The English Examining Boards: Their route from independence to government outsourcing agencies

177

Curriculum Authority (QCA) subsumed SCAA and NCVQ and set up new offices in
Piccadilly. But this time, there was an additional factor that went beyond all previous
moves toward unification. An examining board manager was all too aware of the
important change in the status of the unified regulator:

The fundamental change in regulation was the statutory regulation that came
with QCA. Because nothing was statutory before that. And the fact that you 've
got statutory regulation means that you ^,re backed up by a law which means
they could step in, they could come and see our books, for no...very strong
reasons, really. There ^,s only one other organisation that can walk in and look
at your books and that is Customs & Excise. But they can. The Secretary of
State can just say, “Go and see their books. ” I think that changed the
relationship quite significantly.

(0CR2 2003)

QCA was described as “in many ways a classic late-twentieth century quango -
officially independent of its parent department, but in practice highly dependent on
the ministry that created and pays for it” (Wolf 2002b: 216). Dearing indicated in his
Report that he was aware of some potential pitfalls in his recommendations. He
spelled out possible “disadvantages of a full merger” [of NCVQ and SCAA]:

• The concentration ofpower and influence in one body, in an area of key
national importance.

• A risk that the strength of the systems developed over the decades for the
academic awards, and the standing they have with the universities, could lead
to these approaches superseding those valued by industry.

• A very demanding role for the chairman∕woman and members of the

Authority.

• The risk that to cover all interests adequately, the membership of the
controlling body could become large and cumbersome, with an associated loss
of effectiveness.

(Dearing 1996: 32)

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