Who are the Regional Schools Commissioners?

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The National Schools Commissioner and Regional Schools Commissioners (RSCs) work with school leaders to promote and monitor academies and free schools.

The eight RSCs are:

Sue Baldwin: East of England and North-East London
John Edwards: East Midlands and the Humber
Vicky Beer: Lancashire and West Yorkshire
Katherine Cowell: North of England
Dame Kate Detheridge: South-central England and North-West London
Claire Burton: South East England and South London
Hannah Woodhouse: South West England
Andrew Warren: West Midlands
And the National Schools Comissioner is Dominic Herrington

Regional Schools Commissioners act on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education and are accountable to the National Schools Commissioner. RSCs work closely with a number of partners, including leaders from the education sector, Ofsted, local authorities and local dioceses.

Each RSC is supported by a headteacher board (HTB). HTBs are made up of experienced academy headteachers and other sector leaders who advise and challenge RSCs on the decisions they make.

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Their main responsibilities are to:

Take action where academies and free schools are underperforming
Intervene in academies where governance is inadequate
Decide on applications from local-authority-maintained schools to convert to academy status
Improve underperforming maintained schools by providing them with support from a strong sponsor
Encourage and deciding on applications from sponsors to operate in a region
Take action to improve poorly performing sponsors
Advise on proposals for new free schools
Advise on whether to cancel, defer or enter into funding agreements with free school projects
Decide on applications to make significant changes to academies and free schools

For board members of academy trusts, this means...

The RSC is the right person to raise any significant local concerns with - Academy Ambassadors can put you in contact with the appropriate office contact should you wish to do so. As part of your induction process, you should make sure to ask about the trust's relationship with the RSC and how they manage this day-to-day.

Learn more on the Department for Education website.

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