In June 2012 the Department for Education committed a breach of the UK's Data Protection Act due to a security flaw on its website which made email addresses, passwords and comments of people responding to consultation documents available for download.[6]
The department is led by the secretary of state for education. The permanent secretary from December 2020 is Susan Acland-Hood.[4] DfE is responsible for education, children's services, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships, and wider skills in England, and equalities. The predecessor department employed the equivalent of 2,695 staff as of April 2008 and as at June 2016, DfE had reduced its workforce to the equivalent of 2,301 staff.[8] In 2015–16, the DfE has a budget of £58.2bn, which includes £53.6bn resource spending and £4.6bn of capital investments.
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Ministers
The Department for Education's ministers are as follows, with cabinet members in bold:[9]
Overall responsibility for the department; early years; children's social care; teacher recruitment and retention; the school curriculum; school improvement; academies and free schools; further education; apprenticeships and skills; higher education.
Promoting equality of opportunity for everyone, and reducing negative disparities; strategic oversight of Government’s equality policy, for women, ethnicity and LGBT; sponsorship of the Social Mobility Commission and Equality and Human Rights Commission; overview of the overarching equalities legislative framework, including the Equality Act
Skills England; technical qualifications, including T Levels; higher technical education (levels 4 and 5); adult education, including basic skills and combined authority devolution; careers advice and support for young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) (including the Careers and Enterprise Company); apprenticeships, including the growth and skills levy; Technical Excellence Colleges; local skills improvement plans; governance, intervention and accountability of further education colleges; funding for education and training, provision and outcomes for 16- to 19-year-olds; further education funding, financial stability and workforce; access to higher education, participation and lifelong learning; quality of higher education and the student experience (including the Office for Students); student finance (including the Student Loans Company); international education
School improvement, intervention and inspection (including links with Ofsted); regional school improvement teams; initial teacher training and incentives; teacher retention including the early career framework and teacher training entitlement; school leadership; teacher pay and pensions; school support staff; core school funding; qualifications (including links with Ofqual); curriculum and assessment, including the curriculum and assessment review and creative education; special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and high needs; alternative provision; school governance; admissions; faith schools; school uniform; school transport; access to sport, arts and music in education, working with other departments; pupil premium
Children’s social care; children’s unique identifier; children in care and children in need; looked-after children; child protection; adoption; kinship care and foster care; care leavers; children’s social care workforce; unaccompanied asylum-seeking children; local authority improvement; family hubs; families support and parenting
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Early Education
Early years education including for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND); childcare and the home learning environment; early years workforce; early communication skills and early intervention; breakfast clubs; school food, including free school meals; independent schools; maintenance and improvement of the education estate; environmental sustainability in the education sectors; school attendance, including register of children who are not in school; mental health support in schools; safeguarding, online safety and prevention of serious violence in schools and post-16 settings; counter extremism in schools and post-16 settings; behaviour, preventing bullying and exclusions in schools; use of data, digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in education; use of research, science and evidence within the Department for Education
As at 2 August 2016, the DfE has five main sites:[10]
The entrance to the Great Smith Street siteSanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London
Piccadilly Gate, Manchester
2 St Paul's Place, Sheffield
Bishopsgate House, Darlington
Cheylesmore House, Coventry
Agencies and public bodies
Agencies
Education and Skills Funding Agency
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)[11] was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of the Education Funding Agency and the Skills Funding Agency. Previously the Education Funding Agency (EFA) was responsible for distributing funding for state education in England for 3- to 19-year-olds, as well as managing the estates of schools, and colleges and the Skills Funding Agency was responsible for funding skills training for further education in England and running the National Apprenticeship Service and the National Careers Service. The EFA was formed on 1 April 2012 by bringing together the functions of two non-departmental public bodies, the Young People's Learning Agency and Partnerships for Schools.[12] The SFA was formed on 1 April 2010, following the closure of the Learning and Skills Council.[13] David Withey is the agency's chief executive.[14] The ESFA will close on 31 March 2025 and be integrated into the core department.[15]
The Department for Education released a new National Curriculum for schools in England for September 2014, which included 'Computing'.[22] Following Michael Gove's speech in 2012,[23] the subject of Information Communication Technology (ICT) has been disapplied and replaced by Computing. With the new curriculum, materials have been written by commercial companies, to support non-specialist teachers, for example, '100 Computing Lessons' by Scholastic. The Computing at Schools organisation[24] has created a 'Network of Teaching Excellence'to support schools with the new curriculum.[25]
Post-16 area reviews
In 2015, the department announced a major restructuring of the further education sector, through 37 area reviews of post-16 provision.[26] The
proposals were criticised by NUS Vice President for Further Education Shakira Martin for not sufficiently taking into account the impact on learners;[27][28] the Sixth Form Colleges' Association similarly criticised the reviews for not directly including providers of post-16 education other than colleges, such as school and academy sixth forms and independent training providers.[29]
Funding and grants
In 2018, The Department for Education confirmed their commitment to forming positive relationships with the voluntary and community sector.[30]
In 2020 the department began funding the National Tutoring Programme which employed private companies to deliver the tuition including at least one which uses children as tutors, paying them £1.57 per hour.[31] Tutors received up to £25 of the between £72 and £84 per hour the government paid the companies.[32]
This article incorporates text published under the British OpenGovernmentLicence: "Our ministers". GOV.UK. Department for Education. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
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