The Department for Education has rejected almost 100 applications for a top civil service job overseeing schools as none were “assessed as appointable”, Schools Week can reveal. A third recruitment round is currently underway for the replacement of Vicky Beer as the DfE’s north west regional director, who retired earlier this year. Regional directors – previously known as regional schools commissioners – have a wide-ranging role. They work with councils on SEND, lead intervention in schools and social care and take decisions on the academy trust system and pupil place sufficiency. The job advert states they must have excellent system leadership skills and “exceptional understanding and ability to galvanise influential stakeholder relationships that can deliver impact”. The DfE already hiked the salary by £25,000 to £150,000 after the first job advert failed to attract the right candidate. Schools Week has now learned there were 56 applications in the first round, then 41 in the second. But the freedom of information request response states that “no candidates were assessed as appointable in either completed recruitment campaign”. No figures were provided for the current window, as the advert will be live until 12 October. ‘Ticks every box’ Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary at ASCL school leaders’ union, said the DfE may need to be “more realistic about the requirements for these roles”. He said the job description and person specification require “the ability to deliver an extremely wide-ranging and complex set of responsibilities”. “There is clearly no shortage of candidates, and we’re sure many will be very well qualified, but if the DfE is insisting that candidates must be able to demonstrate such an extensive breadth of specialist knowledge and skills across so many areas it is obviously going to be difficult to find someone who ticks every box. “We would also question what succession planning has taken place. If this was a school or college there would be an expectation that a plan would have been in place to invest in a leadership pipeline.” Mark Taylor, a DfE-civil servant of 12 years, is currently the interim regional director. He has worked on children’s social care improvement and the free schools programme. One former regional director, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was becoming a “much more complex role working across the education and social care worlds, representing ministers and the department to embed joined up reforms”. “There are many brilliant civil servants who are not paid at that level doing arguably more challenging jobs but if they want someone external who holds respect and credibility in both sectors, someone who makes good decisions and in whom confidence rests, they’ll need to reflect that in the salary.” Varied salaries Schools Week’s chief executive pay audit earlier this year found academy trusts bosses took home £142,000 on average in 2024-25, compared with £135,000 the year before. Eighty-eight earned more than £200,000. Last year, the top of the maintained school pay spine for heads was more than £153,000. The latest published DfE data shows only one other regional director – Nigel Minns – earns at least £150,000. He became regional director for the East Midlands in March. He had been Warwickshire council’s director of children’s services for the previous eight years. His salary is just £10,000 less than his boss, regions group director Tim Coulson, earns. The rest earn a minimum banding of between £85,000 to £140,000. Vanessa Ogden, London’s regional director, received between £230,000 and £240,000 in her previous role as chief executive of the Mulberry Schools Trust. Her new job is banded between £125,000 and £129,000. David Carter, a former national schools commissioner, said: “It feels that the need to have expertise rooted in school leadership in the [regional director] role is more critical than ever. “The challenges schools are facing need to be understood rather than just empathised with and I see little evidence at the moment that this is happening. “That said, I suspect the move from the system to the DfE remains a challenge, and the opportunities that currently exist for talented leaders for professional growth in schools and trusts is as rich as I have known it. These may well be behind the reasons for the lack of progress in making this appointment.” The DfE was approached for comment.