Qualifications Body Transition Board minutes - August 2025

Attendees and apologies

Members:

• Shirley Rogers, SQA Board Chair – Transition Board Co-Chair (SR)
• Clare Hicks, SG Director of Education Reform – Transition Board Co-Chair (CH)
• Kirsty Ayed, SLS (KA)
• Alison Barclay, Unison depute for Liz Cunningham (AB)
• George Brown, SQA Director of Accreditation (GB)
• Sarah Brown, Senior Advisor, SQA Schools Unit (SaB)
• Ronnie Erskine, SQA Board (RE)
• Seán Hagney, SQA Board (SH)
• Andy Harvey, EIS (AH)
• Erin McCabe, Unite (EM)
• Stuart McKenna, STF (SM)
• Isabel Nisbet, Independent Advisor (IN)
• Nick Page, SQA Chief Executive (NP)
• Pauline Radcliffe, SCQF Partnership (PR)
• Mark Ratter, ADES (MR)
• Seamus Searson, SSQA (SS)
• Ken Thomson, SQA Board (KT)
• Andy Witty, Colleges Scotland (AW)

In attendance:

• Andy Alston, SQA (AA)
• Lisa Bird, SG Deputy Director, Education Reform (LB)
• John Booth, SQA Director of Communications (JB)
• Steve Borley, SQA (SB)
• Bill Cullen, SQA (BC)
• Sarah Hart, SG (SaH)
• Dawnne Mahmoud, SQA Director of People (DM)
• Stuart McLaren, SQA (SMcL)
• Richard Pidgeon, SQA (RP)
• John Stephens, SG (JS)

Observers

None

Secretariat

• Karen Ferguson, SQA (KF)
• Keegan Friel, SQA (KeF)
• John Keenan, SG (JK)
• Anna Kerr, SQA (AK)
• Niamh McGhee, SG (NM)

Apologies

• Eni Adesida, SG
• Naureen Ahmad, SG
• Reid Aiton, Young Scot
• Liz Cunningham, Unison. Alison Barclay attending as a deputy
• Tom Hall, Colleges Scotland
• Allan Lindsay, Young Scot
• Claire McPherson, Universities Scotland
• Mags Simpson, CBI
• Declan Walsh, SQA

Items and actions

Opening remarks

Welcome and apologies

SR welcomes everyone to the meeting, noting apologies.

Declaration of any conflicts of interest

There were no declarations of conflicts of interest.

Previous meeting - approval of minutes from 20 May 2025 and matters arising

The minutes of the meeting on 20 May were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

SR welcomed Nick Page, SQA Chief Executive, to his first meeting of the Transition Board. 

SR noted that a Programme Update was sent to members on 30 July.

Implementation Plan

Vision for Qualifications Scotland: where are we trying to get to?

SQA Chief Executive introduction and reflections

Nick Page, SQA Chief Executive, updated members on his first six weeks in post and thanked colleagues for the welcome that he had received. NP discussed the engagement work he had undertaken with staff and external stakeholders and provided observations on Results Day.

NP outlined his thoughts around opportunities for change along with work that will take place to embed transition activities following Day 1 of Qualifications Scotland (“QS”), noting that the plans will be shared in due course. NP highlighted the volume of work required for SQA to deliver fiscal savings and improve productivity, while simultaneously earning credibility as a key partner in the overall transformation agenda for Scottish education.

Members noted the update, with SR adding that SQA has established processes for any changes.

QS Board appointments and Education (Scotland) Act update

 

SR provided an update on the recruitment round for up to six members of the QS Board, noting that shortlisting was underway with a large pool of candidates.  

Members raised concerns around the timing of the applications window as it clashed with the school holidays and therefore risked limiting the number of applications from the teaching profession. SR explained that there were legislative constraints on timing due to the passage of the Bill, but emphasised that this was mitigated by the early notification of the round being specifically targeted towards schools and teaching unions in order to maximise outreach to that group, resulting in a large proportion of the applications being from the teaching profession.

CH updated members on the Education (Scotland) Bill, which received Royal Assent on 6 August to become the Education (Scotland) Act. CH added that work is ongoing on commencement provisions to allow the Act to become law later this year. A summary of the main provisions of the Act was issued to members as a Below the Line paper.  

Members had some questions about quality assurance and Chairs offered to discuss with them separately.

Action – CH to seek to clarify the scope of the quality assurance work that is to be undertaken.

Transition: what is required for day 1?

Transition programme dashboard

 

JB introduced the update on the Programme Dashboard with an overview of the transition programme. JB highlighted that there were no longer any Reds on the Dashboard and that the overall programme status is now Amber and is on path to Green for Day 1 of QS.

BC provided an update on Finance, noting that the budget is currently balanced and reporting as green. BC added that SQA are expecting to send SG proposed amendments to AO submissions following feedback from Scottish Government colleagues.

SR thanked BC and colleagues for work so far on transition and on the Risk Register, which was included as a BTL update. 

Comms and engagement update

SMcL presented an update on the QS branding project, noting that it had been presented to the SQA Board the previous week and will also be presented to the next Advisory Council meeting. SMcL informed members that the logos for QS Awarding and Accreditation (including Gaelic versions) have been approved and are now undergoing the trademarking process, which is expected to be completed by the end of September.

SMcL noted that the accreditation logo was to be a derivative of the QS logo, hence the similarity. This could be revisited when the statutory review of accreditation is carried out.

JS provided an update on the Scottish Government comms and engagement strategy for QS, which was designed to ensure there was consistent and effective messaging throughout Stage 3 of the Bill and for the publication of the curriculum and qualifications assessment reform timeline. JS noted that upcoming messaging will focus on communicating information about the Education (Scotland) Act to schools, including suggested text for sharing with parents and carers in school newsletters.

In response to members’ queries, SMcL confirmed that Day 1 comms would be tailored to suit the requirements of particular stakeholder groups.

RP emphasised the key message of QS being ‘closer to the classroom’ and spoke about the contribution that the Schools Unit could make to that message.

At SR’s invitation, SaB provided a general update on the work of the Schools Unit, noting the need to convert the vision from the commission into specific costed actions. SaB spoke the focus on supporting organisational change and highlighted engagement with teachers and providing pathways for CPD. SaB also indicated that the Unit would work with schools to refine the model.

Transformation: what will happen longer term?

Governance update

 

SaH and SB presented a joint update on the new governance structures for Qualifications Scotland.

SaH spoke about work required by Scottish Government on the commencement timeline for collaboration with learners and practitioners, inclusion of Gaelic and Scots, the accreditation function and quality assurance for qualifications delivered in schools. SaH went on to discuss QS new committees including a Strategic Advisory Council and the Teacher and Learner Interest Committees which link to corresponding Charters. There will also be a formal separation of the role of Chief Executive, Chief Examiner and Head of Accreditation.

SaH noted the close collaboration between Scottish Government and SQA on the development of secondary legislation to implement the Act and the importance of maintaining the partnership approach that was taken for the Bill.

SB highlighted the importance of internal engagement with both Unions and other colleagues. He noted the opportunities presented with the establishing of the Strategic Advisory Council and the other committees. He went onto discuss the functions of QS Awarding and QS Accreditation. SB described the challenges and opportunities for greater engagement with children and young people in the Learner Interest Committee.

Members commented on the approach to engagement with learners, reflecting on accessibility and focusing on harder to reach learners including the growing number of learners who are neurodivergent. SR echoed these comments and agreed that engagement with neurodiverse learners should be an area of particular focus going forward.

Any other business

No issues were raised.

Date of next meeting

The date of the next meeting is Tuesday 30 September. CH to chair.