight years and then one morning I'm told I won't be the captain - that means that we can go to Djibouti and he will put me in the stands.
"So I'd rather quit the team than be sidelined or put in the stands there and I think this will be better for me and the team.
"We can change captains everyday if we are playing street games in Lomé - but this is a national team.
"But what is sure I am going on holidays and allow me to enjoy my holidays before I decide."
He has said that if he decides to play again he does not want to captain the Hawks.
"From now on, I will never captain this team again," he added.
"To tell me on the day of the match that I will not captain the team then it is  very disrespectful"
Togo's new coach Tom Saintfiet however tried to play down the issue.
"I don't want to talk too much about this topic because I think that Emmanuel Adebayor is a natural captain for the team," the Belgian coach said.
"He does not necessarily need to have the captain's armband when he plays - he is the captain and the greatest Togolese player.
"He has played today as a great captain without armband.
"For me every player is like a captain - so we have eleven captains on the pitch and every player must be responsible as a captain.
"We may have a captain but you can only win a match with eleven players."
Saintfiet and Adebayor had also fallen out in the build-up to the match against Liberia when the striker was dropped from the squad for a friendly against Ghana.
The coach said the Tottenham player and two other players were axed as they had not attended all the training sessions nor stayed at the team hotel.
Adebayor for his part insisted that he had told the coach he wouldn't play in the friendly in the days before the match.
Both men seemed to have made amends before the Liberia match insisting "there was no problems at all."
The striker has taken several breaks from playing international football in the past, including in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Togo team bus at the 2010 Nations Cup finals in Angola.


John McAreavey knows that making the 6,000 mile journey from Northern Ireland to Mauritius means reliving the horror of his wife's death on the island six years ago.

He is not going for sympathy, he says. He just wants justice.
No-one has ever been convicted of murdering Michaela McAreavey, the daughter of Tyrone gaelic football manager Mickey Harte.
The killer, or killers, are still walking free.
Last September, John McAreavey got married again and some people assumed he had given up on hopes of a conviction in the case.
He said the assumption could not be further from the truth.
Speaking before leaving for Mauritius, Mr McAreavey said: "What we're trying to achieve from this whole process is justice - justice for Michaela and for our families.
"It is a hard process, there's no doubt about that, but it's been hard ever since Michaela died.
"We're not content with how things have been happening over in Mauritius."
Two hotel workers were acquitted of murdering Michaela McAreavey after an eight-week trial - the longest in Mauritian legal history - in July 2012.
The previous year, the school teacher had been killed while on honeymoon in room 1025 of the Legends Hotel. The police said she had been strangled to death after disturbing intruders who broke into the room to steal money.
The four-star hotel has since been renamed the Lux Hotel.
At the time of the murder, there were fears that the killing would damage tourism in Mauritius, however any impact was short-lived and more than 1m visitors still travel to the Indian Ocean island every year.
Since the acquittal of the two hotel workers  Avinash Treebhoowoon and Sandip Moneea, there have been a number of new developments:
Last year, the case was reviewed by the Director of Public Prosecutions in Mauritius. He concluded that the grounds did not exist to proceed with a prosecution.
He informed the McAreavey's lawyer, Dick Ng Sui Wa, who passed the information on to the family.
After taking a few months to consider his options, John McAreavey decided to return to Mauritius to appeal for help in tracking down the killers.
"Denial of justice is a very difficult thing to bear - it's a very hard thing to endure," he said.
"We'll be appealing to the Mauritian public. We're hoping that maybe someone will be able to come forward and maybe give us a little bit more information, maybe something that can lead to evidence, to bring us back on the road to justice."
The Mauritian police are expected to meet Mr McAreavey to update him on the case when he arrives at the island's capital, Port Louis, at the weekend.
In September last year, he got married again, to Tara Brennan, an accountant from County Kildare.
"Tara supports me so much in this," he said. "Anyone that loves you, and loves you the right way, will know that they'll support you in anything that's important in your life."
John is expected to travel to Mauritius with his sister, Claire McAreavey who is a lawyer, and Mark Harte, one of Michaela's brothers. All three attended the eight-week trial in 2012.
This is their first visit back to the island for almost five years.


UKIP members in Wales are "overexcited" about candidate selection for the assembly election, a member of the party's ruling body has said.

Former Welsh UKIP candidates have warned against allowing high profile figures from outside Wales to stand in the most winnable seats.
Former Tory MPs Mark Reckless and Neil Hamilton are seeking nomination.
Caroline Jones, of UKIP's national executive committee, told BBC Wales final decisions had not been made.
Speaking at the party's conference in Doncaster, she said there was stiff competition for the regional list seats.
They are thought to offer UKIP a better chance of election than constituency seats due to proportional representation.
Ms Jones - who has put her name forward as a candidate next May - said there were limited places available for regional candidates.
"Everyone is contending for them with equal enthusiasm and some people are going to be disappointed if they're not selected," she told the BBC's Sunday Politics Wales programme.
"I think there's overexcitement as to who will be selected at the moment and people are just surmising. Nobody knows anything - absolutely nothing."
While local branches will choose candidates for the 40 constituencies, the central party is responsible for selecting the regional list contenders.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage has insisted that representatives from the "national party and from Wales" will pick the regional list candidates.
The party's Welsh leader Nathan Gill said the aim is to select a team supporters could unite behind.


Alex Hales said he was not aware he was closing in on the highest one-day international score by an Englishman in his scintillating 171 against Pakistan on Tuesday.

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Hales surpassed Robin Smith's 23-year record as England amassed the highest ever ODI total and claimed a series victory in their 169-run win.
The 27-year-old, who averaged 18 in the preceding four-Test series and had a top score of 14 in the ODIs, said: "The last six weeks have been tough, so to perform like that is pleasing."
The right-hander, playing on his home ground at Trent Bridge, added: "When I got past 150 it came into the back of my mind but I was only aware when the guy announced it.
"It was only when I hit the boundary and the cheering started that the penny finally dropped."
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It was a record-breaking game for England, as wicketkeeper Jos Buttler struck the quickest half-century by an England player from just 22 balls.
England hit 59 boundaries - the most conceded in an ODI - after a poor fielding display by Pakistan.
"We missed chances, especially getting wickets with no balls and dropping catches, which didn't help," Pakistan captain Azhar Ali said.
"There were always runs on that pitch and we leaked too many. It was hard to take the control back."
Hales' innings showed how far England's one-day cricket has come since their disappointing 2015 World Cup campaign, when they were eliminated in the group stage.
"That's the most exciting thing for us; that we're still improving," added Notts opener Hales.
"To get the world record is a credit to the work we've put in and what we're hoping to achieve."
Ex-England spinner Graeme Swann on Test Match Special: "I've got to take my hat off to Alex Hales - he played the world's worst one-day innings by an opener at Lord's three days ago, but he came out and played an incredible knock here. He rode his luck, but by the end his ball-striking was phenomenal."
Ex-England seamer Isa Guha on Test Match Special: "Someone who can absorb that pressure and come out and play the way Hales did belongs on the international stage. And let's not forget the role Joe Root played."
England captain Eoin Morgan: "Alex Hales' innings today was monumental. He has needed runs this summer and today they have all come at once. International cricket is about managing lower times as well as higher times. He fully deserves all the recognition."


A teenage terror suspect has told a court he is "not sure" where he learned to make a pipe bomb.

The 17-year-old from Bradford, who cannot be named because of his age, was arrested after posting pictures of a homemade explosive device online.
He is on trial at Leeds Crown Court having denied preparing acts of terrorism and making explosives.
Counter terrorism police found the device in his bedroom after being alerted to a series of Snapchat posts.
Live updates on more stories from Yorkshire
Jurors were shown a Facebook conversation about bomb-making during which the defendant, a member of the extreme-rightwing group National Action, told another teenager: "I make miniature pipe bombs."
Barnaby Jameson, prosecuting, asked where the knowledge about pipe bomb components come from.
"Not sure. I guess I've always understood how to make one," the boy said.
He said he had "no idea" when he first learned but it would have been prior to 2016.
He might have gained it after having "seen it in a movie or something", he added.
The jury has previously been shown evidence the boy searched online for how to make a pipe bomb.
The defendant also faced questions about knowledge he appeared to display during the conversations about other kinds of explosive devices.
Mr Jameson asked: "How did you come to know about the construction of a nail bomb?"
"I just put two and two together," the boy said.
"How did you find out about a fertiliser bomb?"
"No idea," he replied.
Referring to a Snapchat post that appeared to threaten Muslims, Mr Jameson said: "It looks as if there's going to be an imminent attack on a specific group of people in Bradford."
The defendant agreed, but said "I don't know" when asked if he was surprised police were alerted
Later, the jury was shown a clip of the defendant engaging in a video chat on the social media site Omegle.
In the clip, the defendant - seen wearing a Nazi uniform - swiftly ends a conversation with the other person, a black man, before using a racially derogatory term and singing "time for the race war, time for the race war".
The defendant laughed in court when the video was played.
The boy said he did not know what he had meant when using the term "race war" and denied ending the conservation because of the other user's skin colour.
The trial continues.


The polls have closed in the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election, called after its Conservative MP quit.

