The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Families and Wellbeing, formerly the Minister of State for Schools and Childhood is a junior ministerial position in the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. A Department ...

, previously the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Department for Education and Skills, in the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The post was previously known as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families until the appointment of the incumbent Minister of State

Kelly Tolhurst Kelly Jane Tolhurst (born 23 August 1978) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochester and Strood since 2015. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Minister of State for Schools and Childhood ...

on 7 September 2022, who succeeded Brendan Clarke-Smith.

History

Margaret Hodge was the first person to hold the position after it was announced in 2003.

Maria Eagle Maria Eagle (born 17 February 1961) is a British politician who served in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. She later served in the Shadow Cabinets of Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Memb ...

was the Minister from 2005 to 2006 taking Hodge's place, and Beverley Hughes held the position from 2006 until June 2009,Lewin, Tamar
The Need to Invest in Young Children

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

. Accessed 30 December 2008. when

Dawn Primarolo Dawn Primarolo, Baroness Primarolo, (born 2 May 1954) is a Labour Party (UK), British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Bristol South (UK Parliament constituency), Bristol South ...

took over until Labour lost office in May 2010.

List of Ministers

Colour key (for political parties):

References

Ministers for children, young people and families Ministerial offices in the United Kingdom 2003 establishments in the United Kingdom Department for Education Education ministers of the United Kingdom {{UK-gov-stub