Kate Josephs from the Department for Education has been appointed as director of funding at the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Ms Josephs is currently director of national operations for academies and regional delivery at the DfE, but will take up her post with the ESFA in April.

Ms Josephs will be part of the executive team and oversee the creation and operation of a new Funding Centre of Excellence, which will be solely responsible for all schools, academies and post-16 funding.

This includes the allocation of all schools and academies funding including the national funding formula, the post-16 funding agenda, apprenticeships funding and adults skills funding. This means Ms Josephs will be responsible for allocating over £58 billion of funding, representing one of the single biggest funding operations anywhere in government.

‘As straightforward as possible’

Ms Josephs would bring with her extensive knowledge in performance management, said chief executive Eileen Milner, as well as performance improvement and public service delivery.

Educated at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford, Ms Josephs has previously worked in senior roles in HM Treasury, the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and for the US federal government during the Obama administration.

She said she was “thrilled to join the ESFA and take on this important new role”.

“I look forward to building upon the already excellent skills and expertise that exist within the teams who deliver such a significant funding operation, and working with service users and our stakeholders to create a truly 21st-century funding system,” she added.

“Our job is to make it as straightforward as possible for schools, trusts, colleges and work-based learning providers to engage with us and, whilst we do this, provide rigorous scrutiny and oversight to ensure that every pound of public money spent is invested wisely.”