11th August 2025
The Education (Scotland) Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament in June. It focuses on the creation and functions of Qualifications Scotland, and the establishment of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education in Scotland and the role of the Chief Inspector of Education. The Bill received Royal Assent on 6 August 2025 to become an Act. Connect has summarised key points from the Act, including information on how parental voices will be heard.
Qualifications Scotland will replace the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA). Its main function will be to deliver and assess qualifications. The new body will be held accountable by independent reviews and charters put in place by learners, parents and teachers. Other changes include:
- Setting out a national approach for reforming the curriculum, qualifications, and assessment. Connect is already involved in this process, as a member of the Curriculum Improvement Cycle Advocacy Forum set up by Education Scotland
- Reviewing assessment methods for SCQF Levels 4 and 5. The aim of this is to reduce the focus on external exams for some courses by using ongoing assessments and practical assessments
- Reviewing existing qualifications to make learner pathways clearer, and to make sure work-based qualifications and other pathways are held in equal esteem
- Continuing the design and development of Skills Development Scotland’s ‘Scotland’s Learner Profile’, which will record young people’s achievements and successes
- A new programme of professional learning for educators, designed to support them to adopt changes to curriculum and assessment
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Developing more robust evaluation approaches, using inspection reports to review the updates to the curriculum, qualifications and assessments and how this impacts children and young people.
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education in Scotland (HMIE) will be established as an independent inspectorate of Scottish education, removing this function from Education Scotland. HMIE will have the power to decide the frequency and focus of inspections, and Education Scotland will focus more on the design and delivery of the curriculum. These changes are designed to make sure that Scottish schools are inspected independently, with greater input from children and young people, parents and teachers.
As a result of the Act, parental representation will be built into advisory councils for both Qualifications Scotland and HMIE, and Qualifications Scotland must prepare a learner charter including the viewpoints and representation of parents and carers. Below we list the mentions of parents and carers in the Act:
- Establishment of Strategic Advisory Council to have ‘one or more members appointed to the council must represent the interests of parents and carers of children and young people undertaking a Qualifications Scotland qualification’ (P6)
- The learner charter prepared by Qualifications Scotland must include parents and carers of children and young people undertaking a Qualifications Scotland qualification (P7)
- The Chief Inspector must establish and maintain an Advisory Council which must include representatives of parents and carers of persons receiving education at ‘relevant educational establishments’ – ie a school, provider of school education, or provider of further or higher education (P22)
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Modification of the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 to remove ‘Her Majesty’s inspectors and substitute ‘His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education in Scotland’ throughout and replace ’HMIE’ with ‘the Chief Inspector’ (P55-56).
More about the Bill can be found here and the final version of the Act can be viewed here.