The government has announced it is appointing a new layer of highly paid schools officials to help oversee a system becoming increasingly overstretched by academisation. Here’s what you need to know:

1. The Department for Education is recruiting nine deputy directors to bolster the offices of England’s regional schools commissioners (RSCs), who oversee academies and intervene in failing schools.
2. The department will appoint a new deputy director to each of the eight regional offices to support the RSCs, and a ninth to lead a national team overseeing schools.
3. They will be paid about £95,000 each.
4. An information pack for applicants says the roles have been created to “help bring capacity to a growing system”.
5. It says RSCs need extra support because of the growth in the number of academies and free schools and the introduction of the Education and Adoption Act, which gives them the power to intervene in “coasting” academies and maintained schools.
6. RSCs were introduced in 2014 in a bid to provide oversight to the growing number of academies and free schools. Eight commissioners were hired to oversee eight regions of the country.
7. In January the Commons education committee warned in March that the role of RSCs was “confused” and “lacking in transparency”.