About DCSF
Mission
The Department for Children, Schools and Families aims to ensure that every child gets the best possible start in life, receives an excellent education, and has the support and protection they, and their family, need to allow them to fulfil their potential.
Statement of purpose
The Department for Children, Schools and Families leads work across Government to ensure that children and young people:
- stay healthy and safe;
- secure an excellent education and the highest possible standards of achievement;
- enjoy their childhood;
- make a positive contribution to society and the economy;
- have lives full of opportunity, free from the effects of poverty
Recent history
The Department for Children, Schools and Families is one of three new government departments set up by the Prime Minister on 28 June 2007.
The Government has long been committed to enabling all children and young people to reach their full potential. This requires a strong lead in securing integrated children’s services and educational excellence. The new Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) means we can really concentrate on achieving these objectives.
The Department builds on the successes in education and children’s services that we have seen over the last decade. It will now focus on the significant challenges that remain – raising standards so that more children and young people reach expected levels, lifting more children out of poverty and re-engaging disaffected young people. The new structure will also allow us to respond to new challenges that will affect children and families: demographic and socio-economic change; developing technology; and increasing global competition.
In addition to its direct responsibilities, the department leads work across Government to improve outcomes for children, including work on children’s health and child poverty.
Our Priorities
The Department has six strategic objectives to improve the lives of children and young people:
- secure the health and wellbeing on children and young people;
- safeguard the young and vulnerable;
- achieve world-class standards;
- close the gap in educational achievements for disadvantages backgrounds;
- ensure young people are participating and achieving their potential to 18 and beyond; and
- keep children and young people on the path to success.
The Government’s priorities and ambitions for the Department’s work are contained in the Children’s Plan, which was published on 11 December 2007 (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/childrensplan). The Children’s Plan sets out plans for next 10 years under each of the Department’s strategic objectives.
Government Policies and Targets
The Department’s current policy agenda is wide and contains a number of delivery challenges. These include:
- implementing the 10 Year Childcare Strategy;
- leading the Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme across 150 local authorities;
- implementing the reforms outlined in the Schools White Paper Higher Standards, Better Schools for All;
- reforming the curriculum and qualifications in the 14-19 phase of education and training
- Implementing the Staying Safe Action Plan
The Department is responsible, directly and indirectly through local authorities, for public expenditure of almost £60 billion.
Much of our policy delivery is through others and depends on successful partnership working with Non-Departmental Public Bodies, Other Government Departments, local authorities, Regional Development Agencies and front line institutions.
The Department’s performance is assessed against a series of Public Service Agreement targets. These, along with current performance, are described in the Department’s annual report (http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/aboutus/reports/)
Ministers
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and families, Ed Balls, and his four Ministers, have overall responsibility for the Department, its policies and strategy. The Ministers roughly divide the work between them as follows:
- Children, young people and families: Beverley Hughes and Kevin Brennan;
- Schools and 14-19: Jim Knight and Lord Adonis.
Organisation
The Department has a management Board comprising the Permanent Secretary, six executive and two non-executive members. The executive members head up six Directorates, covering the main policy delivery functions (children and families, young people, schools) and the Department’s corporate services (strategy, corporate services, communications). Increasingly, Board members lead major programmes that cross the responsibilities of individual Directorates, and include other Government Departments.