New agency to lead support for education in Scotland

Date: 18th October 2010
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Michael Russell, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, has announced that HMIE and LTS will be brought together into a new executive agency - the Scottish Education Quality and Improvement Agency.

Its role will be to:

• lead and drive forward Curriculum for Excellence
• encourage and support effective innovation
• inspire practitioners and managers to meet new challenges and to be comfortable about doing so
• ensure that quality, standards and outcomes for learners are continually driven upwards to deliver educational excellence
• provide the necessary assurance to parents and others that Scottish education really is playing the key role it needs to in facing the challenges of the 21st century.

Further and more detailed work will be carried out between now and the end of the year to define the scope, functions, structure and leadership of the new agency. The agency will be operational from 1 July 2011.