Government policy briefs for children and young people

[This page was last updated on 31 August 2023]

Department for Education

Gillian Keegan

Secretary of State for Education

Responsibilities: 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.

Baroness Barran

Parliamentary under-secretary of state for the school and college system

Responsibilities: 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.

Robert Halfon

Minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education

Responsibilities: overall strategy for post-16 technical education; T Levels and transition programme; qualifications reviews (levels 3 and below); higher technical education (levels 4 and 5); apprenticeships and traineeships; 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; careers education, information and guidance including the Careers and Enterprise Company; technical education in specialist schools; relationship with the Office for Students; higher education quality and reform; Lifelong Loan Entitlement; student experience and widening participation in higher education; funding for education and training, provision and outcomes for 16- to 19-year-olds; college governance and accountability; intervention and financial oversight of further education colleges; reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training; international education strategy and the Turing Scheme

Nick Gibb

Minister of state for schools

Responsibilities: 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; school revenue funding, including the national funding formula for schools; pupil premium; school food, including free school meals; qualifications (including links with Ofqual); curriculum including relationships, sex, and health education and personal, social, health and economic education; behaviour, attendance and exclusions; school sport; digital strategy and technology in education (EdTech); admissions and school transport.

Gibb resigned from the post of schools minister on 13 November with an intention to leave government after the next general election. His replacement is yet to be appointed. 

David Johnston 

Parliamentary under-secretary of state for children, families and wellbeing

Responsibilities: special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including high needs funding; alternative provision; children’s social care; children in care, children in need and child protection; adoption and care leavers; early years and childcare; family hubs and early childhood support; disadvantaged and vulnerable children; children and young people’s mental health; policy to protect against serious violence; freedom of speech in education; online safety and preventing bullying in schools.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Lucy Frazer

Culture Secretary

Responsibilities: Youth work brief.

Stuart Andrew

Minister for sport, tourism and civil society, and minister for equalities

Responsibilities: [Minister for equalities]; sport; tourism; civil society (including loneliness); youth; ceremonials (including the Coronation); events including Eurovision; arts and heritage in the commons

Ministry of Justice

Alex Chalk

Justice Secretary

Responsibilities: Oversight of all portfolios and Ministry of Justice strategy

Edward Argar

Minister of state for victims and sentencing

Responsibilities: Victims and witnesses; rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO); violence against women and girls (VAWG); parole; criminal law; sentencing; criminal injuries compensation authority; miscarriages of justice; mental capacity; office of the public guardian; departmental-wide corporate business; public appointments lead; digital transformation lead.

Damian Hinds 

Minister of state for prisons, parole and probation

Responsibilities: Prison policy and operations; probation policy and operations; youth justice; home detention curfew; release on temporary licence; electronic monitoring; extremism; reducing reoffending; offender health; drugs; foreign national offenders.

Lord Bellamy

Parliamentary under-secretary of state for justice

Responsibilities: MoJ business in the House of Lords (excluding criminal legal aid); human rights; judicial policy; civil justice policy; family justice – public; family justice – private; tribunals policy; court recovery – civil, family, tribunal; legal aid – civil, family, tribunal; modern justice system – legal support, dispute resolution; Lawtech and emerging technologies; devolution and the Union.

The Home Office

Suella Braverman

Home Secretary

Responsibilities: Overarching responsibility for the departmental portfolio and oversight of the ministerial team

Robert Jenrick

Minister for immigration

Responsibilities: Legal migration - net migration; UK points-based system; simplifying the immigration system and immigration rules; current and future visa policy; s afe and legal routes and resettlement, including: Ukraine Family Scheme; Homes for Ukraine Scheme; Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme; Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy; Hong Kong BN(O); Illegal migration and asylum; illegal migration strategy and New Plan for Immigration oversight; Nationality and Borders Act part 2; small boats policy (ops with MoD); asylum decision making and accommodation; returns and removals, including third country agreements; detention estate; modern slavery

Sarah Dines

Parliamentary under-secretary of state for safeguarding

Responsibilities: tackling violence against women and girls; domestic abuse; FGM and forced marriage; child sexual abuse and exploitation; Disclosure and Barring Service; Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority; sexual violence; Rape Review; prostitution; stalking; hate crime; crime prevention; early youth intervention; victim support.

Chris Philp

Minister for crime, policing and fire

Responsibilities: policing; criminal justice system; drugs and county lines, cross-government combatting drugs lead; anti-social behaviour

Department for Work and Pensions

Mims Davies

Parliamentary under-secretary of state for social mobility, youth and progressions

Responsibilities: support for disadvantaged groups; Youth Offer; childcare; Government Equalities Office (GEO) lead, Women and the Menopause; Military Covenant; poverty and cost of living; Housing Benefit strategy and delivery, including Support for Mortgage Interest and supported accommodation; Health & Safety Executive; Shadow Lords Minister.