End of the rainbow as new Department for Education team begins work

In a email to staff, Mr Gove said, 'To help us achieve the radical reforms that we will need, I want to refocus the Department on its core purpose of supporting teaching and learning.'

He added, 'School reform will be our priority but schools only succeed when society is strong, which is why we will also strengthen and reform children's services.'

The Dcsf's rainbow logo vanished from the Department's website after the announcement that it had been renamed.

On Friday the other members of the ministerial team were named, although it is not yet clear what specific policy areas each will cover.

Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather is the Minister of State for Children and Families, while Conservative Tim Loughton - previously shadow children's minister  - is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families.

Conservative Nick Gibb was appointed Minister of State for Schools.

Conservative MP Maria Miller, who had become well-known to the early years sector in her role as shadow families minister before the election, has been appointed parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Work and Pensions under Iain Duncan Smith.

In a surprise move, Frank Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead, has been recruited as a "poverty tsar", with a brief to investigate the way poverty is defined and to improve the ways in which it is tackled. Mr Field, a former welfare minister, led the revolt against the scrapping of the 10p tax rate in 2008 because of the impact it would have on the poor.

Policy commitments

In terms of policy commitments there are some areas of common ground between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrat parties regarding the EYFS.

The Conservatives have said that they would want a slimmed down version of the framework to cut down on bureaucracy for private and voluntary providers.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have also said they want cuts to regulation, amid concerns in the fall in the number of childminders.

However, the parties differ in their approach to the funding of nursery education.

In the run-up to the election it was revealed that the Tories would suspend the Code of Practice and allow nurseries to charge parents 'supplementary fees' for funded places for three- and four-year-olds.

However, the Liberal Democrats said they did not believe in charging 'top-up' fees for nurseries and said they would protect existing childcare policies with the long-term vision of 20 hours' free childcare for every child from the age of 18 months, when the economy could support it.