UKIP have been campaigning hard in the Lincolnshire seat, an area which voted heavily to leave the European Union.
The seat has returned Conservative MPs since it was formed in 1997 - Tory Stephen Phillips had a majority of more than 24,000 votes in 2015.
He resigned in November, citing "irreconcilable policy differences" with the government.
Although he backed leaving the EU, he had since been critical of the government's approach to Brexit.
Mr Phillips won with 56.2% of the vote in 2015, Labour came second with 17.3%  with UKIP a close third on 15.7%.
But UKIP has been throwing its weight into the by-election campaign, hoping to bring about a similar upset to last week's Richmond Park by-election, which saw the Lib Dems overturn a 23,000 Conservative majority.
UKIP will be hoping to capitalise on Eurosceptic feeling in Sleaford and North Hykeham, situated in Lincolnshire, west of Boston - which had the highest majority of Brexit voters in Britain.
UKIP's former leader Nigel Farage and his successor Paul Nuttall have been on the campaign trail in the constituency, supporting their candidate Victoria Ayling - a former Conservative who stood for the Tories in Great Grimsby in 2010 - running Labour a close second.
Conservative candidate Dr Caroline Johnson, a consultant paediatrician, stood unsuccessfully for Scunthorpe in 2010, losing to Labour. She has said she is "completely behind the government's plans for Brexit".
Jim Clarke, a refuse driver, is standing for Labour. Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has been to Sleaford to give a speech backing Mr Clarke. The party will be hoping for a strong performance after losing its deposit in last week's Richmond Park by-election. Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has been in the constituency backing his candidate, Ross Pepper, an optical assistant.
In all 10 candidates are vying for the seat. The result of the by-election is expected at about 04:00 GMT on Friday.
The full list of candidates is:


Huddersfield's drop-goal to beat Hull KR and secure Super League safety was off target, claims prop Jamie Peacock.

Danny Brough's kick sealed a 23-22 win for the Giants and forces Rovers to now play-off for the last top-flight spot.
After the match, Peacock tweeted: "Beaten by a drop-goal that missed."
The Rovers forward responded to those who disagreed by adding: "Of course you had a better view than me. I was only directly in line with the ball, 12m away from the posts, on the pitch."
Interim Hull KR coach James Webster also doubted the validity of the drop-goal.
"I'm not sure the drop-goal went over," he said. "It looked to me like it went over the top of the sticks.
"It's a game of inches sometimes isn't it?"
The match was ex-England captain, former Man of Steel and multiple Super League Grand Final winner Peacock's third since coming out of retirement to try to help Rovers - where he works as head of rugby - maintain their Super League status.
Hull KR will play either Salford Red Devils or London Broncos in the Million Pound Game on Saturday, 1 October at the KC Lightstream Stadium.


A lorry driver who allegedly went the wrong way on the M6 Toll and performed three u-turns has been charged with dangerous driving.

Istvan Balla, 54, from Hungary, is due to appear at Cannock Magistrates Court on Thursday, Staffordshire Police said.
Central Motorway Policing Group were called to the motorway after drivers called 999 reporting a lorry going in the wrong direction.
It happened between junction T4 and Weeford Plaza, near Lichfield.


A suicide bomber has blown himself up outside a livestock market in north-east Nigeria killing at least seven people.

It is the second suicide attack in northern Nigeria in less than a week.
On Saturday, at least nine people were killed in Yobe state when a woman blew herself up at a bus station.
Although no-one has yet claimed responsibility, the militant group Boko Haram is suspected to be behind the attack.
The bomb went off at about 12:15 GMT in the village of Garkida in Adamawa state.
The BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar in Abuja said locals at the entrance to the market were suspicious before the blast and tried to prevent the bomber going in when he detonated explosives strapped to his body.
The attacks come as the Islamist insurgents are under increased pressure from the Nigerian military, our correspondent adds.
Officials say most of the militants camps in the vast Sambisa forest have been destroyed and many of the jihadists killed while some are on the run.
But observers believe many of the fighters are still alive and capable of regrouping and rearming to continue their attacks.
In January at least 19 people were killed and several injured by a bomb strapped to a girl reported to be aged about 10 in north-eastern Nigeria.


A takeaway delivery man has suffered facial injuries in an apparently unprovoked attack in Annan.

The 24-year-old was approached by three men and a woman on Rose Street at about 19:30 on Wednesday.
After a brief conversation two of the men in the group carried out the assault.
Police are to review CCTV footage and are carrying out door-to-door inquiries in the area but asked anyone with information to come forward.
They have issued descriptions of the group who stopped and talked to the man.
One is described as white, in his late 20s to early 30s, tall and slim, with blond/brown hair cut short and a slim face.
He was wearing an unzipped dark jacket with a white T-shirt underneath.
The other men were also white, Scottish, in their early 20s and of average height and slim build.
One of them was wearing a green/grey woollen beanie hat with no turn-up part and a dark jacket.
The woman has been described as white and Scottish, with long, brown hair in a ponytail. She was of slim build and was wearing a dark hooded top.


Crufts draws to a close later, with the famous dog show culminating in the coveted Best in Show award.

But aside from the usual displays of canine agility and obedience, what have been the stand-out moments of the Birmingham-based event?
1. When it comes to accessories, less is more
Whether you think they're cute or cringeworthy, dogs with hair bows risked being disqualified this year.
Pat Maul, a shih tzu judge, said any dogs with "bows" or "adornments" would be refused from the ring.
Her recommendation that owners use a "plain elastic band holding the topknot only please" was prompted by new rules set out by the Kennel Club, which runs Crufts.
2. This year's fashion must-have: Dog onesies
It may be March but cosy "onesies" were spotted on many a fashion-forward dog at the four-day event, including this tiger print number.
Other owners stuck to the more-traditional dog jacket.
3. Youngest ever Crufts handler?
Jessica Allen, four, was the youngest dog handler at Crufts 2017 when she competed with her pet terrier Cariad - who is a year older than her.
The Kennel Club said it thought Jessica, from Stafford, was the youngest person ever to have taken part in the 125-year-old competition.
"As soon as she could walk she was into dogs," said her mother, Felicity Freer.
"It brought a tear to my eye".
4. A 'guardian angel' autism dog makes the final
Caddie, a Labrador trained to give autistic people assistance, reached the finals of Crufts.
He helps a 13-year-old boy to carry out everyday tasks like brushing his teeth and going to the shops.
Caddie and his owner, Joel, are finalists in the Crufts Friends for Life hero dog competition.
5. Public displays of affection
Crufts isn't all serious, as these pictures of pedigree pets and their owners show.
6. But breeding remains an issue
Crufts comes with its fair share of controversy, with some people claiming it does not place enough emphasis on the welfare of dogs.
Campaign group Peta said the show was "all about celebrating dogs who have been bred by humans to have unnatural, exaggerated features".
Last year, a German Shepherd with a sloped back appeared to struggle walking was awarded a Best in Breed prize.
The Kennel Club has said dogs can only be exhibited if they can "stand freely and unsupported" and show "structural balance". It has also said that it takes any cases of animal cruelty seriously.


Google has removed "tens of thousands" of nude pictures stolen from celebrities and published online.

A statement from the web giant said it has deleted photos "within hours" of requests being made and has "closed hundreds of accounts."
It comes after reports Hollywood entertainment lawyer Marty Singer has threatened to sue Google for "violating privacy".
The New York Post  published a letter addressed to senior staff at Google.
The letter states that Google failed "to act expeditiously, and responsibly to remove the images" and "was perpetuating the despicable conduct of these habitual pervert predators".
Cara Delevingne and Jennifer Lawrence were among the group of stars targeted by cyber thieves who posted their stolen pictures on sites including 4Chan.
Although the women involved in the potential lawsuit have not been named, the legal papers stated: "We are litigation counsel for over a dozen celebrities."
In his letter, Marty Singer said, the female stars would seek damages for Google's "blatantly unethical behaviour" and "knowingly accommodating, facilitating, and perpetuating the unlawful conduct" of the hackers.
The high profile lawyer added: "Google knows the images are hacked stolen property, private and confidential photos and videos unlawfully obtained and posted by pervert predators who are violating the victims' privacy rights".
In response, Google said: "Our turnaround is generally hours, not weeks.
"Of course people continue to post these images on the web, so - like other online services - we rely on people notifying us to help us take them down, whether by flagging content, or filing DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) requests."
Other celebs to be targeted by cyber thieves are Kate Upton, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and horror star Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Pitch Perfect actress Anna Kendrick has also reportedly had photos of herself fully-clothed published on Reddit and 4Chan.
According to Mr Singer's legal document, some of the photos have also turned up on YouTube and Blogspot, owned by Google.
Google said: "We're removing these photos for community guidelines and policy violations (eg nudity and privacy violation) on YouTube, Blogger and Google+.
"For search we have historically taken a different approach as we reflect what's online - but we remove these images when we receive valid copyright (DMCA) notices."
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube


The Queen has tweeted her thanks to people who sent her 90th birthday messages on social media.

