Service statements

We design, quality assure and certificate qualifications which develop the skills, knowledge and competence of individuals, contributing to their personal development and the economic growth and development of Scotland.

There are two ways we achieve our aims: we act in partnership with others to develop and deliver our qualifications and services, and we are driven by the needs of our customers in all that we do.

We recognise that we have a clear responsibility to our customers to carry out our duties efficiently and effectively, and to apologise if we get things wrong.

We are committed to continually improving the quality and responsiveness of our service, and we constantly work to tailor our service as closely as we can to the needs of our customers.

What do we do?

We are the national accreditation and awarding body for Scotland. Our purpose is to help people fulfil their potential and maintain standards across Scottish education. Find out more about what we do.

Our commitment to customer service

We are committed to consultation with customers

To offer services that are as relevant as they can be, we have to keep in touch with those who use them. That is why we are committed to a dialogue with our customers.

We carry out regular satisfaction surveys of our customers to assess their needs and measure the quality of our performance. We also use other methods - such as feedback from our teams of Customer Support Managers and sectoral focus groups - to build the fullest possible picture of how customers see us and our performance.

We are committed to being accessible to our customers

Our Customer Service Team is open between 8.30am and 5pm on weekdays, with the exception of public holidays. Contact: 0303 333 0330 or Customer Service form

All our staff have personal email addresses and telephone numbers that you can use to access them direct (and outwith opening hours).

Queries can also be submitted to our Customer Service Team through social media (SQA Facebook, Sam SQA Facebook, @sqanews, @mysqa_sam, Linkedin).

We cater for visitors with special needs, and wheelchair access is available at our main offices. A guide to the facilities available at all our offices is sent to customers in advance of pre-arranged visits.

We deal with personal callers promptly and courteously.

We are committed to responding to enquiries promptly

We are committed to responding to all written communication in a timely manner and all enquiries receive a prompt and courteous acknowledgement. 

Our aim is to provide a full response to enquiries within five working days. If your enquiry is complex in nature or needs further research or investigation we may need to refer it to another team, in these cases it may take longer for us to provide a response. If this is the case we aim to provide a full response within 20 working days. If our investigation into your enquiry will take longer than 20 working days, we will let you know when to expect a response.  

We handle telephone calls - whether received at our Customer Service Team or by staff using direct-dial lines or mobile phones - promptly and courteously. The Customer Service Team aim to answer incoming calls within 15 seconds.

Our staff identify themselves by name when answering calls. If the staff member you have called is unavailable, you will be invited to leave a message. Telephone messages and voicemail messages will be responded to when the staff member returns to the office.

We are committed to the following service targets for our awarding and accrediting functions

Assessment and Quality Assurance

Validation

We will:

Approval

We will:

Verification and Systems Monitoring

Validation

We will:

Centres outwith Scotland will be subject to individual contract arrangements.

External Assessment

For our National Courses we will:

Contract Services

For our Contract Services contracts we will:

E-assessment

We will:

Candidate Data Processing and Certification

For candidate registration and entry for qualifications, we will:

Certification

We will:

Replacement Certificates

We will:

Finance and Charges

Notification of charges

We will:

Communication

Qualifications

Our qualifications must be fit for purpose and are reviewed periodically as part of our five-year review schedule. Regular updates are posted on our website.

Accreditation

For further information on SQA Accreditation please refer to the Accreditation section.