Centre for Teaching Excellence establishment: island communities impact assessment

Potential Barriers

Potential barriers include digital connectivity and capacity pressures within small school settings. While these challenges are not unique to island communities, they can be more difficult to address in some remote and island locations. The Centre will help mitigate these challenges through:

• Blended and asynchronous delivery, enabling teachers to access learning opportunities flexibly and in ways that fit local circumstances.
• Recorded resources, allowing teachers to engage with content at a time that works for them and reducing the impact of competing demands on their time.
• professional networks and collaboration while reducing the need for long distance travel where possible.
• Partnership working with established island and Gaelic organisations, including Gaelic medium education stakeholders, local authority Gaelic teams, and island based professional networks, including GME stakeholders, local authority Gaelic teams and island based professional networks, ensuring that activities are informed by local needs and contexts.

These approaches are intended to improve access to professional learning, research and collaboration opportunities for teachers in island communities, supporting greater participation and helping to ensure that local perspectives are reflected in the Centre’s work.

After consideration of available evidence, engagement activity and the proposed design and delivery of the Centre, it is the view of the policy team that the Centre is not likely to have an effect on an island community which is significantly different from its effect on other communities, including other island communities. The Centre will operate through a small number of national hubs, with five other hubs across Scotland, rather than a geographically dense or place‑based model. This limited hub structure means that access to the Centre’s offer is not dependent on location or proximity to a hub. As a result, island communities are not expected to experience a materially different impact from the Centre’s activities when compared with mainland or other rural communities.

Any contextual challenges associated with island geographies are addressed through built‑in mitigations aligned with the Centre’s EQIA and its overarching commitment to equity of access.

The Centre for Teaching Excellence has been designed from the outset to operate on a national and equitable basis. Its objectives, impacts and outcomes are consistent for teachers across Scotland, with delivery mechanisms specifically intended to mitigate geographic and access‑related barriers.

No evidence has been identified which suggests that island communities will experience significantly different or adverse impacts as a result of the Centre. Gaelic Medium Education, which has greater prominence in some island communities, is positively supported through dedicated partnerships and core hub at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on the Isles of Skye.

On this basis, a full Island Communities Impact Assessment is not considered proportionate or necessary.

ICIA authorised by

Orlando Mason

Deputy Director, Workforce, Quality and Wellbeing

Orlando Mason 09/07/2026