The Scottish government’s education reform programme is being hit by “challenges”, including “limited finance, staff resource, constrained timescales and expectations”, according to the latest minutes of the board tasked with overseeing the changes.
The minutes say: “Finance continues to be a challenge, with current forecast cost ranges greater than funding indicatively allocated in the draft Budget.”
Published at the end of last month, the minutes also flag up board members’ concerns about “the short time frame to deliver”. The new qualifications body, independent inspectorate and national education agency are expected to be up and running by autumn 2025.
Existing organisations having the capacity to deliver both “reform and current operations” is also highlighted as a worry for board members.
Education reform in Scotland
Overall, the minutes reveal that the education reform programme is currently rated “amber/red”, which “members agreed...was a reasonable and just assessment”. In project management, RAG (red, amber and green) ratings are used to indicate whether or not a project is on track.
However, the minutes also say that “despite resourcing and financial constraints, there remains confidence that the programme is deliverable”.
But members of the group “were asked for input on how to unblock and accelerate progress”.
The Education Reform Programme Board is responsible for overseeing the establishment of a new national qualifications body, a new inspectorate, a new national education agency and a Centre for Teaching Excellence.
However, there are fears in the sector that the changes will amount to little more than a rebrand of existing bodies.
The Education Reform Programme Board includes the heads of the bodies undergoing reform, including Gillian Hamilton, the interim chief executive of Education Scotland; Janie McManus, the interim chief inspector of education; and Fiona Roberston, who recently stepped down as chief executive of the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).
The group is chaired by Clare Hicks, the government’s director of education reform.
The minutes are the most up-to-date available and relay the discussions that took place at a meeting of the board held on 22 January. They were published on 31 March.
In particular, the minutes reveal the board’s concern about “potential blockers”, including the lack of clarity about where the accreditation function, currently carried out by the SQA, will sit in the future and possible “amendments to the Bill”.
These issues, the minutes say, “may create unforeseen resource-intensive periods impacting on capacity to deliver transition requirements”.
The Education (Scotland) Bill seeks to establish a new body called Qualifications Scotland and also to create the new office of His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education in Scotland.
In , the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee said it supported the “general principles” of the legislation.
However, it said the bill would require “substantial amendment” to ensure that the improvements envisaged by the Scottish government became a reality.
Awarding and accreditation concerns
The committee shared concerns that “at present, there is insufficient separation of, and distinction between, the awarding and accreditation functions” and that “the accreditation function should sit separately from Qualifications Scotland”.
Currently the SQA both awards and accredits Scottish qualifications.
Professor Ken Muir, in his looking at how education reform should be taken forward, recommended that when the SQA was replaced, these functions should be split.
That recommendation was rejected by the Scottish government, but the issue has not gone away, with many continuing to make the case for change. Professor Muir himself has called for a “Scottish version of Ofqual” in England (Ofqual regulates qualifications, exams and assessments put together by other bodies).
Professor Muir has suggested that there needs to be “greater scrutiny” of Scotland’s qualifications body, “given some of the criticisms that had been levelled at the SQA, particularly over the Covid period”.
Scotland’s exam-heavy qualifications system also came in for criticism from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in its 2021 review of the way Curriculum for Excellence had been implemented.&
The OECD found ”misalignment between Curriculum for Excellence’s aspirations and the qualification system”.
Responding to the concerns raised at the Education Reform Programme Board meeting, a Scottish government spokesperson said the government’s reforms would deliver ”improvements in schools, strengthening the national education landscape to better support pupils and teachers”.
The spokesperson added that the programme was ”fully funded” and an additional £4.6 million had been provided in 2025-26 to support delivery.
“Through our programme board we are also actively managing risk, and addressing any issues as they arise,” they said.
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