"I am most grateful for the many digital messages of goodwill I have received and would like to thank you all for your kindness," she wrote.
The monarch, whose milestone birthday was marked with numerous events, signed off the rare message "Elizabeth R".
The Queen sent her first ever tweet in 2014 when she opened a new exhibition at the Science Museum in London.
Britain's longest-serving monarch celebrated her 90th birthday on 21 April, and a host of events were held over three months, from April to June.
The Queen has two birthdays - her real birthday on 21 April, and her official birthday held on a Saturday in June - a tradition going back 250 years. It was introduced to try to ensure better weather for the monarch's official celebrations.
Her official birthday this year was 11 June and the annual Trooping the Colour was held on Horse Guards Parade, followed by an RAF flypast which the Royal Family watched from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
The following day the Queen hosted the Patron's Lunch, a street party for some 10,000 people along The Mall which recognised her patronage of more than 600 organisations in the UK and around the Commonwealth.
Queen Elizabeth II at 90
Find out more about Queen Elizabeth II on BBC iWonder


Sweden has been experimenting with six-hour days, with workers getting the chance to work fewer hours on full pay, but now the most high-profile two-year trial has ended - has it all been too good to be true?

Assistant nurse Emilie Telander, 26, cheers as one of the day patients at Svartedalen's elderly care home in Gothenburg manages to roll a six in a game of Ludo.
But her smile fades as she describes her own luck running out at the end of the year, when after 23 months of six-hour shifts, she was told to go back to eight-hour days.
"I feel that I am more tired than I was before," she reflects, lamenting the fact that she now has less time at home to cook or read with her four-year-old daughter.
"During the trial all the staff had more energy. I could see that everybody was happy."
Ms Telander is one of about 70 assistant nurses who had their days shortened for the experiment, the most widely reported of a handful of trials in Sweden involving a range of employers, from start-ups to nursing homes.
Designed to measure well-being in a sector that's struggling to recruit enough staff to care for the country's ageing population, extra nurses were brought in to cover the lost hours.
The project's independent researchers were also paid to study employees at a similar care home who continued to work regular days.
Their final report is due out next month, but data released so far strongly backs Ms Telander's arguments.
During the first 18 months of the trial the nurses working shorter hours logged less sick leave, reported better perceived health and boosted their productivity by organising 85% more activities for their patients, from nature walks to sing-a-longs.
However, the project also faced tough criticism from those concerned that the costs outweighed the benefits.
Centre-right opponents filed a motion calling on Gothenburg City Council to wrap it up prematurely last May, arguing it was unfair to continue investing taxpayers' money in a pilot that was not economically sustainable.
Saved from the axe at the eleventh hour, the trial managed to stay within budget, but still cost the city about 12 million kronor (Â£1.1m; $1.3m).
"Could we do this for the entire municipality? The answer is no, it will be too expensive," says Daniel Bernmar, the Left Party councillor responsible for running Gothenburg's elderly care.
But he argues the experiment still proved "successful from many points of view" by creating extra jobs for 17 nurses in the city, reducing sick pay costs and fuelling global debates about work culture.
"It's put the shortening of the work day on the agenda both for Sweden and for Europe, which is fascinating," he says.
"In the past 10, 15 years there's been a lot of pressure on people working longer hours and this is sort of the contrary of that."
Yet while work-life balance is already championed across the political spectrum in Sweden, the chances of the Nordic country trimming back its standard 40-hour week remain slim.
On a national level, the Left Party is the only parliamentary party in favour of shortening basic working hours, backed by just 6% of voters in Sweden's last general election.
Nevertheless, a cluster of other Swedish municipalities are following in Gothenburg's footsteps, with locally funded trials targeting other groups of employees with high levels of illness and burnout, including social workers and hospital nurses.
Cleaners at Skelleftea Hospital will begin an 18-month project next month.
There's also been an increase in pilots in the private sector, with advertising, consulting, telecoms and technology firms among those testing the concept.
Yet while some have also reported that staff appear calmer or are less likely to phone in sick, others have swiftly abandoned the idea.
"I really don't think that the six-hour day fits with an entrepreneurial world, or the start-up world," argues Erik Gatenholm, chief executive of Gothenburg-based bio-ink company.
He is candid enough to admit he tested the method on his production staff after "reading about the trend on Facebook" and musing on whether it could be an innovative draw for future talent.
But the firm's experiment was ditched in less than a month, after bad feedback from employees.
"I thought it would be really fun, but it felt kind of stressful," says Gabriel Peres, as he slots a Petri dish inside one of the 3D printers he's built for the company.
"It's a process and it takes time and when you don't have all that [much] time it kind of feels like skipping homework at school, things are always building up."
On the other side of the country, his concerns are shared by Dr Aram Seddigh, who recently completed his doctorate at Stockholm University's Stress Research Institute and is among a growing body of academics focusing on the nation's shifting work patterns.
"I think the six-hour work day would be most effective in organisations - such as hospitals - where you work for six hours and then you just leave [the workplace] and go home.
"It might be less effective for organisations where the borders between work and private life are not so clear," he suggests.
"This kind of solution might even increase stress levels given that employees might try to fit all the work that they have been doing in eight hours into six - or if they're office workers they might take the work home."
Back in Gothenburg, Bengt Lorentzon, the lead researcher for the Svartedalen care home project, argues that the concept of six-hour days also jars with the strong culture of flexible working promoted by many Swedish businesses.
"A lot of offices are already working almost like consultancies. There's no need for managers to have all their workers in the office at the same time, they just want to get the results and people have to deliver," he says.
"Compare that to the assistant nurses - they can't just leave work to go to the dentist or to the doctors or the hairdressers."
"So I don't think people should start with the question of whether or not to have reduced hours.
"First, it should be: what can we do to make the working environment better? And maybe different things can be better for different groups.
"It could be to do with working hours and working times, but it could be a lot of other things as well."
Listen to Maddy Savage's report on Sweden's experiment with six-hour days on The World Tonight.


Home of the ancient city of Carthage, Tunisia was once an important player in the Mediterranean, thanks to its location in the centre of North Africa, close to vital shipping routes.

The Romans, Arabs, Ottoman Turks and French realised its strategic significance, making it a hub for control over the region.
French colonial rule ended in 1956, and Tunisia was led for three decades by Habib Bourguiba, who advanced secular ideas, foremost of which was the emancipation of women.
Tunisia is more prosperous than its neighbours. Agriculture employs a large part of the workforce and tourism is a key sector.
Mass protests unseated President Ben Ali in 2011 - the first of a series of popular uprisings to sweep the region.
The country's transition has been relatively peaceful, but secular Tunisians, especially women, are worried about the growing influence of ultra-conservative Islamists. And there is a mounting challenge posed by Islamist militants who claimed responsibility for attacks in 2015 in which 60 people were killed, most of them foreigners.
Population 10.7 million
Area 164,150 sq km (63,378 sq miles)
Major languages Arabic (official), French
Major religion Islam
Life expectancy 73 years (men), 77 years (women)
Currency Tunisian dinar
President: Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi
Beji Caid Essebsi came to office in December 2014 after winning the first free presidential election since the uprising that toppled autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
He was a long-serving speaker of parliament under Mr Ben Ali's rule, and critics believe his rise to power marks the return of the ousted political establishment.
Prime Minister: Youssef Chahed
Youssef Chahed became Tunisia's seventh prime minister in less than six years when he took office in August 2016.
His unity government includes a broad coalition of secular, Islamist and leftist parties, independents and trade union allies.
He has warned of tough economic reforms, including a possible programme of austerity, to satisfy international lenders and boost economic growth and boost job creation.
But as the former French colony's youngest ever prime minister, many of Mr Chahed's critics have questioned whether he has the political clout to overcome the trade union opposition, strikes and party infighting that have dogged past governments.
The Tunisian media now enjoy greater freedom than before the 2011 popular revolt.
Social media played a key role in the uprising.
Some key dates in Tunisia's history:
Circa 1100 BC - Phoenicians settle the north African coast. The city of Carthage, near the site of present-day Tunis, becomes a naval power.
146 BC - Carthage falls to the Romans.
600s - Arabs conquer the territory of present-day Tunisia.
909 - Berbers wrest the region from the Arabs.
1600s - Tunisia becomes part of the Turkish Ottoman empire, but has a high degree of autonomy.
1881 - French troops occupy Tunis. France controls economic and foreign affairs; Tunisia is a French protectorate from 1883.
1956 - Tunisia becomes independent with Habib Bourguiba as prime minister, monarchy is abolished and Tunisia becomes a republic the following year.
1987 - 'Palace coup': Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has President Bourguiba declared mentally unfit to rule and takes power himself.
2011 - Mass protests drive President Ben Ali into exile, inspiring other popular uprisings collectively known as the "Arab Spring".


Sport can sometimes find itself at the heart of a political controversy.

Media playback is not supported on this device
Apartheid in South Africa was one of the most contentious issues of the 20th century.
So when South Africa-born Basil D'Oliveira - banned from playing for the Proteas because of the colour of his skin - was named in England's squad to tour his native country in 1968, cricket crossed the sporting boundary into the political sphere.
England's tour to South Africa was cancelled as the ruling National Party refused to accept D'Oliveira's presence in the England squad.
The incident culminated in a ban on sporting ties with South Africa that would last for years.
In 1990, Mike Gatting led a team of England players to tour South Africa, defying a ban on playing there while the country remained segregated.
The tour ended prematurely when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, heralding the end of Apartheid.


The longest-serving prisoner to be held in solitary confinement in US history, Albert Woodfox, has walked free in Louisiana after 43 years.

