Scottish Funding Council - good practice in planning and assessment - 2015

Key learning outcomes

• Aligning board needs to the body’s strategy when planning to fill roles
• Effective succession planning to identify the board’s different priorities when making several appointments
• Defining personal commitment to the work of the body as an essential requirement in a transparent way
• Aligning assessment methods, such as simulated activities, to the attributes sought
• Designing an application pack and application form that attracts a more diverse applicant pool and people who are new to regulated appointments
• People find it easier to demonstrate experience and knowledge than skill in a written application. This is particularly the case when applicants are given a clear steer on the type of evidence that the panel is looking for
• Allowing plenty of time for interviews and practical exercises makes the final stage of assessment a more positive experience for candidates and panels.

Background

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) is the national, strategic body responsible for funding teaching and learning provision, research and other activities in Scotland's 25 colleges and 19 universities and higher education institutions.

This round was run to find three new members for the board. Prior to the planning meeting, extensive discussions had taken place between the chair of the body and the appointing minister to ensure that there was appropriate clarity on the skills which would be needed by all new board members with some priority experience/skill areas also identified. We allocated a PAA to act as a full panel member. The other panel members were a senior civil servant, who chaired the panel, the chair of the body and an independent member who was a director of education and children’s services for a local authority.  

Planning

The SFC had recently completed a consultation exercise on its new strategy for 2015 – 2018 and this required the board to work differently and adopt new approaches. These differences were taken into account when the panel was considering the attributes sought in new board members. The panel also took into account the need to replace any specialist skills which were being lost due to board members coming to the end of their terms and which the board would still need. Alignment of board needs to board strategy, as was done in this case, is clearly representative of good practice.

At the planning meeting the selection panel used the new core skills framework to define the general skills which were felt to be important for all members. The framework was well received and the panel and sponsor team used it very effectively to reach detailed definitions of what applicants needed to demonstrate. Three very clear priority experience/skill areas emerged and it was decided that there would need to be one appointment for each priority area. The sponsor directorate and body chair also consulted widely immediately following the planning meeting to compile the best possible definitions for the priority criteria. Approximately six descriptors were agreed for each one so that both the panel and applicants had clarity about the attributes sought. 

The panel decided to test two criteria in the written application – evidence of one of the priority experience/knowledge areas along with ‘committed and passionate about the role of education and the work of the Scottish Funding Council’. The appointing minister and body chair felt it was very important that all applicants should be able to demonstrate this. Despite being a personal quality this was clearly defined using five descriptors. The panel decided to use the same redesigned application form that was used for the Creative Scotland pilot appointment round. 

The panel decided to use a practical exercise to assess most of the generic skills. Information and background reading relating to the exercise was to be sent out with the interview letters with applicants being given 30 minutes to prepare responses to three questions on the day of the interview. The exercise was based on the SFC’s new strategy and the implications for the board in implementing it.  

The panel decided to publicise the vacancies via targeted publicity to a wide variety of organisations with a full list being compiled by the sponsor directorate and Public Appointments Team. A new and more welcoming and accessible applicant information pack was used.

Applications & shortlisting

The publicity generated a relatively high number of written applications with a fairly balanced gender mix. A substantial number were from people who appeared to be new to public appointments.

As with the Creative Scotland round, the quality of the written applications was substantially better than was normally the case. The descriptors for the criteria appeared to have been effective in guiding the applicants to provide the type of evidence that the panel was looking for. 

Applicant’s answers tended to be comprehensive and relevant although our PAA acknowledged this may also be due to experience/knowledge generally being easier to evidence than ability. 

Despite being a personal quality the panel found the criterion related to commitment to the work of the SFC easy to evaluate. They felt this was aided by the clarity provided by the descriptors. The panel members also commented on how easy the applications had been to review and how much quicker this had been compared with their experience of previous rounds.

Ten applicants were shortlisted for interview.

Second stage of assessment

The practical exercise worked extremely well in providing good quality evidence of the criteria. It also enabled a discussion to follow which brought in the remaining criteria to be tested. 

One and a half hours was allowed for each interview and this enabled sufficient time for all the criteria to be covered – approximately one hour for each applicant – with the remaining thirty minutes being used to do a thorough sum up. These time slots meant that the panel did not need to go back to do any summaries at the end of the day. 

Several applicants gave positive feedback about the application/assessment process and commented about how clear the applicant pack had been.

Conclusion

The enhanced processes used for planning and design of this competition, the early proactive contact with the minister, the use of the competency framework and the simplified arrangements for application and assessment all contributed to a successful outcome. You can find out who was appointed by following this link to the press release.