The new Department for Education ministerial team has been confirmed by the Labour government.
While Bridget Phillipson was largely expected to take on the shadow role she held in opposition and implement some of Labour’s key education policies, some of the other appointments were less clear-cut.
Who are the education ministers?
- Bridget Phillipson, education secretary.
- Catherine McKinnell, minister for school standards.
- Anneliese Dodds, minister of state for women and equalities.
- Jacqui Smith, House of Lords peer covering higher education, further education and skills.
- Stephen Morgan, minister for early education.
- Janet Daby, minister for children and families.
It has also been announced that newly-elected Labour MPs Emma Foody and Alan Strickland have joined the department as parliamentary private secretaries.
The DfE has now confirmed the education ministers’ full portfolios.
The academies’ brief, which was held by Baroness Barran in the Conservative government from 2021 to 2024, is now one of Ms Phillipson’s responsibilities.
Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision have become part of Ms McKinnell’s role as school standards minister.
Mr Morgan’s portfolios include a number of areas which will impact schools, including the education estate, behaviour and reducing bullying and exclusions in schools, attendance and school food.
Find out who is in the Conservative’s shadow education team
Bridget Phillipson, education secretary
Bridget Phillipson took up her post in the cabinet after serving as shadow education secretary between November 2021 and the election.
She will also be minister for women and equalities, alongside Anneliese Dodds, who shares this brief.
Writing to schools and the wider education sector soon after the election, Ms Phillipson said there is “a lot of work to be done” and some “major challenges” to face.
Ms Phillipson has been clear about wanting to prioritise early years provision; writing in Tes in July 2023, she said it was key to providing children with the right foundations for their education.
As education secretary Ms Phillipson’s role includes:
- Early years and childcare.
- 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.
Catherine McKinnell, minister for school standards
Catherine McKinnell has confirmed she has been appointed as the minister for school standards, keeping the brief she held in Labour’s shadow team.
Ms McKinnell served as the shadow minister for schools from 2023, after first being elected as MP for Newcastle upon Tyne North in 2010.
She was previously part of the shadow education team from 2011 to 2013, serving as shadow children’s minister, and was also a member of the Commons Education Select Committee from 2016 to 2017.
Ms McKinnell has been vocal about the need for Ofsted reform and has spoken out against the Conservatives’ planned changes to the curriculum for relationships, sex and health education.
Ms McKinnell’s role as minister for school standards includes:
- School improvement, intervention and inspection (including links with Ofsted).
- Regional school improvement teams.
- Initial teacher training and incentives.
- Teacher retention, including the early career framework and teacher training entitlement.
- School leadership.
- Teacher pay and pensions.
- School support staff.
- Core school funding.
- Qualifications (including links with Ofqual).
- Curriculum and assessment, including the curriculum and assessment review and creative education.
- Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and high needs.
- Alternative provision.
- School governance.
- Admissions.
- Faith schools.
- School uniform.
- School transport.
- Access to sport, arts and music in education, working with other departments.
- The pupil premium.
Anneliese Dodds, minister of state for women and equalities
Anneliese Dodds, MP for Oxford East and former chair of the Labour Party, has been appointed minister for women and equalities at the DfE.
Ms Dodds previously served as shadow financial secretary to the Treasury and was the first female shadow chancellor of the exchequer from 2020 to 2021.
She is also a public policy analyst and was a lecturer in public policy at King’s College London and Aston University.
Alongside her new role, Ms Dodds will also serve as minister of state in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Jacqui Smith, skills minister
Former schools minister Baroness Smith has been confirmed as the minister for skills, further education and higher education.
The former MP for Redditch joined the House of Lords as a life peer to re-enter government.
She was schools minister under Tony Blair, holding the role for one year from 2005 to 2006, before becoming the first female home secretary under Gordon Brown.
Baroness Smith’s role as skills minister includes:
- Skills England.
- Technical qualifications, including T Levels.
- Higher technical education (levels 4 and 5).
- Adult education, including basic skills and combined authority devolution.
- Careers advice and support for young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs).
- Apprenticeships, including the growth and skills levy.
- Technical Excellence Colleges.
- Local skills improvement plans.
- Governance, intervention and accountability of further education colleges.
- Funding for education and training, provision and outcomes for 16- to 19-year-olds.
- Further education funding, financial stability and workforce.
- Access to higher education, participation and lifelong learning.
- Quality of higher education and the student experience, including the Office for Students.
- Student finance, including the Student Loans Company.
- International education.
Stephen Morgan, minister for early education
Stephen Morgan is the Labour MP for Portsmouth South, having been first elected in 2017.
He was the party’s shadow schools minister from December 2021 to September 2023, when he was replaced by Ms McKinnell. He then served as Labour’s shadow rail minister.
Mr Morgan’s role as minister for early education includes:
- Early years education including for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
- Childcare and the home learning environment.
- Early years workforce.
- Early communication skills and early intervention.
- Breakfast clubs.
- School food, including free school meals.
- Independent schools.
- Maintenance and improvement of the education estate.
- Environmental sustainability in the education sectors.
- School attendance, including register of children who are not in school.
- Mental health support in schools.
- Safeguarding, online safety and prevention of serious violence in schools and post-16 settings.
- Counter extremism in schools and post-16 settings.
- Behaviour, preventing bullying and exclusions in schools.
- Use of data, digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in education.
- Use of research, science and evidence within the Department for Education.
Janet Daby, minister for children and families
Janet Daby is the Labour MP for Lewisham East and was first elected in 2018.
Before the 2024 general election, she was the party’s shadow youth justice minister. She has also served Labour as a shadow minister for faiths, women and equalities.
Ms Daby’s role as minister for children and families includes:
- Children’s social care.
- Children’s unique identifier.
- Children in care and children in need.
- Looked-after children.
- Child protection.
- Adoption.
- Kinship care and foster care.
- Care leavers.
- Children’s social care workforce.
- Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
- Local authority improvement.
- Family hubs.
- Families support and parenting.
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