Woodfox was part of the group known as the "Angola Three", after the prison where they spent years in confinement.
He had been there since April 1972 for the murder of a prison guard.
Maintaining his innocence in the death of Brent Miller, Woodfox, 69, was finally freed after accepting the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The plea bargain was negotiated with state prosecutors.
Twice in decades of legal battles, his murder conviction was thrown out of court, yet Louisiana state prosecutors were preparing to try him a third time.
He finally agreed to plead no contest to lesser charges in exchange for freedom but insisted this was not an admission of guilt.
"Although I was looking forward to proving my innocence at a new trial, concerns about my health and my age have caused me to resolve this case now and obtain my release with this no contest plea to lesser charges," he said in a statement on Friday.
"I hope the events of today will bring closure to many."
How do you survive solitary confinement?
Before driving off from Feliciana Parish Detention Center, in St Francisville, with his brother, Woodfox told media he wanted to visit his mother's gravesite.
She died while he was in prison and Woodfox said he had not been allowed to go to the funeral.
At the time of Mr Miller's death, Woodfox was in Louisiana's notorious Angola prison for armed robbery and assault.
He was accused of grabbing the guard from behind while others stabbed him with a lawnmower blade and a hand-sharpened prison knife.
Woodfox was placed in solitary and ordered to be kept on "extended lockdown" every 90 days for decades.
His lawyers say he was confined to his cell for 23 hours a day.
The other members of the "Angola Three", Robert King and Herman Wallace, were released in 2001 and 2013 respectively.
Wallace, also convicted over Mr Miller's murder, died soon after his release pending a new trial. King's conviction was overturned.
Woodfox and Wallace were involved with the Black Panthers, a militant black rights movement formed in 1966 for self-defence against police brutality and racism.


Nine out of 10 children in Northern Ireland who serve a custodial sentence after breaking the law re-offend within a year of being released.

A report by the Audit Office also reveals that it costs Â£324,000 a year to keep a young person in custody.
The report says repeat offenders are responsible for 72% of all youth crime and disorder.
Violence against the person, theft, criminal damage, and public order offences are the most common crimes.
Following the report, the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Northern Ireland said the criminal justice system needed to be overhauled.
The report says a new strategy is needed to deal with young offenders who repeatedly commit crimes.
The Youth Justice Agency is the organisation responsible for dealing with children aged 10-17 who have offended, or are at serious risk of offending.
The audit office report, Managing Children Who Offend, examines the cost of youth crime, and what is being done to try to reduce it.
It says the agency spent Â£17.4m and employed 277 staff last year.
Kieran Donnelly, the Comptroller and Auditor General, concludes that the agency and the Department of Justice "cannot currently demonstrate that the interventions to reduce re-offending by young people represent value for money."
Custody for young people in Northern Ireland is provided at the Woodlands Juvenile Justice Centre in Bangor, County Down.
Last year, 163 young people passed through the centre, some of them multiple times.
The majority were persistent offenders, or young people on remand waiting to go to court.
There are currently 26 children held there. The youngest of them is 14.
The audit office says that while the number of first-time offences committed by children has been falling in recent years, the rate of re-offending has been rising.
According to the most recent figures available, for the year 2013-14, the re-offending rate for young people released from custody was 89%.
That means 31 out of every 35 of those released commit another offence within a year.
The most prolific 1% of young offenders accounts for about 13% of all incidents.
The report says children looked after in care homes are about five times more likely to become involved with the justice system than those outside the care system.
It reveals that around one third of all those admitted to the juvenile justice centre are from care backgrounds.
The report also examines the effectives of alternatives to custody.
Youth conferencing, often referred to as restorative justice, is aimed at giving young offenders the opportunity to understand and make amends to their victims for the consequences of their offending, and to take steps to stop future crime.
It involves victims, the young person's family, the police, the community, and supporters to reach an agreed decision.
The audit office reveals that during the year 2013-14, more than half of young offenders dealt with through community orders re-offended.
"Youth conferencing has a central role in the response to youth crime," the report states.
"Although regarded well internationally, it has not been demonstrated that youth conferencing has reduced re-offending in Northern Ireland."
It says "earlier assertions that youth conferencing has been a success are not necessarily supported by subsequent evidence."
The report says there is a need for a strategic review of how current arrangements for dealing with child offenders are working.
The Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, Koulla Yiasouma, said there is a lack of focus and loss of momentum in how children who offend are dealt with.
She said: "The NIAO report clearly shows that the current system's interventions and services are not effectively tackling offending and reoffending and is not therefore delivering for these children and young people.
"We now need urgent and sustained action from government following today's report and we expect departments to fulfil their duties under the Children's Services Co-operation Act, which requires them to work together in the best interests of children.
"I am pleased to see some of my previous advice to the department echoed in the recommendations of this report."
Vivian McConvey, chief executive of the charity VOYPIC (Voice of Young People in Care) said: "For several years, reviews and reports have indicated flaws and inefficiencies in a system which responds to some of the most vulnerable and complex young people in our society.
"The lack of urgency and pace to redress these issues is at best frustrating and, at worst, of grave concern.
"The evidence that custody is not used as a last resort for young offenders continues to frustrate me and others who seek to protect the best interests of this group of vulnerable young people.
"We should learn from the experience of others and from what young people tell us and introduce interventions with proven impact."


A man has been arrested and charged in connection with the sexual assault of a woman in Falkirk earlier this month.

The incident, involving a 19-year-old woman, happened on Saturday 3 September outside a block of flats on Wallace Street.
Police Scotland said a 31-year-old man had been remanded in custody.
Officers thanked the local community for their help with the investigation.


First Minister Peter Robinson has said he appreciates the "support and encouragement Europe has given us".

The European Parliament is debating a motion expressing concern at the political impasse in Northern Ireland.
Talks involving the British and Irish governments and the five executive parties are continuing at Stormont.
Mr Robinson said he had been stressing in Brussels that they "genuinely and sincerely want to get a satisfactory outcome to the talks process".
"We are going to put everything we have into getting that outcome," the DUP leader said.
"Until you come out with agreements at the end of a process, there's always scepticism and I think that's something you have to take for granted.
"It gives us the encouragement to try and prove the sceptics wrong."
Speaking in Brussels ahead of Wednesday's debate, he said: "In the early parts of any talks process, people keep their cards close to their chest - they state their positions, and it's really at the latter end of it that you test the other people who are around the table to see how far they are prepared to go on various issues."
The motion being debated by MEPs has been endorsed by a cross-section of parliamentary groups, and has been signed by Sinn FÃ©in's Martina Anderson and the UUP's Jim Nicholson.
It expresses concern that the implementation of the peace process has reached an impasse, and urges all parties "to work constructively towards a lasting resolution of the conflict and the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements for a long-lasting and enduring peace".
It says continuing violence by "fringe elements" is undermining the peace process, and "stresses the need to combat such criminal activity by tackling existing economic challenges such as unemployment and low incomes and living standards".
The motion also says the European Parliament stands ready to offer any assistance it can to political parties in Northern Ireland.
It invites Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers to address the European Parliament "upon the successful completion of the all-party talks".
Both Mr Robinson and Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt have been in Brussels this week ahead of Wednesday's debate.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of Sinn FÃ©in briefed European parliamentarians last month.


This is, by any standards, the most provocative of North Korea's recent missile tests.

