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.[6]
The department is led by the secretary of state for education. The permanent secretary from December 2020 is Susan Acland-Hood.[4] 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.[8] 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:[9]
As at 2 August 2016, the DfE has five main sites:[10]
Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London
Piccadilly Gate, Manchester
2 St Paul's Place, Sheffield
Bishopsgate House, Darlington
Cheylesmore House, Coventry
Agencies and public bodies
Agencies
Education and Skills Funding Agency
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)[11] 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- to 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.[12] The SFA was formed on 1 April 2010, following the closure of the Learning and Skills Council.[13] David Withey is the agency's chief executive.[14]
The Department for Education released a new National Curriculum for schools in England for September 2014, which included 'Computing'.[20] Following Michael Gove's speech in 2012,[21] 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[22] has created a 'Network of Teaching Excellence'to support schools with the new curriculum.[23]
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.[24] The
proposals were criticised by NUS Vice President for Further Education Shakira Martin for not sufficiently taking into account the impact on learners;[25][26] 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.[27]
Funding and grants
In 2018, The Department for Education confirmed their commitment to forming positive relationships with the voluntary and community sector.[28]
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.[29] Tutors received up to £25 of the between £72 and £84 per hour the government paid the companies.[30]
^"DfE Estimates Memoranda" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
^"Susan Acland-Hood". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 22 February 2016. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
^ a b"Top DfE job goes to acting boss Susan Acland-Hood". Archived from the original on 12 December 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
^ a b"Department for Education". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
^Fiveash, Kelly (19 October 2012), ICO: Education ministry BROKE the Data Protection Act, The Register, archived from the original on 10 August 2019, retrieved 7 December 2012
^Matt Foster, New Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy swallows up DECC and BIS – full details and reaction Archived 15 July 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Civil Service World (14 July 2016).
^"DfE monthly workforce management information: 2016 to 2017". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
^ This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence: "Our ministers". GOV.UK. Department for Education. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
^"Occupation (Excel Download) - data.gov.uk". www.data.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
^"Education and Skills Funding Agency". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 10 August 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
^"The creation of the Education Funding Agency". Department for Education. Archived from the original on 3 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
^Skills Funding Agency, Annual Report and Accounts 2010–11 Archived 22 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 15 April 2017
^Education and Skills Funding Agency Archived 10 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 4 January 2018
^"Teaching Regulation Agency". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
^"Standards and Testing Agency". Department for Education. Archived from the original on 15 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
^"STA Feedback and complaints". Department for Education. Archived from the original on 3 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
^"Home". The Executive Office. Archived from the original on 1 January 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
^Welsh Government | Education and skills Archived 6 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Wales.gov.uk. Retrieved on 13 August 2013.
^"National curriculum in England: computing programmes of study". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 4 August 2023. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
^"Michael Gove speech at the BETT Show 2012". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 14 April 2014. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
^"Computing at School". www.computingatschool.org.uk. Archived from the original on 11 February 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
^"Computing at School :: Network of Teaching Excellence in Computer Science". Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
^[1] Archived 13 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine Department for Education. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
^Robertson, Alix (20 April 2016). "Shakira Martin re-elected as NUS vice president for FE". FE Week. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^Offord, Paul (2 November 2016). "Student focus for Sir Vince Cable's FE comeback". FE Week. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^Burke, Jude (8 July 2016). "MPs launch inquiry into post-16 area reviews". FE Week. Archived from the original on 15 June 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
^"Grants and contracts from the Department for Education". Children England. Archived from the original on 25 January 2019. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
^"UK tutoring scheme uses under-18s in Sri Lanka paid as little as £1.57 an hour". The Guardian. 19 March 2021. Archived from the original on 19 March 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
^"England's 'catch-up' tutors are being short-changed by private employers". The Guardian. 28 February 2021. Archived from the original on 19 March 2021. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
Further reading
Alexiadou, Nafsika; Lange, Bettina (January 2013). "Deflecting European Union influence on national education policy-making: the case of the United Kingdom". Journal of European Integration. 35 (1): 37–52. doi:10.1080/07036337.2012.661423. S2CID 154982097.