Regional schools commissioner absent from the scene of academies controversies, new data suggest

A regional schools commissioner has failed to visit institutions at the centre of a range of academy controversies within her patch, a freedom of information release suggests.

Sue Baldwin, regional schools commissioner for the East of England and North-East London, has been absent from the scene of the majority, if not all, of the most argued-about local issues of the past 18 months.

This seems to be the upshot of the list of education institutions visited by Baldwin – whose views are crucial in decisions such as who gets to take over individual schools - since she started in post in August 2017.

Absent from the list of 62 visits were any to Waltham Holy Cross primary, in Waltham Abbey, Essex, where a fierce campaign has built up over the past year against plans, overseen by the regional commissioner, to hand it over to NET Academies Trust.

Nor did she visit either Philip Morant School in Colchester or Colne Community School in Brightlingsea, both in Essex, which have been part of the Thrive Partnership trust which last June reportedly planned to “dissolve itself” after its two most senior people were suspended.