Education Department review 'won't be soft option'

Deputy Sillars, pictured, said the Education board would start to look at who should carry out that review this autumn.

But he rejected the UK department Ofsted as being the right organisation for the job.

A review of the department was recommended three years ago after an investigation by Denis Mulkerrin – he cited lack of action on this as one of the reasons for resigning as a non-States member of the department earlier this month.

'If the department was to commission an Ofsted inspection of the department, it would in fact simply be focused on the school improvement service, led by the Standards and Learning Effectiveness team,' said Deputy Sillars.

'This could not be considered by any stretch of the imagination an inspection of the department. I can confirm that an Ofsted inspection would not cover benchmarking, best practice, innovation, skills development and administrative efficiency of all the department's activities.'

Deputy John Gollop, who raised the issue, said Ofsted inspected local authorities in the UK, so why could the body not treat the department that way.

But Deputy Sillars said that was not possible as it was a States department.

'What's the point of having an inspection, which only inspects half of us?' he said.

He confirmed that a Scottish body was one of the options to carry out the work, but there were others that still needed to be looked into.

'The board strongly believes that any inspection should be comprehensive and conducted by credible professionals, with a thorough understanding and appreciation of the types of activities the department provides,' he said.