Education
Education shapes every life chance the state can influence, from early years to university. Policy here covers school funding and standards, teacher recruitment and retention, special educational needs provision that is widely agreed to be in crisis, childcare costs, university finance and the balance between academic and vocational routes. It is an area where the effects of decisions take years to show and where short-term savings can do long-term damage, which makes scrutiny of what is promised against what is funded particularly important.
The department responsible
Decides what England's children learn, who pays for it, and which exam reform we're definitely committing to this time.
The Broken State
Public services performance
How the services this department runs are performing now, against a pre-pandemic baseline. 1 worsening.
MPs scrutinising this most
By written questions tabled to the department this Parliament.
1. James McMurdock Independent4322. Rt Hon Damian Hinds Conservative2773. Mr Andrew Snowden Conservative2604. Jim Shannon Democratic Unionist Party1575. Rt Hon Sir John Hayes Conservative146