Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families

The Rt Hon Ed Balls MP

Ed Balls was appointed Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in June 2007, as part of Gordon Brown's first Cabinet. Prior to this, he had been Economic Secretary to the Treasury since May 2006.

He has also been Economic Adviser to Gordon Brown when he was Shadow Chancellor (1994-1997), Secretary of the Labour Party Economic Policy Commission (1994-1997), Economic Adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1997-1999), Chief Economic Adviser to the HM Treasury (1999-2004), and Research Fellow at the Smith Institute (2004-2005).

He has been a Member of Parliament for Normanton since 2005.

Mr Balls was born in 1967 and educated at Nottingham High School, Keble College, Oxford and the John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard.

Mr Balls was a teaching fellow Department of Economics, Harvard (1989-1990) and an economics writer and columnist for the Financial Times between 1990 and 1994.

Ed Balls has had a number of publications including 'Towards a New Regional Policy', 'Reforming Britain's Economic and Financial policy: Towards greater economic stability' and 'Microeconomic Reform in Britain: Delivering opportunities for all'.

Mr Balls is married to Yvette Cooper MP and has three children. Outside work Mr Balls' interests include music, cooking and playing football with his children