Launching a rocket over Japanese territory - with at least the possibility that it could break up and deposit debris on Japanese soil - shows that Pyongyang is intent on maintaining its brinkmanship - this was only the third missile test to over-fly Japan within the past two decades. However, this may perhaps be brinkmanship only to a point.
It is noteworthy that North Korea did not make good on its threat to direct a missile towards the US Pacific territory of Guam - something that might well have precipitated a US military response.
But equally clearly it shows that the Trump administration's assertions earlier this month - after a round of escalating threats between Washington and Pyongyang - that the North Korean regime was now pausing for thought, were premature.
So here we are again, facing the question of what to do about North Korea as it moves rapidly forward with its linked ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes.
Or, to put the question another way, if these programmes cannot be stopped, and Pyongyang eventually gets the ability to target the continental USA with a nuclear-armed missile, can the US and the world live with a nuclear-armed North Korea?
There are five declared nuclear weapons states: Britain, France, the US, China and Russia.
They mostly developed their nuclear weapons arsenals in the aftermath of World War Two, which had seen a frightening demonstration of the power of "the Bomb" with its use by the Americans against two Japanese cities. China was a relative latecomer to the nuclear "club", joining in the mid-1960s.
Since then, efforts to prevent the spread or proliferation of nuclear weapons have been remarkably successful. The Non-Proliferation Treaty - which entered into force in 1970 - made the clear distinction between the declared nuclear weapons states and everyone else.
The deal was that the declared nuclear states would seek to cut - and eventually eliminate - their arsenals, while the rest would get the benefits of peaceful nuclear technology by agreeing never to seek nuclear weapons.
Either through the Non-Proliferation Treaty, by military threat - as in the case of Iraq and Libya - or by additional agreements - such as the understanding with Iran - very few countries have sought to develop nuclear arsenals.
Some, who had relatively advanced weapons programmes, like South Africa, abandoned them altogether.
Three countries who never signed up to the NPT deal did develop nuclear weapons arsenals: Israel, India and Pakistan.
But, while their programmes remain for some controversial, they are only seen as a threat in a regional context, though Pakistan's nuclear security and its proliferation activities in the past have rung alarm bells more widely.
So what would it mean if North Korea joined this trio?
Indeed, for practical purposes, it already is a nuclear-armed state. It is its capacity to strike US cities that is still in doubt.
Well, for one thing North Korea is clearly the odd man out. It is not a democracy, it is not in any sense an ally of the United States. It is peculiarly isolated from the international system and despite its bluster it is fundamentally a weak and failing regime.
And - unlike Israel, India and Pakistan - its nuclear weapons are not solely intended to deter regional rivals. It seeks a capacity to strike the United States itself.
So could the US and North Korea simply co-exist as nuclear "rivals", bearing in mind that the American nuclear punch far outweighs anything deliverable by Pyongyang?
Many argue that nuclear deterrence helped keep the peace during the Cold War, with the US and the then Soviet Union able to destroy each other many times over.
Deterrence evolved into a complex theory and practice; a language that in many ways Moscow and Washington shared. But it is hard to see Washington and Pyongyang developing that sort of common understanding.
There was a time, of course, when all this seemed theoretical. North Korea was testing its missiles and developing its nuclear capability but its progress was slow - the idea that it might ever threaten the continental United States, decades away.
Well, now that moment is fast approaching. The goal was then to halt and roll back the North Korean programme; basically to get it to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions. Such hopes proved illusory.
So what are the key points to bear in mind at the moment?
North Korea's progress has been remarkable and worrying but it is not there yet.
As the veteran US strategic analyst Tony Cordesman has noted: "Testing a missile booster and a re-entry vehicle is a long way from having an actual operational missile. Having a design capability to make a relatively small fission warhead is a long way from having produced and tested an actual warhead design."
Might Pyongyang seek to use its fledgling capability against the US? Well, Tony Cordesman is blunt: "Firing an unproven missile with an unproven warhead in an unproven re-entry vehicle with unproved accuracy and reliability at these ranges against a major nuclear power goes from stupidity to insanity."
His view seems to be that North Korea is getting ever closer to its goal but this requires a coherent policy response not rhetorical bluster and threats.
President Trump has sought to double-down on Beijing in an effort to get it to force Pyongyang to back down.
Well, this has had mixed results. China has supported much tougher sanctions imposed through the UN, but it has responded angrily to bilateral sanctions imposed by the US that hit Chinese individuals or enterprises.
Chinese pressure is one of the few levers against Pyongyang but its influence should not be over-stated.
In the final analysis, China does not want to see the North Korean regime swept away and millions of refugees flood across its border. So it will always be ambivalent, sharing US concerns but only up to a point.
It is easy to see this as a struggle between two mercurial leaders, President Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
But it is vastly more complex than that. There is the inter-Korean dimension, there is the Japanese dimension, there is the wider relationship that these two countries have with both Washington and Beijing.
And then there is the wider strategic calculus. The growing threat from North Korea could lead to significant rearmament in the region. The growing popularity of ballistic missile defence has already prompted tensions between South Korea and China. Russia, too, will be watching the development of these defences closely.
If North Korea continues on this trajectory then a new policy of deterrence and containment needs to be crafted. But it needs to be one that doesn't simply make matters worse.
Some of the elements of such a policy have already been mentioned above: tougher economic sanctions against North Korea that China can buy into, better defensive weaponry for America's allies in the region including anti-missile systems, a clear show of US resolve, if need be to extend its nuclear umbrella over its Asian allies in the same way that it does with its European allies within Nato.
But in and of themselves many of these steps will simply make the North Koreans feel more under threat, so there needs to be an additional dimensionâ€¦
Diplomacy under the Trump administration has got a bad rap. Look at his opposition to the nuclear agreement with Iran.
But just imagine if there was a similar deal in place with Pyongyang. That is not really a feasible proposition but the point remains that in a substantially deteriorating situation even an agreement that slows or delays North Korea's progress might be better than nothing.
Former US diplomats have cautioned that past diplomatic engagement with "the hermit kingdom" is often unfairly written off.
True, the deal that froze North Korea's nuclear activities in the mid-1990s eventually collapsed. But Pyongyang's nuclear progress was frozen for several years. Another agreement in 2000, freezing North Korea's long-range missile programme, similarly collapsed.
But the key takeaway here is that the record shows it was US actions as much as North Korea's that ended these deals.
The North Korean regime, many analysts argue, is not quite as crazy as it seems. There is a logic behind its behaviour and there are things that it wants. A peace deal on the Korean peninsula; economic development; a commitment by the US not to seek regime change; these are all the potential currency for diplomatic exchanges in the future.
This, as ever, is a problem with few good alternatives on offer. The goal needs to be to avoid the very worst outcomes and to favour the least bad. Diplomacy, coercion, sanctions, deterrence, all have a part to play.
The question remains whether this US administration is capable of rising to the challenge and whether the North Korean regime is prepared genuinely to bargain if it were to receive tangible gains.


The world's biggest oil and gas companies risk losing $2.2tn (Â£1.5tn) by overestimating future demand for fossil fuels, a report suggests.

By underestimating both legislation to cut the use of dirty fuels and the development of clean energy, these firms are investing in assets that may prove worthless, says Carbon Tracker.
Shell, Exxon Mobil and BP are among those most a risk, it says.
The report comes on the eve of the Paris climate change summit.
"If the industry misreads future demand by underestimating technology and policy advances, this can lead to an excess of supply and create stranded assets," says the report by the green think tank.
"This is where shareholders should be concerned - if companies are committing to future production which may never generate the returns expected."
By assuming that policies are introduced to limit global warming to 2 degrees centigrade - the internationally accepted point at which rising temperatures could have dangerous consequences for the planet - the report suggests that many of the world's leading energy companies could lose tens of billions of dollars through unneeded expenditure.
The study says that Mexican state-owned oil company Pemex is the most at risk, to the tune of $77bn over the next 10 years. Shell ($76.9bn), Exxon Mobil ($72.9), Rosneft ($53.3bn) and BP ($45.5bn) make up the rest of the top five.
US energy companies are collectively most at risk, it says, with $412bn of potential stranded assets by 2025. Then comes Canada ($220bn), China ($179bn), Russia ($147bn) and Australia ($103bn).
Many countries have already implemented carbon dioxide reduction targets that will see reliance on fossil fuels decline, and hopes are high that a global deal to limit emissions can be agreed in Paris.
Renewable energy production is also rising faster than predicted, largely due to technological advances reducing costs.
However, oil and gas companies argue that the rise in demand for energy in the coming decades, particularly in emerging economies, means a big increase in supply is needed.
In the short and medium term, they argue, this will have to come from fossil fuels, as renewable energy sources cannot be scaled up from such a low base in time.
"The natural decline in the production rate of traditional energy sources is faster than increases we can likely achieve with alternative energy sources," a spokesperson for Shell told the BBC.
"Therefore, continued substantial investment is required to meet this depletion, as well as to meet demand to fuel economic growth, especially in the developing world, while at the same time supporting the energy transitions that are underway.
"Achieving a low carbon economy will only be possible with a combination of renewables, cleaner and accessible hydrocarbons and carbon capture and storage to provide a full suite of energy products for the growing global population, but with much less CO2 emitted."


No international education conference is complete without a reference to Finland.

Ever since it appeared at the top of international league tables more than a decade ago, it has been endlessly hailed as how to run an education system.
Finland, which faces a general election this week, has been the poster child for education reform and overseas delegations have made pilgrimages to learn from its example.
In particular it has been used to argue that you can have high results without an overbearing system of testing and inspection.
It was the country where pupils did not have to start school until they were seven, enjoyed the longest holidays and then basked in the glow of global approval when they topped the tables in the international Pisa tests.
But is the gloss coming off the image of Finland as an education superpower?
A study from Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, director of research at the Centre for Market Reform of Education, argues that Finland's education standards are in decline.
He says it is a misunderstanding of Finland's success to attribute it to a liberal culture without league tables or a formal curriculum and giving much autonomy to teachers.
In a report published by the right-wing think tank the Centre for Policy Studies, Mr Sahlgren argues that Finland's star performance in the 2000 Pisa tests was built on the legacy of an older, very traditional education system, which had been part of the country's process of nation building.
But this wasn't the image of Finland wanted by education experts, he says. Instead, when Finland was the top performer in Europe, it was used as a "counter-argument" to the success of east Asian school systems in Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
More stories from the BBC's Knowledge economy series looking at education from a global perspective and how to get in touch
While they were seen as successful because of hard work and grindingly long hours, Finland was seen as the way to achieve success with a much more creative and less centralised approach.
Mr Sahlgren, based at the London School of Economics, says there was "never any real evidence" for such an impression.
"It was simplistic, looking at how Finland's system looked today, without looking at its history."
Rather than being the opposite of east Asian countries, he says in many ways Finland was like those emerging economies.
Compared with its Nordic neighbours, Finland was a "late developer", much poorer and with lower levels of education in the early part of the 20th Century.
Finland's approach of investing heavily in education and seeing rapid improvements was in many ways more like the pattern of Tiger economies in east Asia than the more sluggish progress in western Europe.
Mr Sahlgren's research argues there is a reluctance to accept that Finland's education system, under which many of its successful teachers had trained, had been very structured and centralised.
He quotes a research group from the UK visiting schools in Finland in 1996, a few years before the Pisa tests brought the world's attention to the country's schools.
"We have moved from school to school and seen almost identical lessons, you could have swapped the teachers over and the children would never have noticed the difference," said the researchers from the University of East Anglia, observing Finnish classrooms.
Another study challenges what it calls the "misconceptions and misrepresentations" about Finland's success in the Pisa tests.
Tim Oates, director of assessment research for the Cambridge Assessment exam group, has published a study called "Finnish fairy stories", in which he debunks what he claims are myths about the Finnish system.
He says the waves of "education tourism" that followed the success in Pisa tests failed to look at how the system had improved.
"They got off the plane and asked the Finns about the system in 2000 - not what it was like during the 1970s and 1980s, when standards were rising."
He also warns of a tendency for people to use Finland's school system as a way of confirming what they want to find.
The claim that Finland does not have an Ofsted-style inspection and national testing is an incomplete picture, says Mr Oates. He says there has been a strong system of accountability and inspection and gathering of data.
The difference from a system such as England, says Mr Oates, is how the information is used - for example in Finland exam results are not published in school league tables as they are in England.
It is also misleading to think there are not high-stakes exams or academic selection, he says, with entrance to some secondary schools being determined by test scores.
And Mr Oates argues it is "hopeless myopia" to see Finland's system as a model of high levels of autonomy.
Finland is facing another set of controversial changes, away from traditional subject teaching. And Mr Sahlgren warns of a school system in decline. It is no longer in the top 10 for maths in Pisa tests, having been in second place in 2003 and 2006.
Andreas Schleicher, the OECD's director of education and the creator of the Pisa tests, rejects this analysis.
"In the 1960s, Finland was an average performer at best and that was when it had a very traditional education system," says Mr Schleicher.
"Finland changed its system only in the late 1970s and 1980s and that's when we saw the results rise. The most recent decline is quite modest," he said.
Mr Oates says the problem has been that people have used Finland as a way of discussing their own national education debates, without really thinking about what made Finland different.
"People have been seriously misled by stories told by people who have looked at Finland through their own, restricted lens," he says.


