The Inquiry Panel
The Inquiry Panel is made up of experts from across education, policy and community sectors, responsible for guiding the Inquiry’s strategic direction, participating in evidence sessions, and shaping the final recommendations.
Baroness Estelle Morris
Co-Chair
Estelle Morris, the Rt Hon. Baroness Morris of Yardley, was the MP for Birmingham Yardley from 1992 to 2005, and served a junior minister in the Department for Education and Skills from 1997 to 2001, before being made Secretary of State in the department until 2002. During her time in government, she used her 18 years of experience teaching in inner-city schools to kick start the debate on children’s workforce reform. She has been a member of the House of Lords since 2005.
Since leaving government, she has held a number of roles, including Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sunderland, Chair of the Children’s Workforce Development Council, President of the National Children’s Bureau and Chair of the Executive Group of the Institute for Effective Education at the University of York.
Estelle is currently the chair of Birmingham Education Partnership and helped establish the Area-based Education Partnerships Association (AEPA).
Sir Hamid Patel CBE
Co-Chair
Sir Hamid is the Chief Executive of Star Academies. He has led the trust since its inception. He has the highest aspirations for children and young people from the most disadvantaged communities across the country. His passionately held vision guides the philosophy of the trust and informs its practice.
Sir Hamid is a highly influential leader in the education sector, renowned for his transformative impact on educational policy and practice. As a national system leader, he plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of education by participating in several strategic forums across the UK. Currently, he serves as the Senior Board Member of Ofsted and as Vice Chair of the National Institute of Teaching, where he champions standards, innovation and quality of education. He chairs both the Education Honours Committee and the Confederation of School Trusts, advocating for excellence and collaboration. As Honorary Professor of Education at the University of Birmingham, he inspires educators and policymakers to bridge academic research with practical implementation in schools.
In recognition of his service to education, Sir Hamid was awarded a CBE in 2015 and a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021.
James Bowen
James Bowen is Assistant General Secretary at the NAHT, where he leads the organisation’s policy, research, press and communications teams. He is the former Headteacher of a junior school in Hampshire and has held a number of other leadership positions in schools, including Deputy Headteacher, SENCO and subject leader.
James has particular expertise in a number of key policy areas including funding, assessment, accountability and curriculum, and has sat on a range of DfE expert groups. James is a former member of the DfE’s workload taskforce and is currently working with the government to try to identify ways to help reduce workload in schools. He is a regular education blogger and appears regularly on television and radio as an NAHT spokesperson.
Anne-Marie Canning MBE
Anne-Marie Canning MBE is the Chief Executive Officer of The Brilliant Club, a UK-wide university access charity focused on increasing the number of less advantaged students accessing the most competitive universities and supporting them to succeed when they get there. In 2018, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to higher education.
In recent years, Anne-Marie was the independent chair of the Department for Education’s Bradford Opportunity Area. She now leads a broad-based coalition of organisations in Bradford who are working together to improve opportunities for young people in the city – the Education Alliance for Life Chances.
Between 2012 and 2019, Anne-Marie was the Director of Social Mobility and Student Success at King’s College London. In this role, she founded an award-winning parental engagement endeavor called Parent Power. Anne-Marie has previously worked at University College Oxford and holds a University of Oxford Teaching Award. Anne-Marie is also a trustee of the Child Poverty Action Group.
Dame Sally Coates
Dame Sally Coates spent nearly a decade as Director of Secondary Academies at United Learning. She chaired the Review of the Teaching Standards, the Skills Test Review, and most recently, the landmark Coates Independent Review of Prison Education, as well as having held headship roles in several inner-city schools. She is a member of the Cabinet Office’s Honours Committee.
Sally has had a long career in teaching, including as Principal of Burlington Danes Academy, where she turned the school from one of the lowest performing to one of the highest performing schools in the country.
Professor Rob Coe
Professor Rob Coe is Director of Research and Development at Evidence Based Education, a teacher development, school improvement and research organisation. He is also a Senior Associate at the Education Endowment Foundation, where he supports the development of new approaches to running evaluations of teacher practices. He is a longstanding advocate for evidence-based education.
He was previously Professor of Education at Durham University and Director of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring at Durham University, where he worked for 20 years carrying out research, evaluation, teaching and policy engagement. He has been a member of numerous advisory groups on assessment, evaluation and use of evidence.
Sir Kevan Collins
Sir Kevan Collins is the lead non-executive board member at the Department for Education. He joined the DfE board in July 2024. He is a trustee of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and HG Foundation. He is also Vice Chairman for Learning by Questions, an Education Advisor to the Attwood Education Foundation, an Education Advisor to the South Australia Government Education Innovation Council, and a non-executive director of Goodstart Early Learning, Australia.
Kevan was previously the Chief Executive of the EEF and Tower Hamlets Council, starting his career as a school teacher. He is a visiting Professor at UCL Institute of Education.
Kevan completed his doctorate at Leeds University in 2001 and is a visiting professor at the University College London Institute of Education and holds honorary degrees from Durham, Lancaster, and Derby Universities.
