An education select committee report which examines changes to the governance and leadership of the Department since the 2010 election, notes that the change of the department’s name from ‘Children, Schools and Families’ to ‘Education’ led to some concerns that the coalition Government was ‘shifting focus away from the children’s agenda.’
It urges the department ‘to maintain focus on the critical children’s policy agenda, and to ensure these areas receive adequate ministerial and senior official attention.’
It also proposes that the DfE should consider appointing a non-executive board member with specific knowledge of children’s policy issues, as it has done for schools policy.
It also refers to changes in the ministerial make-up of the department since the reshuffle, which saw two junior ministerial appointments, in place of a secretary of state and a parliamentary under secretary.
The report said, ‘Despite reassurances from non-executive directors that they had "no specific concern about the draining of resource" from the children’s policy areas in the DfE, our own visit to the department made clear the significantly different staffing levels between, for example, Academies development and family policy. ‘Non-schools areas of the Department’s remit are also revealed, by an organisation chart sent to us by the permanent secretary’s office, to benefit from less senior staff input than their schools counterparts and, following the recent ministerial reshuffle, they also have less ministerial input as well: children’s policy is now the focus of one parliamentary under secretary, and the partial focus of another, where previously, it accounted for the remit of one minister of state and one parliamentary under secretary.’
Education committee chair, Graham Stuart MP, said, ‘This inquiry has shone an important spotlight on how policy is implemented and managed. It has highlighted a need to ensure that children’s policy retains sufficient status alongside schools and colleges, which appear to occupy the majority of ministerial and officials’ time.
‘While we met many outstanding civil servants during our visits to the DfE, and have much to praise about the department’s new-look Board, we have also identified a number of refinements that could ensure better governance and leadership in ways that would improve both delivery and management of policy.
‘Critically, that will need to involve some fairly urgent effort to improve staff morale, which survey data suggests has dropped to a point where only half the staff believe the department to be well run. In straitened times, a qualified staff are the most valuable resource of any Government department.’
