Stewart Sutherland (Lord Sutherland of Houndwood) agreed to report to Ofqual and to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) on problems with the delivery of National Curriculum tests in the summer of 2008.
The inquiry was established because of problems that arose in the delivery of Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 National Curriculum tests in 2008, leading to a delay in the release of results to schools from the planned date of 8 July.
The inquiry investigated what went wrong, the reasons for the problems experienced and what should be done to avoid a recurrence in future years.
The inquiry reported to Ofqual on matters within its remit, and to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families on the following issues as they related to the delivery of the tests in 2008 by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and ETS Europe (ETS):
i) How the QCA discharged its remit from the DCSF to deliver National Curriculum tests at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 in 2008, and specifically:
- how the QCA delivered against its formal success measures in relation to Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 tests in 2008;
- the appropriateness of governance and organisational arrangements within the QCA;
- the appropriateness of the DCSF’s arrangements to monitor the QCA’s delivery against its remit.
ii) The appropriateness of arrangements put in place by the QCA to procure the contract for delivery of National Curriculum tests, and the subsequent management of that contract by the QCA, and specifically:
- the procurement process from the development of the initial tender specification to the award of the contract;
- the suitability of the contract to allow delivery of the QCA’s remit;
- the arrangements for the contractor, ETS Europe, to report to the QCA;
- the arrangements for ETS to report risks to the QCA;
- the effectiveness of the QCA’s arrangements to manage the ETS contract and the delivery of National Curriculum tests in 2008;
- the functioning of IT systems and programmes to manage and deliver the National Curriculum tests and to ensure delivery of data between the contractor, ETS Europe, QCA, DCSF, and schools.
Procedures
The inquiry was carried out in private but information about it was made publicly available. The reports of the inquiry to the DCSF were published in December 2008.
The inquiry interviewed appropriate people from the following organisations: QCA, ETS Europe, Ofqual and DCSF. It also sought the views of other interested parties including markers, schools and local authorities.
Where the inquiry reported to both Ofqual and the DCSF on the same issue, it was Lord Sutherland’s role as the inquiry lead to determine how he made recommendations to each, taking into account the different roles and responsibilities of each organisation