The Department for Education has yet to advertise for a new academies tsar, fuelling speculation that the role will be rejigged following the overhaul of the school-accountability system.
The delay in seeking a new national schools commissioner (NSC) also suggests a permanent replacement may not be in post when the current occupant, Sir David Carter, steps down at the end of August.
Sir David, who oversees the system of 7,000 academies and free schools, last month told Tes that the job advert would be posted on 27 April, but a month later, it has yet to appear.
The DfE told Tes that the department was taking its time to carefully consider its recruitment plans, and added that more information would be available in due course.
Tes understands this may lead to the role being filled in an interim capacity from 1 September.
Multiple well-placed sources say the DfE will use the time to reconsider what the NSC’s role involves.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told Tes that he would be happy if the delay in recruitment meant the DfE was considering the role of a schools commissioner.
Earlier this month, education secretary Damian Hinds announced changes to the school-accountability system, which curtailed the role of the regional schools commissioners that the NSC leads, and ended the compulsory academisation of schools on the basis of poor results alone.
Mr Barton said: “I wonder if we are at a bit of a turning point in terms of trying to clarify the system.
“In that sense, I would welcome it if we were using the thinking time and opportunity of David Carter moving on to think ‘what precisely does a schools commissioner do’, because it’s not the person who is going to run the nation’s schools, then that probably creates the space in which school leaders of the system step up and say ‘we are going to run the schools’.”
Asked whether the next national schools commissioner should have a school-leadership background, like Sir David, or be a career civil servant, Mr Barton said the person was more important than their background.
However, he added: “If you are going to be trying to lead and work with leaders in schools and colleges, you have to have some level of credibility; you have to be able to talk their language and understand the pressures they are under.
“That would make me lean towards somebody who has come from the MAT [multi-academy trust] background, but the clipping of the wings [of regional schools commissioners] might mean we are more likely to see someone who has come from a background in the DfE or something like that.”
