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Department for Children, Schools and Families
Department overview
Formed	2007; 18 years ago
Preceding Department	Department for Education and Skills (United Kingdom);
Dissolved	2010; 15 years ago
Superseding Department	Department for Education;
Jurisdiction	England
Headquarters	London, England, UK

Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. DCSF was replaced by the Department for Education after the change of government following the 2010 General Election.

The department was led by the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.

The expenditure, administration and policy of the department was scrutinised by the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee.^[1]

History and responsibilities

DCSF was created on 28 June 2007 following the demerger of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).^[2]^[3] The department was led by Ed Balls.^[4] The Permanent Secretary was David Bell.

Other education functions of the former DCSF were taken over by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (originally the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, since merged with Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform).

DCSF was directly responsible for state schools in England. The Minister of State for Schools and Learning was the minister in charge.

The Department employed over 2,500 staff.^[5]

Locations

In May 2010, DCSF had four main sites:

Castle View House, Runcorn
Moorfoot Building, Sheffield
Mowden Hall, Darlington
Sanctuary Buildings, London^[6]

Criticisms

Brain gym

Charlie Brooker, writing in The Guardian, expressed incredulity that the department was supportive of Brain Gym, despite its broad condemnation by scientific organisations, and despite it being apparently nonsense.^[7]

Upon learning that the programme was used at hundreds of UK state schools, Dr Ben Goldacre of The Guardian's Bad Science pages called it a "vast empire of pseudoscience" and went on to dissect parts of their teaching materials, refuting, for instance, claims that rubbing the chest would stimulate the carotid arteries, that "processed foods do not contain water", or that liquids other than water "are processed in the body as food, and do not serve the body's water needs."^[8]

Child friendly identity and branding

The department adopted a "child friendly" visual identity, known as "Building the Rainbow" shortly after it was established. The main features of the brand identity were a rainbow logo and images of cartoonised children carrying blocks to build the rainbow logo.^[9] The lettering on the logo was all in lower case despite being a proper noun. It was reported in The Daily Telegraph that several thousand pounds were spent on adopting and implementing this visual identity.^[10] The Conservatives, then in opposition, nicknamed the department the "Department for Curtains and Soft Furnishings",^[11] a nickname often used by the media.^[9]^[12]

Refurbishment of headquarters building

The Department also came under criticism during the 2010 General Election, after it was revealed that the Department's offices had a refit.^[13] Other features include a grand glass and steel staircase and imported Italian designer furniture. The total cost of the refit was estimated to be three million pounds, at a time when the department needed to make two billion pounds of savings.^[9]

References

^ "The Children, Schools and Families Committee". UK Parliament. Retrieved 20 November 2021. The Children, Schools and Families Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Children, Schools and Families and its associated public bodies.
^ Baker, Mike (24 December 2007). "A year of changes in education". BBC News. Archived from the original on 27 December 2007. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
^ Norman, Jesse (1 July 2009). "Loosening the state's hold on schools". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
^ "Direct.gov.uk press release". direct.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
^ "Department for Children, Schools and Families departmental report 2008". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 24 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
^ DCSF Contact Us Webpage Archived 3 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine accessed 7 May 2010
^ Brooker, Charlie (7 April 2008). "Charlie Brooker on the pseudoscience of Brain Gym". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2008. All of which sounds like hooey to me. And also to the British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society and the charity Sense About Science, who have written to every local education authority in the land to complain about Brain Gym's misrepresentation of, um, reality.
^ Ben Goldacre (18 March 2006). "Brain Gym exercises do pupils no favours". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 August 2007. I've accidentally stumbled upon a vast empire of pseudoscience being peddled in hundreds of state schools up and down the country.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Gove renames Department for Children, Schools and Families the Department for Education". The Guardian. 13 May 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
^ Coalition Government: Michael Gove Restores the Department for Education. The Daily Telegraph
^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 13 Nov 2007 (pt 0013)". publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
^ "Education Diary: Confusion over flagship diplomas". The Independent. 23 October 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
^ Mulholland, Hélène; Sparrow, Andrew (30 April 2010). "General election 2010 live blog - Friday 30 April". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 February 2021. In the first prime ministerial debate, the Tory leader attacked the DCSF for spending £3m on a refurbishment which, he claimed, had included "a contemplation suite and a massage room".