Ministerial Portfolios Announced
The portfolios for the new ministers in the Department for Education have been released. Of great interest to the SEND community will be that Kelly Tolhurst MP has assumed the mantle of SEND from Will Quince at a crucial time as we await the SEND Review consultation response from the government. Below are the portfolios in detail.
The Right Honourable Kit Malthouse MP (Secretary of State) is responsible for the work of the Department for Education, including:
- early years
- children’s social care
- teacher quality, recruitment and retention
- the school curriculum
- school improvement
- academies and free schools
- further education
- apprenticeships and skills
- higher education
Kelly Tolhurst MP, Minister of State (Minister for Schools and Childhood):
- strategy for schools, including standards and selection
- qualifications (including links with Ofqual)
- curriculum including relationships, sex, and health education and personal, social, health and economic education
- admissions and school transport
- early years and childcare
- children’s social care
- children in care, children in need, child protection, adoption and care leavers
- disadvantaged and vulnerable children
- families, including family hubs and early childhood support
- special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including high needs funding
- alternative provision
- 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
Jonathan Gullis MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for School Standards):
- school accountability and inspection (including links with Ofsted)
- Standards and Testing Agency and primary assessment
- supporting a high-quality teaching profession including professional development
- supporting recruitment and retention of teachers and school leaders including initial teacher training
- Teaching Regulation Agency
- National Tutoring Programme
- Education Investment Areas (jointly with Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for the School and College System)
- school revenue funding, including the national funding formula for schools
- school efficiency and commercial policy
- pupil premium
- behaviour, attendance and exclusions
- school sport
- digital strategy and technology in education (EdTech)
Andrea Jenkyns MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Skills):
- strategy for post-16 education
- T Levels
- qualifications reviews (levels 3 and below)
- higher technical education (levels 4 and 5)
- apprenticeships and traineeships
- funding for education and training for 16 to 19 year olds
- further education workforce and funding
- Institutes of Technology
- local skills improvement plans and Local Skills Improvement Fund
- adult education, including basic skills, the National Skills Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
- higher education quality
- student experience and widening participation in higher education
- student finance and the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (including the Student Loans Company)
- international education strategy and the Turing Scheme
Baroness Barran MBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for the School and College System)
The minister’s responsibilities include:
- academies and multi-academy trusts
- free schools and university technical colleges
- faith schools
- independent schools
- home education and supplementary schools
- intervention in underperforming schools and school improvement
- school governance
- school capital investment (including pupil place planning)
- Education Investment Areas (jointly with Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for the School Standards))
- education provision and outcomes for 16 to 19 year olds
- college governance and accountability
- intervention and financial oversight of further education colleges
- careers education, information and guidance including the Careers and Enterprise Company
- reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training
- safeguarding in schools and post-16 settings
- counter extremism in schools and post-16 settings
- departmental efficiency and commercial policy
Please refer to our earlier news item about the Prime Minister Liz Truss's new cabinet.
