Department for Education announces major restructure
Fiona Simpson
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Plans outlining a reorganisation of the Department for Education from 1 April have been published.
The changes, which involve the creation of a new strategic centre, regional groups and individual groups focused on families, schools and skills, is designed to ensure DfE “thinks, acts and partners much better locally,” according to DfE permanent secretary, Susan Acland-Hood.
The creation of a regions group within the department is planned to ensure DfE is “aligned to the nine regions used across the rest of government”.
The regions will “provide integrated delivery for schools and local authorities, including children’s social care and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND),” plans reveal.
The nine areas overseen by the group are:
-
North East
-
North West
-
Yorkshire and the Humber
-
West Midlands
-
East Midlands
-
East of England
-
South East
-
South West
-
London
Meanwhile, the creation of a group dedicated to policy around children’s social care, safeguarding, SEND and early years will be created under the “families” umbrella.
Similar groups will be created with a focus on schools and skills.
The creation of the skills group comes as part of the government’s response to a review of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) which states it will be stripped back to focus on finance while responsibility for skills, including post-16 education and apprenticeships will be handed to DfE alongside responsibility for non-financial regulatory functions for academies and oversight of new schools and trusts.
Acland-Hood said: “The creation of a group that focuses on skills responds to the recommendations in the arm’s length body review of the ESFA by consolidating all post-16 policy and delivery within one group to enable a high quality, outcomes-focused post-16 system that gives learners the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in their working lives and meet the needs of the economy. This will also allow the ESFA to continue to focus on making sure that public funds are properly spent, and that value for money for the taxpayer is achieved.”
According to the plans, a new strategic centre “will create better oversight, drawing together DfE’s work and setting direction, working alongside operations and infrastructure, which retains its focus on running the DfE, capital funding and sustainability”.
Acland-Hood added: “We are reorganising to be a department that thinks, acts and partners much better locally, not least by being aligned to the nine regions used elsewhere in government. They also mean we will be organised in a way that is clear and makes sense to the stakeholders we work with and will help us deliver the department’s priorities on skills, schools and families.”
