Department for Education

Department for Education
Department overview
Formed 2010
Preceding Department Department for Children, Schools and Families
Jurisdiction England
Headquarters Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London
Annual budget £57.6 billion (current)
Minister responsible Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education
Department executive Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary
Child agencies Education Funding Agency
National College for Teaching and Leadership
Standards and Testing Agency
Website www.education.gov.uk
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
the United Kingdom

Politics portal

The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of the UK government responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education.

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 (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.[1]

Predecessor bodies

Responsibilities

The department is led by the Secretary of State for Education, currently Nicky Morgan. The Permanent Secretary is Chris Wormald. DfE is directly responsible for state schools in England. The predecessor department employed the equivalent of 2,695 staff as of April 2008 and planned to reduce to 2,620 by the end of April 2009.[2]

Ministers

The Department for Education's Ministers are as follows:[3]

Minister Rank Portfolio
The Rt Hon Nicky Morgan MP Secretary of State Overall responsibility
The Rt Hon David Laws MP Minister of State for Schools [4] Pupil Premium, raising attainment, narrowing the gap; Teachers; School improvement, accountability, inspection; Funding; Admissions; Raising the participation age, and financial support for young people; Teaching Agency, National College; Child Poverty and Social Mobility Strategy; OFSTED
Edward Timpson MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children & Families Adoption, fostering and residential care home reform; Child protection; Special educational needs; Family law and justice; Children’s and young people’s services; School sport; CAFCASS; Office of Children’s Commissioner for England
Nick Boles MP Minister of State for Skills, Enterprise and Equalities Apprenticeships; FE and 16-19; Careers
Nick Gibb MP Minister of State for Education Education
Lord Nash Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools (Unpaid) Academies, Free Schools, UTCs, Studio Schools, independent schools; School organisation; Education Funding Agency
Key Conservative
Liberal Democrat

Nick Boles works jointly between the department and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. David Laws works jointly between the department and the Cabinet Office. Commenting on their appointment, The Economist said that "the cabinet is ever so slightly less male, but it hasn't become any less pale or stale", but also suggested that opposition parties would be just as "incompetent".[5]

Board

As of 15 March 2012 the board:[6]

Non-executive board members:[7]

Locations

As of 15 March 2012, the DfE has five main sites:[8]

Executive agencies

Education Funding Agency

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) is responsible for distributing funding for state education in England for 3-19 year olds, as well as managing the estates of schools and colleges. 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]

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.

Standards and Testing Agency

The Standards and Testing Agency (STA) is responsible for developing and delivering all statutory assessments for school pupils in England.[10] 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.[11]

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

National Curriculum 2014

The Department for Education released a new National Curriculum for schools in England for September 2014, which included 'Computing'.[14] Following Michael Gove's speech in 2012,[15] 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[16] has created a 'Network of Teaching Excellence'[17] to support schools with the new curriculum.

References

External links