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  • About the Department of Education

    Topics:
    • Schools and infrastructure

    About the Department of Education

    The Department’s primary statutory duty is to promote the education of the people of Northern Ireland and to ensure the effective implementation of education policy. The Department’s main statutory areas of responsibility are 0-4 provision, primary, post-primary and special education and the youth service.

    Structure

    Ronnie Armour is the interim Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer for the Department.

    Currently, the Department has two Deputy Secretaries, Linsey Farrell, and Heather Cousins, and the Chief Inspector of the Education and Training Inspectorate.

    • Deputy Secretaries
    • Chief Inspector of Education and Training Inspectorate

    In addition to the Education and Training Inspectorate there are eight heads of division who each deal with a specific area of work with each Division organised into a number of Branches and Teams.

    Departmental Board

    The Departmental Board operates as a collegiate forum, under the leadership of the Permanent Secretary, to manage the running of the Department. It operates within a wider corporate governance framework.

    • DE Corporate Governance Framework

    Role and functions

    The Department’s primary statutory duty is to promote the education of the people of Northern Ireland and to ensure the effective implementation of education policy. The Department’s main statutory areas of responsibility are 0-4 provision, primary, post-primary and special education and the youth service.

    The Department is accountable through its Minister to the Assembly for the effective delivery of its statutory functions and for the effective use of the public funds for which it is responsible. It is supported in delivering its functions by a range of Arm's Length Bodies, each of which is accountable to the Department.

    Every CHILD

    Every CHILD is the Department's Corporate Plan for the period 2023-28 and is available at corporate and business planning.

    Related content

    • Applying for a funded pre-school place – 2025/26
    • Department of Education Circulars
    • FOI/EIR Disclosure Log 2024
    • Minister’s Decisions on Pre-School Settings Requesting Transition from September 2025
    • Outcome of Consultation: School Uniform Policy
    • Register of Interests
    • TransformED School Leaders’ Conference
    • Youth Work Policy review - Youth practitioners survey
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