Several social media posts (here, here, and here) claim that the United Kingdom (UK) appointed Muslim scholar Yusuf Patel as its Minister of Education in March 2025. Another set of posts featuring the same image claims (here, here, and here) that Hamid Patel is the new head of England’s education department. Let’s verify the claim made in the post through this article.
Claim: Hamid Patel has been appointed as the new head of England’s education department.
Fact: We found no reports confirming that a person named Yusuf Patel was appointed as the UK’s Minister of Education in March 2025. The person in the viral post is Hamid Patel, who has been appointed as the interim chairman of Ofsted, the UK’s education watchdog, not as the head of England’s education department. Ofsted is a non-ministerial body responsible for inspecting educational institutions. The Department for Education (DfE) oversees education in England, and Bridget Phillipson has been the Education Secretary since 05 July 2024. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
We searched online using relevant keywords but found no credible reports confirming that the UK appointed Muslim scholar Yusuf Patel as the Minister of Education in March 2025. Additionally, no person by that name was found in this role.
We performed another keyword search using the phrase “Hamid Patel appointed to England’s education department by the United Kingdom which led us to multiple reports (here, here, and here) featuring the same viral photograph. According to these reports, the person in the viral post is identified as Sir Hamid Patel, recently appointed as the interim chairman of Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills), the UK’s education watchdog, until a successor is found for Dame Christine Ryan. The reports also include the viral photograph of Patel and mention that he is the first religious school leader to hold this position. Additionally, they state that he has been a member of the Ofsted board since 2019 while serving as the chief executive of Star Academies since its inception in 2010.
We also found An Ofsted press release dated 11 March 2025, available on the official UK government website, which stated: “Sir Hamid Patel has been appointed to serve as interim Chair of the Ofsted Board until a successor is found for Dame Christine Ryan, who announced in November that she would be stepping down this year. Sir Hamid, who has been an Ofsted Board member since 2019, will serve for a period of up to five months until a new substantive Chair is appointed.”
To learn more about Ofsted, we conducted a Google search and found that Ofsted is a non-ministerial government body in the UK that inspects and reports on educational institutions, including schools, colleges, nurseries, and childminders. Many parents and carers rely on Ofsted ratings when choosing a school or nursery for their child.
Although Ofsted is a non-ministerial department that reports to Parliament, it operates independently and impartially. Since it is funded by the central government, Ofsted remains accountable to Parliament and must explain its actions to the education minister (here and here).
We learned that the Department for Education (DfE) oversees education and children’s services in England, covering early years, schools, higher education, apprenticeships, and skills development. As per the UK government website, DfE is a ministerial department supported by 18 agencies and public bodies, including Ofsted.
Currently, Labour MP Bridget Phillipson serves as the Secretary of State for Education appointed on 05 July 2024, and is responsible for the department’s operations.
To sum up, Hamid Patel has been appointed interim chairman of Ofsted the UK’s education watchdog not as the head of England’s education department.