The five-man shortlist for the 2015 BBC African Footballer of the Year award will be revealed on Saturday.

The announcement - to be made at Kaizer Chiefs' training ground in Johannesburg - will be live on BBC World Service (10:30) and the BBC Sport website (09:45)
The winner will be decided by African football fans, who will have until 18:00 GMT on 30 November to vote.
Yacine Brahimi won the award in 2014, becoming the first Algerian to do so.
Saturday's launch programme will look back at the history of the award and feature a special report on the global impact African footballers are having.
BBC Focus on Africa's Peter Okwoche will be joined by a panel of football experts, including former South Africa internationals Delron Buckley and Bradley Carnell.
On radio, Sportshour presenter Caroline Barker will be joined by the BBC's Nomsa Maseko for a special edition of the programme to celebrate the best in African football.
The guest panellists will discuss each nominee before declaring voting open.
Users of social media can stay up to date with the competition via #BBCAFOTY


Facebook has quietly launched a photo-editing app exclusively for China.

The app, called Colourful Balloons, was launched in May and is almost identical to the Facebook Moments app. It was spotted by the New York Times on Friday.
The BBC understands that part of the reason the app was not branded as Facebook was to study how apps organically gain users in China.
Facebook is working with Chinese app developer Youge Internet Technology.
"We have long said that we are interested in China, and are spending time understanding and learning more about the country in different ways," a Facebook representative told the BBC.
"Our focus right now is on helping Chinese businesses and developers expand to new markets outside China by using our ad platform."
The BBC has not been able to confirm whether the Chinese authorities are aware that Facebook launched the app in the country. However, the app works with WeChat, a leading messaging app by Chinese social media giant Tencent.
Facebook and many other Western internet services are blocked in China, which has a strict internet censorship policy. Facebook was blocked in 2009, while its photo-sharing app Instagram was banned in 2014 and the encrypted messaging app WhatsApp was partially restricted last month
Twitter was blocked in 2009, and all Google services, including the video-sharing platform YouTube, were banned the same year.
China now has the world's largest online market with 731 million users, according to latest statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
Google officially pulled its operations out of China in 2010 as a protest against internet censorship, but is now in talks with Beijing to relaunch its services in the country, according to CNBC.


Leigh Centurions have confirmed the signing of England half-back Rangi Chase on a two-year contract, with the option of a further year.

Chase, 29, was without a club after being released by Salford in October following a "disciplinary procedure".
He scored 15 tries in 42 game for Salford, and was previously the 2011 Man of Steel while at Castleford.
"Rangi has undoubted class that I am sure will flourish within our team," head coach Paul Rowley said.
"I will look forward to challenging Rangi in different roles to ensure we bring the best out of him and that the team benefits from his presence."
Director of rugby Derek Beaumont told BBC Radio Manchester in September that the Centurions were signing Chase, but the deal has only now been finalised.


Two brothers jailed for modern slavery offences have been made the subject of a new court order in a bid to further protect their victims.

Erwin and Krystian Markowski, from Nottingham, recruited men from Poland to work at a Sports Direct warehouse.
Under the rules of the directive, the pair will have to disclose their bank details to police and are forbidden from carrying more than £500 in cash.
The order, granted earlier this month, will run for 10 years.
The brothers, who were jailed for six years in January, will no longer be able to contact their previous victims for the duration of the 10-year order.
Nottinghamshire Police said it was the first time it had applied for a Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order, under the Modern Slavery Act.
If the brothers breach any of these restrictions they could be given a further prison term of up to five years.
Source: Nottinghamshire Police
Erwin, 38, of Cedar Road, and Krystian, 35, of Harcourt Road, Nottingham, brought the men from Poland to work at Sports Direct's warehouse in Shirebrook, Derbyshire.
A court heard earlier this year how they controlled their victims' bank accounts and kept most of their wages, totalling £35,000, between 2015 and 2016.
The brothers were also given a two-and-a-half year sentence for fraud to run at the same time as the six years.


UKIP wants to be a "constructive part of the assembly" and can do "good things", Welsh leader Nathan Gill has said.

He said he supports devolution but is "not enthusiastic" about further powers coming to Wales.
Speaking on BBC's The Wales Report programme, Mr Gill said the assembly's current powers have been "badly used".
He also said local parties will decide who represents UKIP in May's Welsh assembly election.
Mr Gill was responding to suggestions that former  Tory MPs Neil Hamilton and Mark Reckless were set to be imposed as candidates by the party centrally.
"As a principle, I think that it's madness to have people standing who the local party don't want to stand for them.
"Which is why the local party will now decide who represents them," he said.
He said the upcoming elections give the party a chance to show they can be disciplined and do "good things for the people of Wales".
"We want to be a constructive part of the assembly," he added.
"We want to be there to get the voices and the views of those people who vote for us heard and we need to make sure that people start to believe in this institution for the right reasons."


The owners of Tudor stately home have been fined £266,000 after a butler was crushed to death by a faulty lift.

Arthur Mellar, 47, died after being seriously injured at Burghley House, on the Lincolnshire-Cambridgeshire border, on 12 July 2014.
Peterborough Crown Court heard the lift fell onto Mr Mellar as he tried to free a jammed item of luggage.
Burghley House Preservation Trust previously admitted it failed to ensure the welfare of an employee.
More on this and other local stories from across Lincolnshire
Mr Mellar got caught between the lift cage and the banister of the lift housing as he attempted to dislodge the baggage, the court heard.
The Health and Safety Executive, which brought the prosecution against the trust, said it was a "completely avoidable incident".
There were no safety measures in place to prevent it and the lift had not been inspected by an engineer since it was installed in the late 1950s, the court heard.
The court was also told the trust did not conduct a safety risk assessment on the lift, which was used to transport guests' luggage from different levels of the house.
Mr Mellar, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, had worked at the 16th Century Burghley House for nine years.
Judge Sean Enright fined the trust £266,000, along with costs of nearly £17,000.
David Pennell, estates director at Burghley House, said: "Health and safety matters have always been paramount across all activities at Burghley and what happened to Arthur Mellar in July 2014 was a dreadful and tragic accident."
"Our thoughts are with Gerwin and Arthur's family at this time," he added.
The mansion has been used for locations in the films Pride and Prejudice and The Da Vinci Code.


Bradley Dack, Jake Hessenthaler and Ryan Jackson scored as Gillingham came from behind to beat Swindon.

Swindon led when Jon Obika converted Ben Gladwin's pass, but Dack equalised 90 seconds later with a placed effort.
Hessenthaler capitalised on Raphael Branco's mistimed clearance to slot home, before Jackson's long-range effort secured the Gills' second successive away victory.
Branco was sent off late on, before Dack's late penalty was saved.
Gillingham are currently third in League One, one point off leaders Walsall, while Swindon sit 15th in the table.


Six D-Day veterans from Yorkshire have been presented with France's highest military honour.

The award is being given by France to all surviving British veterans of the 1944 Normandy landings to honour their part in the liberation of France.
France's ambassador to Great Britain presented the Legion d'Honneur to five of the men at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington.
The veterans, who come from across Yorkshire, are all aged in their 90s.
The men honoured were 99-year-old Eric Gill from Edlington near Doncaster, 98-year-old James Denwood from Mexborough, Gerald Eric Briscoe, 94, from Bradford, 92-year-old Gordon Collinson from York and Thomas William Wright, 91, also from York.
Catherine Rush from Keighley also received a medal on behalf of her late husband Bernard Anthony Rush, who died before the presentation ceremony.
Ian Richardson, from Yorkshire Air Museum, said that Elvington had been a fitting place for the ceremony and the day had been "very emotional" for all involved.
"RAF Elvington was home to the only two French Squadrons within the RAF Bomber Command," he said.
"Both played a vital role in the D-Day invasion campaign, bombing coastal defences in their own country on the night of June 5 1944 to secure the Normandy beach-head for Allied troops landing the following morning."


