Department for Education


The Department for Education is a department of Her Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, 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.

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.
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.
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.

Predecessor bodies

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. 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:
MinisterTitlePortfolio
The Rt Hon. Gavin Williamson MPSecretary of StateOverall 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.
Michelle Donelan MPMinister of State for Universitiesstrategy for post-16 education ; universities and higher education reform; higher education student finance ; widening participation in higher education; quality of higher education and the Teaching Excellence Framework; international education strategy including education exports; international students and technology in education ; Opportunity Areas programme.
The Rt Hon. Nick Gibb MPMinister of State for School Standardsrecruitment and retention of teachers and school leaders ; supporting a high-quality teaching profession and reducing teacher workload; Teaching Regulation Agency; admissions and school transport; school revenue funding, including the national funding formula for schools; curriculum and qualifications ; Standards and Testing Agency and primary assessment; school accountability and inspection ; support for raising; school standards; school sport; pupil premium; relationships, sex, and health education; and personal, social, health and economic education; behaviour and attendance and exclusions; early education curriculum and teaching quality.
Vicky Ford MPParliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Familieschildren’s social care including system and funding, workforce, child protection, children in care, adoption, care leavers and local authority performance; special educational needs, including high needs funding; early years policy and childcare, including funding, providers, workforce, children’s centres, home learning environment and childcare entitlements; alternative provision; disadvantage and social mobility ; school food including free school meals; children and young people’s mental health, online safety and preventing bullying in schools; policy to protect against serious violence.
Gillian Keegan MPParliamentary Under Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skillsstrategy for post-16 education ; technical education and skills including T Levels and qualifications review; apprenticeships including traineeships; further education workforce; further education provider market including quality and improvement and further education efficiency; adult education, including the National Retraining Scheme and basic skills; Institutes of Technology and National Colleges; reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training; careers education, information and guidance including the Careers and Enterprise Company.
The Rt Hon. The Baroness BerridgeParliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School Systemfree schools, university technical colleges and studio schools; academies and multi-academy trusts, including governance; faith schools; independent schools; home education and supplementary schools; intervention in underperforming schools, including trust capacity funds; school capital investment ; counter extremism and integration in schools; safeguarding in schools and post-16 settings; school efficiency; departmental efficiency and commercial

Board

The management board is made up of:
Non-executive board members:
, the DfE has five main sites:

Agencies

Education and Skills Funding Agency

The Education and Skills Funding Agency was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of the Education Funding Agency and the Skills Funding Agency. Previously the Education Funding Agency 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. The SFA was formed on 1 April 2010, following the closure of the Learning and Skills Council. Eileen Milner is the agency's Chief Executive.

National College for Teaching and Leadership

The National College for Teaching and Leadership 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 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 is responsible for developing and delivering all statutory assessments for school pupils in England. 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.

Public bodies

The DfE is also supported by 10 public bodies:
Non-ministerial departmentsOfqual; Ofsted
Executive non-departmental public bodiesEquality 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 bodiesSchool Teachers' Review Body
OtherOffice 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
Northern Ireland
Wales
The Department for Education released a new National Curriculum for schools in England for September 2014, which included 'Computing'. Following Michael Gove's speech in 2012, the subject of Information Communication Technology 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 has created a 'Network of Teaching Excellence'to support schools with the new curriculum.

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. The
proposals were criticised by NUS Vice President for Further Education Shakira Martin for not sufficiently taking into account the impact on learners; 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.

Funding and grants

In 2018, The Department for Education confirmed their commitment to forming positive relationships with the voluntary and community sector.