SQA Accreditation Staff

Head of Accreditation

George Brown is Head of Accreditation. In addition to having overall responsibility for the unit, George is responsible for ensuring that the unit's policies and procedures are implemented. George is supported in this by the Senior Accreditation Manager, Senior Regulation Manager, Research Officer and Accreditation Officer.

Senior Accreditation Manager

Carole Brown is the Senior Accreditation Manager and, along with many policy related duties, has line management responsibility for the Accreditation Managers. Like George, Carole is a core member of the UKCG which influences the development of vocational qualifications at a national level. Carole also attends all Accreditation Committee meetings and sits on the core group for the Accreditation Coordination Group.

The Accreditation Section has responsibility for:  

• the accreditation of qualifications
• supporting and advising SSCs and SSBs in the development of SVQs, Assessment Strategies and Core Skills Signposting
• supporting and advising SSCs in the development of Sector Qualifications Strategies and their associated action plans
• SCQF credit rating

 Senior Regulation Manager

Dennis Dunne is the Senior Regulation Manager and, together with the policy related duties, has line management responsibilities for Regulation Managers and Regulation Officers.  Like George, Dennis is a member of the Regulators Programme Management Group (RPMG) and Cross Regulatory Steering Group which analyses the similarities and differences between the regulators across the UK to develop common regulatory requirements to ensure a four country approach to regulation.   

The Regulation Section has responsibility for: 

• audit of awarding bodies and centres to ensure compliance with accreditation criteria, including the review of self-assessment reports
• investigations into compliance and complaints
• maintenance of awarding bodies' quality enhancement profiles
• support awarding bodies in the development of strategies, policies system and procedures to ensure compliance with accreditation criteria

 Accreditation Officer and Administration Team

There are four staff in the Administration team. The Accreditation Officer is responsible for the Administration Team and for ensuring that correct procedures are followed regarding accreditation submissions and that these submissions are brought to committee in a timely manner. The Accreditation Officer also plays a role in centre monitoring activity and carries out monitoring visits when necessary. The Senior Accreditation Administrator supports the Accreditation Officer in relation to the Accreditation Committee and also provides general administrative support. There are a further three Accreditation Administrators who also provide general administrative support to SQA Accreditation.

Accreditation Managers

There are 9 Accreditation Managers with sector responsibilities. The Accreditation Managers liaise directly with the specific sector skills councils and awarding bodies which lie within their responsibility. The Accreditation Managers have responsibility for preparing qualification submissions which are presented to ACG (Accreditation Co-ordination Group) for accreditation on behalf of the awarding bodies and sector skills councils for which they have responsibility.

Credit Rating

The credit rating service provides an opportunity for organisations to attain SCQF credit ratings for the qualifications, learning programmes and training programmes which they currently offer.

Regulation Managers - Quality Assurance

Regulation Managers have a remit which primarily focuses on quality assurance activities across all awarding bodies. In this role, they lead on the audit activities. Regulation Managers also lead on current developments in joint regulation and work in collaboration with other regulators across UK.

Regulation Officers also have a remit with respect to quality assurance, particularly leading centre monitoring activities, which are carried out by SQA Accreditation.

Regulation Officers

There are three Regulation Officers who support SQA Accreditation's regulatory and quality assurance function by undertaking regular centre monitoring visits to awarding body centres of learning. The Accreditation Officer supports Regulation Officers in their monitoring activities and will carry out monitoring visits where necessary.

Research Officer and SVQ Information Section

Rowena McConkey manages and supports research activities related to the work of the unit. She also manages the SVQ Information Section staffed by the SVQ Information Officer and the SVQ Information Assistant. The SVQ Information Officer prepares statistical reports on SVQ take-up across all awarding bodies. The SVQ Information Assistant provides valuable support to the Information Officer in achieving these objectives, as well as ensuring that information recorded on the SQA Accreditation's information management system is correct.

 

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