Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much his Department spent in total on social media advertising in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021 and (d) 2022 as of 28 February 2022; and on which platforms that money was spent.

Every year, the department runs a range of campaigns to support essential work, including recruiting and retaining teachers and social workers, increasing awareness of the full range of opportunities available for young people when they leave school and for adults looking to retrain or boost their skills. The department uses paid media channels to target audiences who will take up these opportunities or training.

The information on spend is only available in financial years rather than calendar years. To cover as much of the period requested as possible, social media spend is included for the following financial years: a) 2018/19, b) 2019/20, c) 2020/21 and d) 2021/22. For 2021/22, information is currently only available for April to December 2021.

The department’s total spend on social media was as follows:

In 2018/19 and 2019/20 the channels used were Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter. In 2020/21 and 2021/22 the channels used were Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube.

All spend information over £25,000 is available to view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-spend-data.