The Department for Education (DfE) has merged responsibilities for children’s social care and schools under new minister Kelly Tolhurst.
The DfE confirmed this week that Tolhurst would be its sixth minister with responsibility for social care in four years, three weeks after Brendan Clark-Smith left the children’s minister post to take up a role in another department. The hiatus was caused in part by the mourning period following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
As with her social care ministerial predecessors, Tolhurst’s brief will also encompass other issues concerning disadvantaged and vulnerable children, including special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and early help.
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