DfE public involvment and engagement strategy
Updated 30 July 2026
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2026
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-for-official-statistics-published-by-the-department-for-education/dfe-public-involvment-and-engagement-strategy
Overview
This guidance sets out the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) public involvement and user engagement strategy for its statistical outputs. This is underpinned by the Code of Practice for Statistics, specifically Value standard 8, “Be relevant”.
Our commitment to users
Ensuring our statistics are of good value to our users is a key principle of the Code of Practice for Statistics. Feedback gained from our users helps to align developments to our statistics with user needs, ensuring they serve the public good.
To support a diverse range of users to access and engage with our statistics, we strive to transparently publish timely, relevant, high-quality statistics.
Our commitment to the users of our statistics is to:
- publish our statistics at the pre-announced time and date
- publish our statistics in line with the Code and the department’s statistical policies and procedures
- give open and easy-to-use routes to allow users to supply us with their views and opinions
- respond quickly and accurately to questions and enquiries from our users
- consult with users on developments and changes to our statistical methodologies, publications or publication processes
- respond in a timely manner to any complaints from users
- be transparent when we are unable to meet any of the above commitments
Understanding our users
Our statistics are used by individuals and groups both internally and externally. Our users are mainly from the following groups:
- ministers and policymakers within DfE
- policymakers within government, including non-departmental public bodies
- parliament, including members of parliament
- local authorities, schools and other educational establishments and providers that are also data providers
- academics
- expert external special interest and pressure groups
- media and commentators
- members of the public
Our engagement policy recognises that different users have different needs – for example, some users require or want:
- quick and easy access to the latest statistics
- to challenge the statistics
- to be informed of the publication of the latest statistics or developments made to them
- to be consulted on developments to our statistics, either in terms of methodology, publication or use
We will approach the identification of users in several ways, including by:
- creating registers of users, starting with the ones that we know about already
- logging feedback from users as and when we receive it and noting who provided the feedback
- inviting comments through our statistics pages on Explore education statistics (EES), both on the home page and in the publications themselves
- encouraging users to register as users and engage with us on developments in official statistics
- using questionnaires to identify users and collect information on their views and preferences
- exploring options to engage with users via community discussion groups on various topics
- inviting users to attend workshops or events
Engaging our users
Budget and capacity constraints mean we need to ensure we prioritise our resources according to public value. This means developing new and existing statistics where there are evidence gaps, and reducing or discontinuing statistics where engagement is low. This is in line with Value standard 8.3.
We make users aware of our plans for change though our annual statistical work programme and by updates to publications on EES. Where there is an intention to reduce or discontinue statistics, this will be publicly announced at least 3 months in advance to allow users to provide feedback on our plans.
User engagement has influenced our approach to:
- developing what we report statistics on
- the underlying methodology of existing releases
- how we focus our budget and capacity on developing releases that better meet public needs
Further information on developments for the current academic year can be seen in our annual statistical work programme.
Explore education statistics
We also seek user engagement on our bespoke statistics platform EES, where we host:
- official statistics
- ad hoc statistics
- some management information releases
The platform makes it easier to publish engaging statistics that all users can find, navigate, interact with and take away. It remains in active development, with new features and feature improvements steadily being added to the service. Development is driven by user engagement across internal and external users to ensure continued value and relevance.
The EES service team undertakes wider user research to inform the development of the public website. Navigation has long been a challenge and we continue to prioritise enhancements in this area.
Contact us
We welcome feedback on our statistics and our policies and practices. If you have feedback on the contents of this strategy, or have general feedback regarding DfE statistics, contact DfE’s Head of Profession for Statistics at hop.statistics@education.gov.uk.