Former free school headteacher Mark Lehain has been appointed as special adviser to education secretary Gillian Keegan.
His role at Sanctuary Buildings will be focused on schools and family policy, Tes understands.
Mr Lehain was first appointed as a special adviser in the department under former education secretary Nadhim Zahawi in 2021, but left the role last year following the formation of Liz Truss’s government.
He then became the head of education at the Centre for Policy Studies think tank.
Mr Lehain was the founding principal of Bedford Free School, which opened in 2012, in the early days of the free school movement.
He has also worked as director for Parents and Teachers for Excellence and the Campaign for Common Sense.
He stood as the Conservative candidate for Newcastle North in the 2019 general election but lost out to Labour’s Catherine McKinnell - who is now the shadow schools minister.
Mr Lehain is understood to have been heavily involved in the development of new transgender guidance for schools, which is still yet to be published by the government.
He recently praised education secretary Gillian Keegan as a politician who says what she thinks.
Speaking on the Tes News podcast at this month’s Conservative Party conference, he said: “I think one of the lovely things about Gillian Keegan is what you see is what you get.”
He described her approach as “genuinely refreshing”.
