Department for Education
Department for Education
| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 2010 |
| Preceding Department | |
| Jurisdiction | England |
| Headquarters | Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street,London,England,United Kingdom |
| Annual budget | £58.2 billion (2015-16)[1] |
| Ministers responsible | |
| Department executive | |
| Child agencies | |
| Website | |
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of Her Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
A Department for Education previously existed between 1992, when the Department of Education and Science was renamed, and 1995 when it was merged with the Department for Employment to become the Department for Education and Employment.
| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 2010 |
| Preceding Department | |
| Jurisdiction | England |
| Headquarters | Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street,London,England,United Kingdom |
| Annual budget | £58.2 billion (2015-16)[1] |
| Ministers responsible | |
| Department executive | |
| Child agencies | |
| Website | |
History
The DfE was formed on 12 May 2010 by the incoming Cameron ministry, taking on the responsibilities and resources of the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
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.[2]
In July 2016, the Department took over responsibilities for higher and further education and for apprenticeship from the dissolved Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.[3]
Predecessor bodies
Committee of the Privy Council on Education, 1839–1899
Education Department, 1856–1899
Board of Education, 1899–1944
Ministry of Education, 1944–1964
Department of Education and Science, 1964–1992
Department for Education, 1992–1995
Department for Education and Employment (DfEE), 1995–2001
Department for Education and Skills (DfES), 2001–2007
Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), 2007–2010
Responsibilities
The department is led by the Secretary of State for Education. The Permanent Secretary is Jonathan Slater. 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.[4] In 2015-16, the DfE has a budget of £58.2bn, which includes £53.6bn resource spending and £4.6bn of capital investments.
Ministers
The Department for Education's ministers are as follows:
| Minister | Title | Portfolio |
|---|---|---|
| The Rt Hon.Gavin WilliamsonMP | Secretary of State | Overall responsibility for the department; early years; children's social care; teachers' pay; the school curriculum; school improvement; academies and free schools; further education; higher education; apprenticeships and skills. |
| The Rt Hon.Nick GibbMP | Minister of State for School Standards | Recruitment and retention of teachers and school leaders (including initial teacher training, qualifications and professional developments); supporting a high-quality teaching profession (including links to National College for Teaching and Leadership); reducing teacher workload; admissions and school transport; national funding formula for schools and school revenue funding; curriculum, assessment and qualifications (including links to Ofqual); school accountability (including links to Ofsted); personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE), relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and children and young people's mental health; preventing bullying in schools; behaviour and attendance, exclusions and alternative provision policy. |
| Chris SkidmoreFRHistS FSA FRSA MP | Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (jointly withBEIS) | TBC |
| Kemi BadenochMP | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families | Children's social care including child protection, children in care, adoption, care leavers, social work, local authority performance and family law; special educational needs including high needs funding; education policy in response to the race disparity audit; safeguarding in schools; disadvantaged pupils - including pupil premium and pupil premium plus; school sport, healthy pupils and school food, including free school meals; early years policy including inspection, regulation and literacy and numeracy; childcare policy, inspection and regulation; delivery of 30 hours free childcare offer; social mobility including opportunity areas; DfE contribution to cross-government work to tackle rough sleeping. |
| Lord Agnew of Oulton | Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System | Free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools; academies and multi-academy trusts; faith schools; independent schools; home education and supplementary schools; intervention in underperforming schools; school improvement (including teaching school alliances, national and local leaders of education and school improvement funds); school governance; school capital investment (including new school places, school condition, land and playing fields); counter extremism and integration in schools, further education colleges and sixth-form colleges. |
Board
The management board is made up of:
Permanent Secretary - Jonathan Slater
Director-General, Social Care, Mobility and Equalities - Indra Morris
Director-General, Education Standards - Paul Kett
Director-General, Infrastructure and Funding - Andrew McCully
Director-General, Higher and Further Education - Philippa Lloyd
Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Operations Group - Mike Green
Chief Executive, Education & Skills Funding Agency - Eileen Milner
Non-executive board members:[5]
Marion Plant OBE; CEO of the Midland Academies Trust and Principal
Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE; Former Chief Executive of Mitie Group
Ian Ferguson CBE; businessman
Locations
As of 2 August 2016, the DfE has five main sites:[6]
Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London
Piccadilly Gate, Manchester
2 St Paul's Place, Sheffield
Bishops Gate House, Darlington
Earlsdon Park, Coventry
The DfE is due to vacate Sanctuary Buildings in September 2017, relocating staff to the Old Admiralty Building[7]
Agencies and public bodies
Agencies
Education and Skills Funding Agency
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)[8] 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 3-19 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.[9] The SFA was formed on 1 April 2010, following the closure of the Learning and Skills Council.[10] Eileen Milner is the agency's Chief Executive.[8]
National College for Teaching and Leadership
The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) is responsible for administering the training of new and existing teachers in England, as well as the regulation of the teaching profession and offers headteachers, school leaders and senior children's services leaders opportunities for professional development. It was established on 1 April 2013, when the Teaching Agency (which replaced the Training and Development Agency for Schools and parts of the General Teaching Council for England) merged with the National College for School Leadership. The National College for Teaching and Leadership was replaced by the Department for Education and Teaching Regulation Agency in April 2018.
Standards and Testing Agency
The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) is responsible for developing and delivering all statutory assessments for school pupils in England.[12] It was formed on 1 October 2011 and took over the functions of the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency. The STA is regulated by the examinations regulator, Ofqual.[13]
Public bodies
The DfE is also supported by 10 public bodies:
| Non-ministerial departments | Ofqual; Ofsted |
| Executive non-departmental public bodies | Equality and Human Rights Commission;Higher Education Funding Council for England;Office for Fair Access;Office of the Children's Commissioner;Student Loans Company |
| Advisory non-departmental public bodies | School Teachers' Review Body |
| Other | Government Equalities Office; Office of the Schools Adjudicator |
Devolution
Education, youth and children's policy is devolved elsewhere in the UK. The department's main devolved counterparts are as follows:
Scotland
Scottish Government – Learning and Justice Directorates
Department of Education
Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister (children and young people)[14]
Wales
Welsh Government – Department for Education and Skills[15]
National Curriculum 2014
The Department for Education released a new National Curriculum for schools in England for September 2014, which included 'Computing'.[16] Following Michael Gove's speech in 2012,[17] 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[18] has created a 'Network of Teaching Excellence'to support schools with the new curriculum.[19]
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.[20] The proposals were criticised by NUS Vice President for Further Education Shakira Martin for not sufficiently taking into account the impact on learners;[21][22] 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.[23]
Funding and grants
In 2018, The Department for Education confirmed their commitment to forming positive relationships with the voluntary and community sector.