Wednesday 11th October 2023
The Mulberry Schools Trust is a flourishing collaboration of schools and partners that believe in the power of education to bring about lasting social change. The Trust currently includes Mulberry School for Girls, Mulberry UTC, Mulberry Academy Shoreditch, Mulberry Stepney Green Maths, Computing and Science College, Mulberry Wood Wharf Primary, Mulberry Academy Woodside, Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary and Mulberry Academy London Dock. At the heart of our Trust sits the commitment to ‘outstanding achievement for all’. We provide our students with the knowledge and skills to become successful, confident individuals capable of making a valuable contribution to their own community, to British society and to global well-being.
The Mulberry Schools Trust was delighted to welcome Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education to deliver our Annual Lecture on the International Day of the Girl 2023 to an audience of pupils, parents and friends of Mulberry. Susan Acland-Hood has been the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education (DfE) since September 2020. Susan studied at Cambridge University and has a History MA and an MPhil in Intellectual History and the History of Political Thought.
Her Civil Service career began in the then Department for Education and Employment in 1999. Before taking on the role at the DfE, Susan was Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service. From 2015 to 2016 she was Director of Enterprise and Growth at HM Treasury, responsible for policies on growth, energy, the environment, business, infrastructure, exports, competition and markets. She was Director of the Education and Funding Group at the DfE from 2013 to 2015, and before that held a range of posts covering education and justice policy, including in the Prime Minister’s Office in No.10, the Home Office, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the Social Exclusion Unit.
In her role as Permanent Secretary, Susan leads the day-to-day running of the department and heads the senior leadership teams. Susan is responsible and accountable to Parliament for the stewardship of the department’s budget and ensuring value for money as the Principal Accounting Officer. Susan is also the Chief Policy Adviser to the Secretary of State and the ministerial team.