Labour have gained control of Carlisle City Council.

The party took two seats from the Conservatives and two from Lib Dems, giving it a total of 27.
The Tories now have 20 councillors, the Lib Dems two, there are two Independents, and one vacant post.
In South Lakeland, Labour and the Lib Dems gained two seats each, with the Conservatives losing four of their seats. The council is therefore still held by the Lib Dems.
The Lib Dems now hold 34 seats, the Conservatives 14 and Labour three.
Carlisle was heavily targeted by both Labour and the Conservatives, with Ed Miliband showing up on the local election launch tour and David Cameron also paying a high-profile visit.
Joe Hendry, the council's Labour leader, described the result as a new beginning for Carlisle.
"This is the first time in 13 years that any political party has had a clear majority," he said.
"We intend to do good things with it.
"The first thing to do is clean up the city, but also make sure there are jobs, to get investment and a consensus of what kind of place this is going to be in 10 years time, and work towards that."
Carlisle's Conservative MP, John Stevenson, said: "We're very disappointed.
"We've lost two good councillors as well.
"In our own vote there may be a little bit of apathy, but in some cases I think there was a good turnout by Conservatives, and that's something we have to look to in the future."
Lib Dem Trevor Allison said: "Obviously it was a disastrous night for us.
"It wasn't unexpected, it turned out exactly as we thought it would, not just for ourselves but the Conservatives as well."
ยท All the latest election results are available at bbc.co.uk/vote2012


Philadelphia Zoo has been inundated with suggestions to name its newborn baby gorilla Harambe after launching a naming contest.

Harambe, a western lowland gorilla, was killed at Cincinnati Zoo earlier this year after a three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure.
On Wednesday, Philadelphia Zoo said it would allow the public to vote on a name for the newborn.
Social media users quickly swamped the zoo with thousands of messages.
The newborn is the same subspecies - Gorilla gorilla gorilla - as Harambe.
Zookeepers, however, said the name will be put to a public poll from a selection chosen by staff members.
There has been no confirmation that Harambe will make that shortlist and the competition has not even opened yet.
That, however, has not stopped thousands of calls for the name online.
Philadelphia Zoo said they were "amazed and humbled" by the "outpouring of support and genuine excitement".
The newborn's sex is still unknown, as the baby is being held close by its mother, Honi.
Zookeepers said staff will make suggestions once they know if it is a boy or a girl - and rely on the public to vote from those choices in the coming weeks.
"We are very excited to welcome Honi's new baby," said Dr Andy Baker, the zoo's Chief Operating Officer.
"This birth is an opportunity to engage our visitors in caring about the future of gorillas in the wild."
Harambe's death in May this year, accompanied by sensational video footage of the three-year-old child in danger, made international headlines.
In the wake of the shooting, many questioned the need for killing the animal, despite the keepers at Cincinnati Zoo insisting they had no choice.
That led to a wide range of internet memes and an online campaign of "Justice for Harambe", which later became a joke in online circles.
The zoo itself said it was "not amused" by the online jokes and closed its Twitter account, after months of Harambe references being posted in response to every tweet.


Security camera footage has emerged which appears to show Kenyan security forces looting goods during last month's siege of the Westgate mall.

In the footage, some Kenyan soldiers can be seen carrying white shopping bags, while others appear to take white boxes from a mobile phone store.
At least 67 people died when suspected al-Shabab militants stormed the Nairobi shopping centre on 21 September.
The Kenyan military says it is investigating the looting allegations.
News agencies say the CCTV footage is taken inside the entrance to the Westgate mall's Nakumatt supermarket, which sells everything from food to televisions.
In one section of footage, several soldiers are seen walking out of the supermarket, past a blood-spattered floor, carrying plastic carrier bags.
In another clip, Kenyan soldiers can be seen next to a mobile phone outlet.
Heroes of attack
Victims of attack
One reaches over the counter, and apparently removes a white item.
Then more soldiers remove white items, which the Reuters news agency describes as mobile phone boxes.
The Westgate attack sparked a four-day siege in which large parts of the shopping centre were destroyed.
The Kenyan military says it has launched an investigation into the looting allegations, which correspondents say will have angered many Kenyans.
At the weekend, Kenya's biggest-selling newspaper, The Nation, ran an article entitled "Shame of soldiers looting Westgate".
The footage of the alleged looting emerged as the Kenyan authorities announced they had recovered the body of what they consider to be a fourth attacker.
"Today, Sunday 20 October 2013, we recovered a fourth body, which we know from CCTV footage to be that of a terrorist," said the Kenyan interior minister, Joseph Ole Lenku.
"DNA and other investigations will confirm their identities. We have also recovered four AK47 assault rifles which we know were used by the terrorists in the assault. We also recovered 11 magazines of AK47 assault rifles."
Officials had initially said 10 to 15 gunmen were involved, but CCTV footage appears to show only four militants.
It is still not clear whether some of the attackers might have escaped.
The Somali militant group al-Shabab said its members staged the attack in response to Kenya's army carrying out operations on Somali territory.
Last week, the BBC's Newsnight programme revealed that one of the suspected attackers was believed to be a 23-year-old Somalia-born Norwegian national, Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow.
His family fled to Norway in the 1990s, but he returned to Somalia in 2009 and allegedly joined the Somali militant group.
Sources in al-Shabab have told the BBC Somali Service that Dhuhulow attended a training camp in El Bur in central Somalia, one of the militants' main bases.
The sources said Dhuhulow took part in many al-Shabab operations in Mogadishu and Kismayo and was well-known in jihadist circles.


Alastair Seeley extended his all-time record of North West 200 wins to 18 as he clinched a Superstock triumph on the first night of racing at the meeting.

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Carrickfergus man Seeley, 37, set a lap record of four minutes, 22.7 seconds as he extended his North West winning run meeting to 10 straight years.
Somerset's Martin Jessopp, 31, earned his first North West victories as he won the Supersport and Supertwin races.
Jessopp and Michael Rutter swapped lap records in a thrilling Supertwin race.
Seeley recovered from a second-lap exit in the opening Supersport race to dominate the Superstock class as his Tyco BMW finished 12.623 seconds ahead of Lee Johnston.
Fermanagh man Johnston, a three-time North West winner, pipped Dean Harrison for second but the Englishman had the consolation of earning his first podium finish at the meeting.
Michael Rutter led early on before retiring but Seeley had a 1.94-second advantage by the halfway point after producing his lap record on the third circuit and he extended his advantage during the remainder of the race.
"I don't know what I'm doing right," said Seeley.
"I've talked about having plenty of lady luck down through the years and it seems to be continuing. Hopefully there will be more of the same on Saturday."
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But while Seeley continued his record-breaking exploits at the Triangle meeting, Jessopp also shone in the evening sun.
The Yeovil Marshes man was a close third at the halfway point in the Supersport race as Ian Hutchinson headed Harrison but Jessop led by 1.2 seconds heading into the sixth and final lap and held his nerve to take his first North West triumph.
Harrison was 0.772 seconds behind in second with Hampshire rider James Hillier completing an all-English podium as Jessopp clinched a first North West triumph on a Triumph bike since 1970.
The night then got even better for 31-year-old Jessopp as he held off a strong late challenge from veteran Michael Rutter to win the concluding Supertwin race.
Jessopp's lap record of 4:55.50 helped give him a three-second lead at one point before Rutter cut into his compatriot's advantage by improving the lap record to 4:53.
Rutter was only a couple of bikes lengths behind Jessopp midway in the closing stages but the Somerset man held to nerve his secure his double.
"We're basically a family-run team. Myself and my old man. It's huge for us," said Jessopp.
"We don't really have any sponsors to worry about but all the boys involved put in a huge amount of work."


British ventriloquist Paul Zerdin has expressed his shock at winning this year's America's Got Talent.

The 43-year-old Londoner said he was "totally speechless" and "bowled over" to beat nine other acts in the final.
Two other British acts, Stevie Starr - the Professional Regurgitator - and magician John van der Put, who performs as Piff the Magic Dragon, also made it through to the final 10.
Zerdin wins $1m (Â£645,000) and the chance to headline his own Las Vegas show.
Speaking after his win, he said: "I never thought it would be like this. I just thought I'd nip over to America, have a go at this talent show, and if it didn't work out then I could come home back to the UK and no one would be any the wiser.
"But the one thing I forgot about was social media. Everything filters back and everyone knows everything now."
Stammering comedian Drew Lynch was the runner-up, while Starr finished fourth.
Zerdin was the early favourite to win the talent show following his performances in the initial rounds.
After his performance in the final on Tuesday, judge Howard Stern praised the ventriloquist, saying: "There's a reason Paul breezed through every single time he came on, because he is a master at what he does.
"He's taking the art of ventriloquism to new heights."
Fellow judge and former Spice Girl Mel B added: "You're a well polished act, you're flawless."
Zerdin is already a successful, established performer in the UK, having appeared at the Royal Variety Performance three times since 1997.
He is also no stranger to talent shows, having won ITV's The Big, Big, Talent Show - hosted by Jonathan Ross - in 1996.
He appeared on a number of BBC children's programmes in the late '90s and taught Nigel Havers the art of ventriloquism on ITV's recent Get Your Act Together.
Zerdin is the second ventriloquist to win America's Got Talent after Terry Fator in 2007 - who went on to have his own Las Vegas residency at The Mirage hotel worth a reported $100m (Â£64.5m) over five years.
In 2013 he celebrated his 1000th show at the venue, where he continues to perform.


