Department for Education

The Department for Education is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for child protection, child services, 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.
The current holder of Secretary of State for Education is the Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson 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.

History

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.
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

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, 1995–2001
Department for Education and Skills, 2001–2007
Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2007–2010
Responsibilities

The department is led by the secretary of state for education. The permanent secretary from December 2020 is Susan Acland-Hood. 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, with cabinet members in bold:

Minister	Portrait	Office	Portfolio
Bridget Philipson MP		Secretary of State for Education	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.
Baroness Smith of Malvern		Minister of State for Skills	Skills England; technical qualifications, including T Levels; higher technical education ; adult education, including basic skills and combined authority devolution; careers advice and support for young people not in employment, education or training ; 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 ; student finance ; international education
Georgia Gould MP		Minister of State for School Standards	School improvement, intervention and inspection ; 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 ; curriculum and assessment, including the curriculum and assessment review and creative education; special educational needs and disabilities 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
Josh MacAlister MP		Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families	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
Olivia Bailey MP		Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Early Education	Early years education including for children with special educational needs and disabilities ; childcare and the home learning environment; early years workforce; early communication skills and early intervention; Best Start Family Hubs and parenting; breakfast clubs; school food, including free school meals; holiday activities and food programme; school attendance, including register of children who are not in school; mental health support in schools; behaviour, preventing bullying and exclusions in schools; school uniform; independent schools; use of data, digital technology and artificial intelligence in education

Board

The management board is made up of:

Permanent secretary – Susan Acland-Hood
Director-General, Families – Justin Russell
Director-General, Regions – John Edwards
Director-General, Skills – Julia Kinniburgh
Director-General, Schools – Juliet Chua
Director-General, Strategy – Tony Foot
Chief operating officer – Jane Cunliffe
Chief executive, Education & Skills Funding Agency – David Withey

Non-executive board members:

Marion Plant; CEO of the Midland Academies Trust and principal
Ruby McGregor-Smith, Baroness McGregor-Smith; former chief executive of Mitie Group
Ian Ferguson; businessman
Locations

As at 2 August 2016, the DfE has five main sites:

Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London
Piccadilly Gate, Manchester
2 St Paul's Place, Sheffield
Bishopsgate House, Darlington
Cheylesmore House, Coventry
Executive agencies and public bodies

Executive 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 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 SFA 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. David Withey was the agency's chief executive. The ESFA closed on 31 March 2025 and was integrated into the core department.

Skills England

replaced the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education from June 2025.

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.

Teaching Regulation Agency

The Teaching Regulation Agency is responsible for regulation of the teaching profession, including misconduct hearings. Its predecessors include the National College for Teaching and Leadership, the Teaching Agency and the Training and Development Agency for Schools.

Public bodies

The DfE is also supported by 10 public bodies:

Non-ministerial departments	Ofqual; Ofsted
Executive non-departmental public bodies	Office for Students; Office of the Children's Commissioner; Student Loans Company
Advisory non-departmental public bodies	School Teachers' Review Body
Other	Office of the Schools Adjudicator

Devolution

Education, youth and children's policy is devolved elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
The department's main devolved counterparts are as follows:

Scottish Government
* Education and Justice Directorates
Welsh Government
* Department for Education and Skills
Northern Ireland Executive
* Executive Office
* Department of Education
National Curriculum 2014

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.