“I’m doing this as someone who cares deeply about our educational system; it’s not in any way a political act for me. No one controls the advice I give.”

Sir Kevan Collins may be unable to go into detail about the policy plans that will drive the education recovery effort, but one thing is for certain: he is adamant that his advice to ministers will be entirely his own.

The former chief of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is well-regarded as an expert in “what works” in education, as pointed out by the NAHT school leaders’ union earlier this week.

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Some might say he will inevitably be caught up in the political sphere in his unpaid role advising ministers on the Covid catch-up effort.

But speaking to Tes on Tuesday, Sir Kevan took care to distance himself from final decisions on policy. As an unelected adviser, he said, he will be there to offer insight, not make demands.

Covid catch-up tsar ‘won’t be swayed’

That said, he is convinced that he will not be swayed on any guidance he does choose to give.

Asked if education secretary Gavin Williamson has the final say over what he does, the new education recovery commissioner said: “It’s not quite structured like that. I report to the prime minister and to the secretary of state. And my job is to give them advice, so you can’t really have final say over someone’s advice.

“The determination of what the government actually does, of course, is with the politicians.

“But my job is to give advice, the best as I can see it, to engage with the sector, with children, with their families, with teachers, with headteachers and all the rest, and to give honest and fearless advice to them about the way we might recover this.”

He insisted: “No one controls the advice I give. It is my job to give advice. I’m not in the government, I’m not elected. I’m doing this as someone who cares deeply about our educational system; it’s not in any way a political act for me.”

A focus on where ‘the evidence is strong’

Unsurprisingly, given his background in education research, Sir Kevan is keen to focus on the areas where “the evidence is strong”.

And he pointed to a transparent process - arguing that the evidence should be “open”.

“Now, what I’m suggesting is that we need to make sure that the recovery is fair, so I’ll be absolutely focused on this meeting the needs of our most disadvantaged; that the recovery is focused, we spend our time and our effort looking at the things where the evidence is strong, and that will be for everybody. I will make that point, and the evidence will be open; and that we’re fearless, so we are ready to go to places that are kind of novel and unusual for us,” he said.

Sir Kevan certainly seems open to pushing boundaries. But what does he think of the government’s efforts on Covid and education so far? Has the Department for Education made any mistakes?

The new catch-up tsar said he wasn’t interested in “pointing fingers”.

“I don’t really think it’s helpful for me to get involved in those conversations,” he said. 

“I think people have worked incredibly hard. I mean, what’s happened on the ground in education in England - and in a sense let’s capture that as a kind of collective effort - I think it’s been remarkable, the way the innovation has come through in our system and we turned on a sixpence, pretty much, to suddenly create online learning, to involve parents in it, to do parent classes, online parent evenings...I think it’s been remarkable.

“So, pretty much, I think we should celebrate what our education system has done, and not really spend too much time pointing fingers at each other. 

“This is a time really for us all to sort of come together in a collective effort - it’s a huge endeavour to recover this shock.”

‘I’m not running education’

So where does that leave us? Sources who should know have told Tes that Sir Kevan is “practically running education now”.

But he quickly rebuffed this suggestion.

“Of course that’s not true at all,” he said.

“I’m not running education and I wouldn’t want to take on that mantle, to be honest with you. I’m involved in this work because, to me, there’s been a huge shock to the education of our young people, and my life’s work has been about improving outcomes for England’s education system, particularly for our most disadvantaged children.

“And every time I look at the research and the evidence, the biggest shock has been for our most disadvantaged children - the children who need us most. So when I was asked if I would help, or get involved and give advice to the ministers and the prime minister, of course I said yes.”