Susan Acland-Hood

Susan Acland-Hood is a British civil servant who is currently the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education. Prior to taking on the role as Permanent Secretary, she was Chief Executive of HM Courts and Tribunals Service. From 2015 to 2016, Susan 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 Department for Education from 2013 to 2015, and before that held a range of posts covering education and justice policy, including in 10 Downing Street, Home Office, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and the Social Exclusion Unit. Acland-Hood's civil service career began in the then Department for Education and Employment in 1999.

She was appointed as Permanent Secretary in September 2020 on a temporary basis and was formally appointed as Permanent Secretary on 7 December 2020.

As part of the Partygate scandal, in 2021 Acland-Hood admitted to attending an event in December 2020 organised at the request of Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to thank staff. Approximately 50 members of staff were invited to the event and 20 to 30 attended in the staff canteen, where food and alcohol was consumed for around 60 minutes. At the time in London, national restrictions prohibited indoor gatherings of two or more people unless an exception applied, such as where the gathering was reasonably necessary for work purposes. Government guidance advised that people must not have a work Christmas lunch or party as a primarily social activity.