Regional directors (RDs) lie at the heart of decision making for the academy system.
They make decisions on how trusts grow; which trusts are best suited to run particular schools; and how trusts are established, merged or dissolved.
So who are the RDs and how do they operate?
What do regional directors do?
RDs are senior civil servants supported by teams of various sizes, depending on the workload in the region and other factors such as the number of schools or the proportion of schools in trusts.
There are nine RDs covering different regions in England: London, North West, North East, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, South West, South East, and Yorkshire and the Humber.
RDs act on behalf of the education secretary, making decisions on schools, children’s social care, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and much more.
As noted above, they decide on the creation and growth of MATs, academy sponsor matches, and significant changes to academies, such as the creation of SEND units as well as decisions on new free schools.
In recent years, the role has also grown to include improvement and intervention in children’s social care and special educational needs, as well as deciding which trusts sponsor schools with coasting orders.
RDs can escalate decisions to ministers in some circumstances, for example, if they are “sensitive”, if they “raise issues of interpretation of government policy” or if they relate to “urgent safeguarding or extremism concerns”.
Who are the regional directors in England?
- East Midlands: Carol Gray and Kate Copley
- East of England: Jonathan Duff
- London: Claire Burton
- North East: Katherine Cowell
- North West: Vicky Beer
- South East: Dame Kate Dethridge
- South West: Lucy Livings
- West Midlands: Andrew Warren
- Yorkshire and Humber: Alison Wilson
What role do regional advisory boards (RABs) play?
RDs are supported by a regional advisory board that holds monthly meetings. The DfE describes the role of the boards as providing a “source of challenge and insight” on academy-related decisions.
Advisory boards consist of up to eight members:
- Four are elected by local academy headteachers
- Two are appointed by regional directors
- A further two on the agreement of DfE ministers
How are RDs held to account?
Tes asked the DfE if RDs and their teams have any formal or informal targets.
It said that RDs and their teams’ performance is managed around the responsibilities set out on the government website.
The DfE also states that “ministers receive regular reports from the regional directors to maintain oversight of the programme and stay informed about significant operational matters across the regions”.
However, some do not think there is enough oversight of these roles, with one trust leader recently calling for key performance indicators (KPIs) to be published.
In addition, the RDs have faced increasing criticism over the nature of the role and their accountability to parliament, with one recent report claiming that the government had failed to put in place “strong formal processes to enable academy trusts to be held to account” and that RDs lack sufficient local knowledge to tackle emerging problems quickly enough.
Concerns have also been raised over the “mismatch” between the resources available to RDs and the scale of what they are expected to deliver.
When were regional directors introduced?
Until a restructuring of the system in 2022, RDs were known as regional schools commissioners (RSCs).
The change in title was to “reflect their evolving role”, according to the DfE, which hired former RSC John Edwards as the head of the DfE’s new Regions Group.
Tes recently revealed that the regional director for London, Claire Burton, had been named as acting director general for the Regions Group, as Mr Edwards takes leave to recover from surgery.
When the DfE first created RSCs in 2014, the department drew up a regional map of England with each RSC responsible for one of the newly-created areas.
This included splitting London into three separate areas and the creation of new areas, such as the Lancashire and West Yorkshire region, and the East Midlands and Humber region.
When the RSCs were replaced with RDs, the system switched to being based on the existing nine regions that the DfE uses for other functions (as listed above).
Speaking exclusively to Tes last week, Robin Walker, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, admitted he had “concerns” about the changes made to the role of RDs when he was schools minister, saying he was “not hugely keen on the idea”.
How are decisions about trusts made?
The DfE set out its decision-making process for moving schools into MATs in its commissioning high-quality trusts guidance.
It explains that RDs use headline performance data on school improvement and also look at whether trusts provide a high-quality and inclusive education.
From 2024, the department also began to look at data on a trust’s workforce performance as part of its decision making.
Before going to the advisory board for advice, RDs make commissioning recommendations using the three stages set out in the guidance. This covers an assessment of the needs of the school, trust, and the local area, the quality of academy trusts and the alignment of all parties with trust quality factors.
The proposals are then brought to the advisory board for a decision.
It is important to note that advisory board members are not decision-makers and responsibility for the outcome lies purely with the RD.
Following discussion at the advisory board, the RD then makes a final decision on the recommendation.
Will the system change if there is a change of government in July?
If Labour were to win the election, it has made it clear that it does not wish to focus too heavily on the school system.
However, the shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has said that there is a need for more transparency and accountability in the regional “layer” of the school system, at a time when many leaders are questioning the current functioning of the middle sector and the “unnecessary stress and workload” they claim it causes.
Ms Phillipson has also said that there needs to be “more transparency” and “more accountability” around the system of RDs.
Labour has previously committed to sending regional school improvement teams - comprised of local teachers and heads, and managed by civil servants - to schools identified as having weaknesses during Ofsted inspections.
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