After Mr Brown retired from the role, Andrew Warren held it for ten months as an 'acting Director of Education' after the initial interview process failed to find a suitable candidate for the job on a full time basis.

Mr Warren stepped down from the post in April 2019, and although Laurie Baker was appointed as Guernsey's next Director of Education, she decided against moving to the island for personal reasons and withdrew from the role shortly before starting work in the summer.

Pictured: Andrew Warren and Laurie Baker. 

That means Guernsey is looking at going into 2020, and with it further wide ranging changes to the way secondary and further education are managed, without a Director of Education.

As a senior role within the civil service, the appointment of a Director of Education is managed by the Policy and Resources Committee. Express asked the States a number of questions relating to the role of Director of Education on 7 August, the day after Ms Baker's decision not to move to the island to take up her job offer was announced.

This week P&R confirmed two other new senior roles have taken priority for now and are being allowed to 'embed into the Education senior management structure' before the recruitment process for a Director of Education resumes.

In a statement P&R said: 

"The recruitment of a Director of Education had been deferred and not prioritised to allow the new roles of Committee Secretary (Esther Ingrouille) and Director of Operations (Ed Ashton) to embed into the Education senior management structure. These appointments, together with similar appointments within other Committees reflects the new operating model which forms part of the Chief Executive’s well publicised reform of the Civil Service.

"In addition, senior educational leaders within Education Services are now in place (for example the Executive Principal for The Guernsey Institute and the Head of Curriculum & Standards) joining existing colleagues (the Executive Head Teacher – Secondary Federation, and the Head of Inclusion). This leadership group are ensuring that all key areas of accountability associated with the Director of Education are covered in this interim period."

Pictured: Jakki Hughes, the Executive Principal of the Guernsey Institute and Clare Sealy, the Head of Curriculum and Standards. 

As there is no one actually fulfilling the role of Director of Education at present, P&R has also confirmed the responsibilities which came under it are being 're-considered' ahead of the recruitment process resuming.

"The specific responsibilities of the Director of Education are now being re-considered in light of organisational changes and recent appointments described above. The intention is for the role to be advertised in the foreseeable future," said P&R.

Pictured: Nick Hynes, the Head of Inclusion, and Liz Coffey, the Executive Head Teacher of the Secondary Federation. 

Based on the statements provided by P&R this week, it's therefore been confirmed that the senior decision makers within the island's education systems are now the Executive Head Teacher of the Secondary Federation, Liz Coffey, and the Head of Inclusion, Nick Hynes, along with the recently appointed Executive Principal for The Guernsey Institute, which is Jakki Hughes and the recently appointed Head of Curriculum and Standards which is Clare Sealey. 

Esther Ingrouille is Committee Secretary for Education, Sport & Culture and Ed Ashton is Director of Operations, Social Security, Education & Inclusion

Pictured top (clockwise from top right): Clare Sealy, Jakki Hughes, Nick Hynes and Liz Coffey.