Regulatory Activity 2022-23

SQA Accreditation’s regulatory function includes the approval of awarding bodies and carrying out awarding body audits and provider monitoring visits.

SQA Accreditation’s quality assurance processes are based on a range of measures, and compliance was assessed against the Regulatory Principles (2021) and the associated Regulatory Principles Directives.

Awarding Bodies

The number of SQA Accreditation approved awarding bodies remained the same throughout the finanical year — although two prospective awarding bodies came forward seeking approval. The full list of approved awarding bodies can be found here.

Issues and Recommendations

During 2023-24, audit and provider monitoring activity identified that the greatest number of Issues and Recommendations were recorded against:

• Principle 5: The awarding body and its providers must provide clear information on their procedures, products and services and ensure that they are accurate and appropriate to accredited qualifications.
• Principle 7: The awarding body must have an effective approach for communicating with its staff, stakeholders and SQA Accreditation.
• Principle 9: The awarding body and its providers must maintain accurate documents, records and data.

Those principles that have the greatest number of Issues and Recommendations raised during audit or PMV activity are key areas for SQA Accreditation, approved awarding bodies and providers to learn from and consider in future activity.