On Monday, in the NAEE weekly news round-up, there was a short focus on the new DfE ministerial team which you can see here.
Three of these are completely new to the DfE. Those who not are Andrea Jenkins who arrived on July 8th 2022 in a similar role), and the minister in the House of Lords Baroness Barran, who's been there (in a similar role) since September 2021.
Five ministers with 14 months of DfE expense between them. What a lot of learning they must be doing given that they have so little ministerial memory between them; so little understanding of the DfE culture (the way "we do things here"); so few contacts with interested organisations in civil society; so little experience of the great issues that the DfE deals with.
But it's always like this I hear you say. Every time a new minister pops up, all this is a problem for them. Indeed it is, but it's less of a problem if there are experienced colleagues already there to induct you into the DfE's little ways
But this time around, they will be even more dependent on civil servants whose departmental memory is absolute. So it looks like business as usual at the DfE for some time.
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