The head of the Department for Education regions group John Edwards has announced he is stepping down to become CEO of Rotherham council.
He has been director general of the group, which oversees the academies system and other education policy areas in England, since its creation in June 2022.
The regions group replaced the old regional schools commissioners structure, with Edwards’s role replacing that of the national schools commissioner.
In an email seen by Schools Week, Edwards announced on Wednesday he will be taking up the post of chief executive of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council at the end of June, “subject to council agreement”.
‘An honour’
“It has been an honour to work in the Department for Education and particularly in regions group since we formed in 2022, and I’m proud of the work we have delivered with you to help give children and young people opportunities to grow and learn.”
Edwards, a former regional schools commissioner and interim chief of the Education and Skills Funding Agency, is one of five directors general at the DfE, making him one of the highest-ranking civil servants in the department.
The DfE’s website says the regions group “is part of the future DfE transformation and plays a central role in helping to develop policy across the department that reflects local needs and drives our ambition to become a more place-shaping and focused organisation”.
The regional directors are tasked with brokering and re-brokering schools between trusts and intervening in settings when they fail.
More recently, the regions group is now home to the government’s new specialist RISE (Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence) teams, the first of which were launched in February to broker support for struggling schools.
The teams have been heavily criticised by school leaders.
The regions group also took on oversight of school finance when the Education and Skills Funding Agency closed this year.
Edwards began his career as a maths teacher and a senior leader in secondary schools, before moving into local government, where he worked as director of education and skills at Manchester City Council.
Search for successor to begin
The Department for Education will be launching the recruitment process for a new director of regions group in the coming weeks.
The permanent secretary for the DfE, Susan Acland-Hood, said: “In his eight years in the department, John has had a profound impact on our work improving the lives of young people across the country.
“John’s most recent role as the founding Director General of Regions Group, and his work setting up new regional improvement teams, has put high and rising standards at the heart of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
“We thank John for his wisdom and leadership and wish him well in his future endeavours.”
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