Susan Acland-Hood

Susan Acland-Hood has been the permanent secretary at the Department for Education since September 2020.  She has also held senior roles in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and in the Social Exclusion Unit. Her civil service career began in 1999 at the Department for Education and Employment.

As permanent secretary, Susan leads the day-to-day running of the department and heads the senior leadership teams. She is responsible and accountable to parliament for the stewardship of the department’s budget and ensuring value for money as the principal accounting officer.

The permanent secretary is the chief policy adviser to the secretary of state and the ministerial team. Along with the departmental leadership team, Susan is responsible for:

• Setting standards within the department
• Making arrangements for governance, assurance, and risk management
• Overseeing the department’s performance and assuring the performance of sponsored organisations
• Approving the department’s business plan, resource accounts, departmental report and major spending