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A Review into Exam Results Issues Concerning the Scottish Qualifications Authority

2. Introduction

During the first week of September 2000, Deloitte & Touche was commissioned by the Scottish Executive in terms of its Invitation to Tender³ to undertake a "review into exam results issues concerning the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)". The review was specific to the problems encountered with the 2000 exam Diet and Ministers commissioned the review "… because they wish an independent investigation of what led to the failure to deliver complete certificates on time, and to the inability of the SQA to provide clear and reliable information about the nature and extent of that problem". This document is the final report of the review.

2.1 Remit and Scope

2.1.1 Remit

The remit for the review was that the "consultant shall carry out a full investigation of administrative, operational and engagement matters (including issues of quality assurance) relating to the processing of information about entries and results for Scottish Qualifications Authority units and courses, and make recommendations".

2.1.2 Scope

Under "Scope of Investigation", the consultants were required to "… identify any administrative, procedural or management weaknesses, and provide a set of clear recommendations on how to ensure that these problems do not recur in future years".

The Invitation to Tender also identified the following specific issues to be addressed by the review:

• "production of incomplete certificates;
• missing certificates;
• lack of management information during July / August;
• any management, organisational, administrative or quality assurance issues arising from queries raised by Centres about the quality of results;
• recruitment of examination teams and the management and quality assurance of the examination process;
• electronic data exchange between SQA and Centres;
• lack of information available to presenting Centres about candidates' performance on the day when candidates received their results;
• problems caused for the Appeals system by lack of information;
• capacity of the SQA to handle the documents made by the volume and nature of appeals."

2.1.3 Exclusions

Items specifically excluded from the consultant’s remit, following clarification during the bidding and appointment process, were consideration of:

• whether or not appropriate professional standards were applied to the assessment of candidates' work;
• the concept, development and implementation of Higher Still; and
• governance issues relating to the relationship between Ministers, the Scottish Executive and the SQA.

The consultants were required to provide an interim report, to be delivered by 17 October, and a final report to be submitted by 31 October 2000.

2.2 Approach

The review was undertaken in accordance with the methodology identified in our proposal to the Scottish Executive (30 August 2000).

In summary, we:

• held an inception meeting (6 September) with the Scottish Executive's Steering Group (see Appendix II for membership) to agree the remit and scope of the project, reporting arrangements, timetable, and an initial interview list, and held four subsequent review meetings with the Group (on 25 September, 9, 24 and 27 October);
• reviewed relevant documentation;
• conducted interviews⁴ with, inter alia, representatives and members of staff of:
• the SQA;
• the Scottish Executive;
• stakeholders; and
• suppliers of services to the SQA;
• produced an interim report for the Steering Group (on 17 October);
• met with the Steering Group to review the interim report (on 24 and 27 October); and
• submitted this final report (on 31 October).

2.3 Acknowledgements

We wish to record our thanks to all individuals and organisations that accepted our invitation to contribute to the review during a busy and trying period.

In particular, we would like to thank the former Chief Executive and the former Director - Awards Division for agreeing to participate in this review, despite having formally resigned from the SQA prior to its commencement, and the former Head of Operations Unit who had retired prior to being interviewed.

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