Fiona Simpson
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Kelly Tolhurst has been named as the new minister for schools and childhood at the Department for Education.
Tolhurst, MP for Rochester and Strood, who was deputy chief whip at the Treasury, will take on responsibilities previously shared between the roles of children’s minister and schools minister.
She replaces former children’s minister Brendan Clarke-Smith, who has moved to the Cabinet Office, and also takes on part of the remit of former schools minister Will Quince, who has moved to the Department for Health and Social Care.
According to the DfE website, Tolhurst’s portfolio includes early years and childcare, children’s social care and disadvantaged and vulnerable children.
Her full list of responsibilities is:
Strategy for schools, including standards and selection
Qualifications (including links with Ofqual)
Curriculum including relationships, sex, and health education and personal, social, health and economic education
Admissions and school transport
Early years and childcare
Children’s social care
Children in care, children in need, child protection, adoption and care leavers
Disadvantaged and vulnerable children
Families, including family hubs and early childhood support
Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including high needs funding
Alternative provision
School food, including free school meals
Children and young people’s mental health, online safety and preventing bullying in schools
Policy to protect against serious violence
Since her appointment, Tolhurst has answered a series of written questions addressed to Education Secretary Kit Malthouse on issues affecting children and young people.
Topics include calls for additional support for childcare settings to cope with rising energy bills and the implementation of recommendations from the government’s review of provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Tolhurst said both issues are being “kept under review” by ministers.
When quizzed on whether DfE has plans to increase funding for early years providers, she said that “the department expects to announce the early years funding rates for local authorities for the 2023/24 financial year in the autumn in the normal way.”
Tolhurst also shared that government has “no plans” to expand the eligibility criteria for free school meals to all under-16s amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Voting record
Tolhurst’s voting record has largely towed the party line throughout her political career.
Notably she has voted in favour of academisation of the school system and against the increase of government funding for local authorities.
She has also voted in favour of stricter rules on asylum and against lowering the voting age to 16.
Other DfE appointments
Jonathan Gullis, MP for Stoke-on-Trent, has been named as minister for school standards while Andrea Jenkyns, MP for Morley and Outwood, remains responsible for skills, including further education, and Baroness Barran stays within the DfE as minister for schools and colleges.
Tolhurst is the sixth person to hold responsibility for children’s social care and early years over the last decade.
The children’s minister role has been held by:
Will Quince – 2021 to 2022
Vicky Ford – 2020 to 2021
Kemi Badenoch -2019 to 2020
Nadhim Zahawi – 2018 to 2019
Edward Timpson – 2012 to 2015
Tim Loughton – 2010 to 2012
Sector views
Responding to Tolhurst’s appointment, early years leaders have welcomed the inclusion of the sector in Tolhurst’s ministerial brief as it has historically been included in the remit of the children’s minister who works at a lower level as parliamentary under-secretary of state.
Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: “It is vital that the early years is not overlooked or de-prioritised in favour of schools policy.
“Given the current misguided ministerial focus on the deregulation of the sector, it’s clear that the DfE must do much more to make a clear, convincing argument to the Treasury about the need for greater investment into the early years – and as schools and childhood minister, Tolhurst must lead on this.
“What’s more, a severe funding crisis, sustained recruitment and retention challenges and the ongoing ratios debate has heaped pressure and uncertainty onto the early years sector. As such, we look forward to working closely with the new minister to ensure that the views, needs and concerns of providers are represented at the highest level.
“When it comes to government policy, all too often, the early years is treated as an afterthought, with education only seen as something that starts at the school gates. We hope Tolhurst will use her new role as an opportunity to challenge that narrative and champion the early years sector, both in terms of how the sector is viewed, and critically, the investment it receives.”
We’re pleased Government has announced @KellyTolhurst's appointment as minister for schools and childhood at the Department for Education, with responsibility for SEND. We look forward to working with her and sharing KIDS' frontline expertise. [1]https://t.co/cuV6kyVn3x
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said the organisation had already set up a meeting with Tolhurst to “discuss urgent issues facing the early years sector”.
“We know that high-quality early education and care plays an important role in children’s long-term educational outcomes and life chances; it also supports parental employment. Therefore, it’s good to see that early years education is being joined with school education at ministerial level. Early years must be given equal priority to schools.
“The minister has her own experience of running a business so I hope that would help her to understand the pressures on childcare providers who are trying to remain sustainable in very difficult circumstances. We have more children than ever before needing additional support, energy bills and other costs are skyrocketing and a workforce crisis with nurseries struggling to fill vacancies.
“The new minister and her team must take control of this situation and put measures in place to reverse this downward spiral. The first five years count when it comes to our children and government policy and investment needs to reflect this,” she said.
Congratulations @KellyTolhurst on your new role. We @Become1992 look forward to working with you to build a brighter future for children in care and young care leavers https://t.co/ovYSstTLfk
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