The Department for Education (DfE) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further, and higher education), apprenticeships, and wider skills in England.^[4]

Quick Facts Formed, Preceding agencies ...

Department for Education

20 Great Smith Street, Westminster
Department overview
Formed	2010
Preceding agencies	Department for Children, Schools and Families Higher education, apprenticeships and skills responsibilities of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (from 2016)
Jurisdiction	Government of the United Kingdom
Headquarters	Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London, England, United Kingdom
Annual budget	£58.2 billion (2015–16)[1]
Secretary of state responsible	Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education
Department executive	Susan Acland-Hood[2], Permanent Secretary [3]
Child agencies	Education & Skills Funding Agency National College for Teaching and Leadership Standards and Testing Agency
Website	gov.uk/dfe

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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.

The Secretary of State for Education is Rt. Hon. Gillian Keegan MP. and Susan Acland-Hood is the Permanent Secretary.

The expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department of Education are scrutinised by the Education Select Committee.

The DfE was formed on 12 May 2010 by the incoming Coalition Government, 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.^[5]

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.^[6]

The department is led by the Secretary of State for Education. The Permanent Secretary from December 2020 is Susan Acland-Hood.^[3] 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.^[7] In 2015–16, the DfE has a budget of £58.2bn, which includes £53.6bn resource spending and £4.6bn of capital investments.

The Department for Education's ministers are as follows, with cabinet members in bold:^[8]

The management board is made up of:

• Permanent Secretary – Susan Acland-Hood
• Director-General, Social Care, Mobility and Disadvantage – Indra Morris
• Director-General, Higher and Further Education Group – Paul Kett
• Director-General, Early Years and Schools – Andrew McCully
• Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Operations Group – Mike Green
• Chief Executive, Education & Skills Funding Agency – David Withey

Non-executive board members:^[4]

• Marion Plant OBE; CEO of the Midland Academies Trust and Principal
• Baroness McGregor-Smith CBE; Former Chief Executive of Mitie Group
• Ian Ferguson CBE; businessman

As at 2 August 2016, the DfE has five main sites:^[9]

• Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London
• Piccadilly Gate, Manchester
• 2 St Paul's Place, Sheffield
• Bishopsgate House, Darlington
• Cheylesmore House, Coventry

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

Northern Ireland

• Department of Education
• Executive Office (children and young people)^[17]

Wales

• Welsh Government – Department for Education and Skills^[18]

The Department for Education released a new National Curriculum for schools in England for September 2014, which included 'Computing'.^[19] Following Michael Gove's speech in 2012,^[20] 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^[21] has created a 'Network of Teaching Excellence'to support schools with the new curriculum.^[22]

In 2015, the department announced a major restructuring of the further education sector, through 37 area reviews of post-16 provision.^[23] The proposals were criticised by NUS Vice President for Further Education Shakira Martin for not sufficiently taking into account the impact on learners;^[24][25] 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.^[26]

In 2018, The Department for Education confirmed their commitment to forming positive relationships with the voluntary and community sector.^[27]

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.^[28] Tutors received up to £25 of the between £72 and £84 per hour the government paid the companies.^[29]