Advisory boards
Formerly known as headteacher boards, they are responsible for advising and challenging regional directors on academy-related decisions.
Advisory boards ended on 31 March 2026.
Notes of the final meetings held will be published on this page in May 2026.
Changes to the advisory boards are being made because in Every child achieving and thriving, DfE sets out that it will renew its approach to decision-making. This includes updating the trust quality descriptions to create new trust standards, updated commissioning guidance and collaborative work with local sector partners to shape a school system that reflects the needs of each area with all schools in high-quality trusts.
Until the detail of these commitments is announced, regions group will continue to apply DfE’s existing guidance, commissioning high-quality trusts.
You can access previous advisory board meetings on this page.
Regions group’s schools decisions
Regions group remains committed to being transparent and accountable in our decision-making practice. With the end of advisory boards, we are implementing a new process which will continue to provide the public with:
- advance notice of decisions before they are made
- the opportunity to make representations: members of the public can continue to make representations before decisions are made – the 5 working day representations period starts the day after details of decisions to be taken are published
- notification of decisions made
We will publish details of decisions to be taken in the following month and the outcome of the decisions taken in the previous month on our Regions group school decisions page.
Regional directors
Find out about the roles and responsibilities of regional directors.
Information on how to complain about a regional director’s decision is available.
Conflicts of interest
Information on the definition and management of conflicts of interest for DfE regional directors is available separately.
Advisory boards from 1 September 2022
These advisory boards are split by the 9 regional director regions. They contain membership structures, draft agendas and meeting notes from September 2022 onwards.
Advisory boards up until 31 August 2022
These advisory boards are split by the 8 regional schools commissioners regions. They contain membership structures, draft agendas and meeting notes up to August 2022.
Updates to this page
-
Added a link to the new school decisions page.
-
Updated to state that advisory boards will end on 31 March 2026, and we will continue to publicise commissioning decisions both before and after they are made.
-
Updated to reflect the introduction of the guidance 'Commissioning high-quality trusts'.
-
Added 9 new pages, one for each of the new advisory board regions.
-
Removed the mention of National Schools Commissioner as this role no longer exists.
-
First published.