Some of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria have been forced to join Islamist militant group Boko Haram, the BBC has been told.

Witnesses say some are now being used to terrorise other captives, and are even carrying out killings themselves.
The testimony cannot be verified but Amnesty International says other girls kidnapped by Boko Haram have been forced to fight.
Boko Haram has killed some 5,500 civilians in Nigeria since 2014.
Two-hundred-and-nineteen schoolgirls from Chibok, are still missing, more than a year after they were kidnapped from their school in northern Nigeria. Many of those seized are Christians.
Three women who claim they were held in the same camps as some of the Chibok girls have told the BBC's Panorama programme that some of them have been brainwashed and are now carrying out punishments on behalf of the militants.
Seventeen-year-old Miriam (not her real name) fled Boko Haram after being held for six months. She was forced to marry a militant, and is now pregnant with his child.
Recounting her first days in the camp she said: "They told to us get ready, that they were going to marry us off."
She and four others refused.
Human cost of Boko Haram
219 of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped from Chibok by Boko Haram in April 2014 are still missing.
They are among at least 2,000 women and girls abducted by Boko Haram since the start of 2014 (Amnesty figures)
Since the start of 2014 Boko Haram has killed an estimated 5,500 civilians in north-east Nigeria (Amnesty figures)
Who are Boko Haram?
Chibok: What we know a year on
Why Boko Haram remains a threat
"They came back with four men, they slit their throats in front of us. They then said that this will happen to any girl that refuses to get married,"
Faced with that choice, she agreed to marry, and was then repeatedly raped.
"There was so much pain," she said. "I was only there in body… I couldn't do anything about it."
While in captivity, Miriam described meeting some of the Chibok schoolgirls. She said they were kept in a separate house to the other captives.
"They told us: 'You women should learn from your husbands because they are giving their blood for the cause. We must also go to war for Allah.'"
She said the girls had been "brainwashed" and that she had witnessed some of them kill several men in her village.
"They were Christian men. They [the Boko Haram fighters] forced the Christians to lie down. Then the girls cut their throats."
It is not possible to independently verify Miriam's claims. But human rights group Amnesty International said their research also shows that some girls abducted by Boko Haram have been trained to fight.
"The abduction and brutalisation of young women and girls seems to be part of the modus operandi of Boko Haram," said Netsanet Belay, Africa director, research and advocacy at Amnesty International.
The Chibok schoolgirls have not been seen since last May when Boko Haram released a video of around 130 of them gathered together reciting the Koran. They looked terrified.
Amnesty International estimates more than 2,000 girls have been taken since the start of 2014. But it was the attack on the school in Chibok that sparked international outrage.
Michelle Obama made a rousing speech a few weeks after their abduction, demanding the girls' return.
Millions of people showed their support for the #bringbackourgirls campaign. The hashtag was shared more than five million times.
Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamic State in the region, but it has recently been pushed back by a military force from Nigeria and its neighbours. Hundreds of women and girls have managed to escape during these raids.
Anna, aged 60, is one of them. She fled a camp in the Sambisa forest in December where she was held for five months. She now sits beneath a tree close to the cathedral in the Adamawa state capital of Yola. Her only possessions are the clothes she ran away in.
She said she saw some of the Chibok schoolgirls just before she fled the forest.
"They had guns," she said.
When pressed on how she could be sure that it is was the Chibok schoolgirls that she'd seen, Anna said: "They [Boko Haram] didn't hide them. They told us: 'These are your teachers from Chibok.'
"They shared the girls out as teachers to teach different groups of women and girls to recite the Koran," Anna recalled.
"Young girls who couldn't recite were being flogged by the Chibok girls."
Like Miriam, Anna also said she had seen some of the Chibok schoolgirls commit murder.
"People were tied and laid down and the girls took it from there… The Chibok girls slit their throats," said Anna.
Anna said she felt no malice towards the girls she had seen taking part in the violence, only pity.
"It's not their fault they were forced to do it." she added. "Anyone who sees the Chibok girls has to feel sorry for them."
Exposing women to extreme violence seemed to be a strategy used by Boko Haram to strip them of their identity and humanity, so they could be forced to accept the militants' ideology.
Faith (not her real name) aged 16, who is Christian, described how Boko Haram fighters tried to force her to convert to their version of Islam.
"Every day at dawn they would come and throw water over us and order us to wake up and start praying."
"Then one day they brought in a man wearing uniform. They made us all line up and then said to me: 'Because you are always crying, you will must kill this man.'
"I was given the knife and ordered to cut his neck. I said I couldn't do it.
"They cut his throat in front of me. That's when I passed out."
Faith said she had seen at least one Chibok schoolgirl who had been married off to a Boko Haram militant during her four months in captivity.
"She was just like any of the Boko Haram wives," she explained. "We are more scared of the wives than the husbands."
With hundreds of women and children recently rescued from Boko Haram strongholds in the Sambisa forest, the Nigerian government has set up a programme to help escapees.
Many fled captivity, only to discover that some or all of their family members had been killed by Boko Haram. Others have been cast out from their communities, who now consider them "Boko Haram wives".
Dr Fatima Akilu is in charge of Nigeria's counter-violence and extremism programme. She is currently looking after around 300 of the recently rescued women and children.
"We have not seen signs of radicalisation," she told us. "But if it did occur we would not be surprised."
And she added: "In situations where people have been held, there have been lots of stories where they have identified with their captors."
Dr Akilu said beatings, torture, rape, forced marriages and pregnancies were common in Boko Haram camps.
"We have a team of imams… that are trained to look out for radical ideas and ideology.
"Recovery is going to be slow, it's going to be long… It's going to be bumpy."
As the hunt for the Chibok schoolgirls continues, and questions are raised about what state they will be in if they ever return home, those who have managed to escape are beginning the mammoth task of coming to terms with their experiences.
"I can't get the images out of my head," said Anna, breaking down in tears. "I see people being slaughtered. I just pray that the nightmares don't return."
For others, the nightmare is continuing every day. Miriam is expecting her baby any day now.
"I hope that the baby is a girl," she said. "I would love her more than any boy. I'm scared of having a boy."
Miriam's future is bleak. She is terrified her "husband" will find her and kill her for running away.  Her community has also rejected her.
"People consider me an outcast," she said.
"They remind me that I have Boko Haram inside me."
Panorama: The Missing Stolen School Children is on BBC One at 20:30 BST on Monday 29 June and available later via iPlayer.


Former Conservative Party treasurer Lord Ashcroft has told an audience of Labour Party activists: "I remain a proud tax avoider."

Instead of criticism, the peer earned a polite round of applause.
He hastily added that he paid the equivalent of his tax bill to charity, at the Fabian Society fringe meeting.
During one of the most surreal spectacles of this year's Labour conference, he said he thought the next election was Ed Miliband's to lose.
Lord Ashcroft, who was sharing a platform with senior Labour figures, including John Denham, said he had been impressed by the Labour leader's conference speech, which he had watched from the balcony at the Brighton Centre.
"I enjoyed the speech. I thought he delivered it well. He was self-deprecating and handled humour extremely well. Unfortunately for him, I doubt it will go very far towards convincing a sceptical public about his qualities as a leader."
Lord Ashcroft, a former Tory Party treasurer who has donated millions to the party, has reinvented himself in recent years as a widely respected pollster and internet politics magnate.
He did not have good news for the Labour leader from his latest batch of focus groups, saying his researchers "regularly hear words like 'out of his depth' and 'not as good as his brother'".
"Infuriating though this must be to you all, it shows how hard it is to change perceptions of a leader once they are entrenched," he said.
He said Labour had been lulled into a false sense of security by the mass defection of Lib Dem voters after the last election, but the party had still not done enough to regain voters' trust on the economy.
He also attacked Mr Miliband's announcement of plans to freeze gas and electricity bills, which he called a "form of price control" that was "doomed" to fail.
But despite all of that, he added, he still thought the next election was Labour's to lose.
"For many swing voters, Labour's great virtue is that its heart is in the right place. If Labour is the party that understands people, the Tories are the party who will take tough decisions even if they are unpopular. When Labour could claim a monopoly on both those things, the party was unbeatable."
He said his polling in marginal seats showed a "great swing to the Labour Party", but added that, as polling day approached, "we could see the closest election in 40 years".
The peer, who until 2010 was not domiciled in the UK for tax purposes, ended by speaking about his humble origins and his belief in the creation of wealth.
He said he had recently spoken to senior Labour figures, including former campaigns chief Tom Watson and frontbencher Michael Dugher, about how good it would be for the parties to work together.
"From my own point of view, yes, I am a notorious tax avoider and, I'd like you to know, in the confidence of this room, that I still am and I'm proud of it," he told the meeting, to laughter.
He added: "Every year, just before the end of the tax year, I see what my taxable income is and I give it to charity."
But he could not resist a final battle cry to round off the meeting, telling the Labour faithful: "I remain a proud tax avoider."