DfE target architecture

Understanding DfE user journeys

Part of
Architecture: work in progress collection
Last reviewed
14 October 2026
Owner
Head of Architecture

DfE delivers services to a wide range of users across the education system. These interactions fall into 3 broad types of user journey: customer, partner and business journeys.

Customer journeys represent services used by:

  • the education sector
  • citizens
  • parents, teachers and learners

These services are typically designed around policy outcomes or regulatory processes.

Partner journeys represent system-to-system interactions with external organisations. These typically involve:

  • integrations with school management information systems
  • APIs used by sector systems
  • Ndata sharing with other government departments

Business journeys support internal users and operational processes, including:

  • DfE staff
  • policy teams
  • analysts
  • operational and delivery teams

This model is sometimes referred to as the ‘fidget spinner’ view of DfE services.

It highlights that different types of interaction with DfE - customer, partner and internal business journeys - revolve around shared operational data and reusable capabilities.

Three main user journeys radiate from a central core of shared data and enabling services: customer journeys used by citizens and the education sector, partner journeys involving system-to-system integrations and data sharing, and business journeys used by internal DfE staff.

The target architecture helps structure these shared capabilities as reusable engines that support many services across the department.