Steve Crocker OBE
Steve Crocker is a non-executive board member at the Department for Education, joining in March 2025. Steve has impressive local authority leadership expertise in children’s services with a deep understanding of service delivery and sector-wide improvement. He is currently an Improvement Adviser at Bristol City Council and Oxfordshire County Council, Chair of the Children’s Social Care Market Interventions Advisory Group and the SEND Change Programme Advisory Group at the Department for Education, and an Independent Lead Reviewer, working on the review of the Youth Justice Board at the Ministry of Justice. Steve is also a governor at a small SEND school.
He was awarded an OBE in 2018 in recognition for services to children in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight.
Leora Cruddas CBE
Leora Cruddas CBE is the founding Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. She has advised successive governments and sat on several Department for Education advisory bodies. She was recently the vice chair of the Head Teacher Standards Review Group, and a member of the SEND National Implementation Board and the Regulatory and Commissioning Review.
Prior to founding CST, she was Director of Policy and Public Relations for the Association of School and College Leaders. Leora has six years of experience as a director of education in two London local authorities. She is a visiting professor at UCL Institute of Education. Leora was made a CBE in the 2022 New Year’s Honours.
Pepe Di'lasio
Pepe Di’lasio was Headteacher at Wales High School, an 11-19 high school in Rotherham, from September 2012 to March 2024.
Pepe began his teaching career in Doncaster before moving as Deputy Headteacher to an outstanding 11-19 school in Sheffield. Pepe has also worked as an Executive Headteacher of two high schools and, more recently, has been Assistant Director of Education for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.
Pepe is also a former Chair of ASCL Equality, Inclusion & Ethics Committee and ASCL President from 2021-22. He was elected as ASCL General Secretary in 2023 and took over the role in April 2024.
Pepe also Chaired the Who’s Losing Learning Commission on behalf of Mission 44 and The Difference.
Lucy Heller
Lucy Heller is the CEO of Ark, an education charity made up of 39 primary, secondary and all-through schools. The Ark network and its venture organisations are focused on bringing positive change to key areas of education such as curriculum, teacher training and early years.
Previously, Lucy was Managing Director of TSL Education and Managing Editor at The Observer. She is currently a trustee Purposeful Ventures, a not-for-profit which provides young people with opportunities in education and beyond, helping them reach their true potential. She is also a trustee of Now Teach, and the Education Endowment Foundation.
David Hughes CBE
David Hughes CBE is Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges, representing and supporting further education colleges to fulfil their role as anchor institutions, supporting over two million students each year. He was awarded a CBE for services to further education, particularly during the Covid-19 response.
David has worked in post-16 education for over 25 years, including a decade as a senior civil servant. Before that he worked in Australia and the UK in community development, regeneration, welfare, employment and social housing. David holds several Board positions including with the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics, and the Bell Foundation.
Professor Lindsey Macmillan
Lindsey Macmillan is a Professor of Economics and the Founding Director of the UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO), creating new research to inform evidence-led education policy and wider practice to equalise opportunities across the life course. She is also a Research Fellow in the Education and Skills sector at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at London School of Economics. Lindsey is Treasurer of the Scottish Economic Society Council, and Co-Editor of Education Economics.
Lindsey’s research considers the role of early skills, education, and labour market experience in the transmission of incomes and work across generations. She has written on topics relating to educational inequalities, including the impact of selective schooling systems on social mobility, understanding the improved performance of London pupils, and the characteristics and outcomes of those who undermatch in higher education.
She has published widely in leading journals in Economics, including Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Human Resources, and the Economic Journal; in Sociology, including Social Forces; and in Statistics, including the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.
Baroness Nicky Morgan
Nicky Morgan, The Rt Hon Baroness Morgan of Cotes, was elected MP for Loughborough in 2010, and served as Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities from July 2014 to July 2016, as well as a number of government roles in parliament, the Whip’s office and HM Treasury. Nicky was made a member of the House of Lords in January 2020.
She currently holds a number of posts, including as Chair of the Careers and Enterprise Company, Deputy Chair and Chair of the Finance Committee of the Science Museum Group, and is a member of the University Council of Loughborough University.
Baroness Sally Morgan
Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton, was born and went to school in Liverpool, worked for eight years in 10 Downing Street and was Minister for Women and Equalities. She is Master of Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, and has a particular interest in widening access to the University. Sally is a former teacher.
Since 2005, Sally has been Chair or advisor to charities serving disadvantaged young people including ARK, Ambition Institute and Frontline. She is currently Chair of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In 2001, she was appointed to the House of Lords.
Dame Lesley Powell CBE
Dame Lesley Powell CBE is the CEO of the North East Learning Trust, a Trust committed to continually improve experiences and outcomes for children in the North East of England. Born and bred in Gateshead, she has spent more than 30 years as a teacher. Under Lesley’s leadership, North East Learning Trust has forged a reputation as one of the largest and most successful trusts in the North East. It includes an outstanding SCITT, a Research School and a Teaching School Hub, and delivers rapid improvement in its sponsor schools.
Lesley sits on several boards and advisory groups, including The Regional Head Teacher Board, National Secondary Heads Reference Group, Opportunity North East Sub-Board, Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, Head Teacher Standards Review Group, and the NPQ Expert Advisory Group.