Qualifications Body Transition Board minutes: May 2025

Attendees and apologies

Members:

• Clare Hicks, SG Director of Education Reform – Transition Board Co-Chair (CH)
• Shirley Rogers, SQA Board Chair – Transition Board Co-Chair (SR)
• George Brown, SQA Accreditation (GB)
• Liz Cunningham, Unison (LC)
• Ronnie Erskine, SQA Board (RE)
• Seán Hagney, SQA Board (SH)
• Allan Lindsay, Young Scot (AL)
• Andy Harvey, EIS (AH)
• Erin McCabe, Unite (EM)
• Stuart McKenna, STF (SM)
• Isabel Nisbet, Independent Advisor (IN)
• Pauline Radcliffe, SCQFP (PR)
• Jon Reid, SLS/ADES, Falkirk Council (JR)
• Seamus Searson, SSTA (ED)
• Mags Simpson, CBI (MS)

In attendance:

• Naureen Ahmad, SG Deputy Director, Lifelong Learning and Skills (NA)
• Lisa Bird, SG Deputy Director, Education Reform (LB)
• Dawnne Mahmoud, SQA Director of People (DM)
• Declan Walsh, SQA Director of Finance (DW)
• Stuart McLaren, SQA Interim Director of Communications (SM)
• Steve Borley, SB (SB)
• Andy Alston, SQA (AA)
• Sarah Clark, SG (SC)
• Bill Cullen, SQA (BC)
• Sarah Hart, SG (SH)
• Jaxon Parish, SG (JP)
• Sarah Widdall, SQA (SW)

Observers

• Sarah Brown, Headteacher, Kinross High School (SaB)

Secretariat

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

Apologies

• John Booth, SQA Interim CEO
• Claire McPherson, Universities Scotland
• Mark Ratter, ADES
• Ken Thomson, SQA Board
• Kieran Watson, SG
• Andy Witty, Colleges Scotland

Items and actions

Opening remarks

Welcome and apologies

CH welcomed 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 25 March 2025 and matters arising

The minutes of the meeting on 25 March were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

CH noted that SaB, headteacher at Kinross High School was attending this meeting as an observer and will officially assume membership of the Transition Board when she assumes her role as Senior Advisor for SQA’s Schools Unit in July.

CH extended her thanks to SQA and SG colleagues for their hard work and commitment in support of the scrutiny of the Bill.

Implementation Plan

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

Update on Education and Skills legislation

 

JP updated members on the progress of the Education (Scotland) Bill following the conclusion of Stage 2 on 7 May. JP highlighted key amendments that included accreditation, then described preparations for Stage 3.

CH noted that whilst SG and SQA shared the position that the accreditation function should be located in Qualifications Scotland, Parliament would ultimately decide the outcome. However, work is underway to reach a positive solution in advance of Stage 3. Members expressed concerns around the continuing negative impact this uncertainty was having on SQA Accreditation staff.

NA updated members on the progress of the Tertiary Education and Training (Funding and Governance) (Scotland) Bill, noting that Stage 1 should be completed by 26 September 2025. Members emphasised the importance of ensuring the effective provision of vocational education both within colleges and schools, where the benefits of Foundation Apprenticeships were highlighted. By way of assuring members that decision making has yet to be made and that stakeholder views were still being taken into account, NA stated that any funding transfers would not take place until April 2027. CH noted the importance of skills planning in response to members’ comments around ensuring that vocational education provision is based on both geographical and sectoral demand.

Transition: what is required for Day 1?

Transition programme dashboard

 

BC updated members on the Transition Programme Dashboard and confirmed that the overall project risk status was Amber. BC provided a summary of all the Project Board Highlight reports, noting that Digital and Finance were rated Red. Following a discussion with members on level of risk it was agreed that the RAG rating for Accreditation should change from Amber to Red.

DW provided an update on Finance, noting that the budget forecast was showing a £188K overspend, adding that options to bring down the cost were being looked at. Members advised caution on reducing costs especially in relation to digital infra-structure where there might be a risk of a negative impact on the delivery of Qualification Scotland’s functions. SR proposed that she would meet with DW and BC to discuss.

Action – The Accreditation RAG rating is to be adjusted to Red.

Action – SR to have a meeting with BC and DW to discuss mission critical delivery.

Action – A communications and engagement update should be included in the agenda for the next Transition Board meeting.

High-level programme risks register

 

BC updated members on the Programme Risk Register with a focus on the high-level programme level risks identified by the Transition team. Some new risks were added to the register following a Deep Dive workshop held with SQA EMT in April. RE emphasised the importance of ensuring consistency of risk scoring between the SQA and Transition Board.

Members emphasised the importance of considering the impact on ‘end users’ when evaluating risks.

Members requested to know more around the financial model for Qualifications Scotland. DW provided an update on the early-stage work on financial sustainability.

Action – BC to issue a revised Programme Dashboard and Risk Register to TB members in June.

Transformation: what will happen longer-term?

Culture and values

 

SW updated members on SQA’s culture and values implementation work to date and highlighted the high level of staff engagement. SW noted that the Values framework should be finalised by the end of June and went on to discuss the ‘Poster to Practice’ work.

SW emphasised the focus on embedding these values in SQA’s (and subsequently QS’) internal processes and she indicated that the agency, called the Union, is working on devising a set of external values which will be used for branding.

Members noted the importance of having the correct tools and resources within Qualifications Scotland to support staff in making cultural change as well as being able to evidence it.

In response to member queries DM confirmed that all SQA staff will be transferred across on Day 1 and that there will be no voluntary redundancies.

Any other business

With the agreement of members, the date of the next meeting was confirmed as Tuesday 19 August. This will be followed by another two meetings at six-weekly intervals prior to the establishment of Qualifications Scotland. SR to chair the meeting on 19 August.

Due to the length of time until the next meeting, a programme update will be emailed to members around end of June/early July.