Scottish Executive Education Department

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The Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) is the civil service department of the Scottish Executive with responsibility for: education in Scotland; social work care for children and young people; and tourism, culture and sport.

The Department is headed by Mike Ewart.The Minister for Education and Young People is Hugh Henry and he is assisted by the Deputy Minister for Education and Young People, Robert Brown.^[1]

1 History
2 Structure
- 2.1 Sponsor Department
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

The Scottish Education Department (SED) came into being as the body responsible for schooling in Scotland when it was formed from the Church of Scotland's Board of Education for Scotland in 1872.

The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 made education compulsory and took over the running of schools from the Church of Scotland. Burgh as well as parish schools now came under School Boards run by local committees. It was originally called the Scotch Education Department (see Scotch), was a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, and had its offices in London. In 1885 the department became a responsibility of the new ministerial post of Secretary for Scotland, under whom the Scottish Office was set up in Dover House, Whitehall, London.

In 1918 the department was moved to Edinburgh and the name was changed to the Scottish Education Department, in accordance with Scottish usage. The Secretary for Scotland became the Secretary of State for Scotland in 1926. The department was renamed the Scottish Office Education Department (SOED) in 1991, and the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department (SOEID) in 1995.

With devolution in 1999 the new Scottish Executive set up the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) to oversee school education whilst the Scottish Executive Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department - now Enterprise Transport and Lifelong Learning Department (ETLLD) - took over responsibility from the former SED for further and higher education and also maintenance grants for Scottish university students through the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, an Executive Agency of ETLLD.

The SEED oversees a number of initiatives within Scottish education, including the Schools of Ambition programme.

[edit] Structure

The Department is structured into 4 groups^[2]:

Children, Young People and Social Care Group- formulates Executive policy and resources on: children's rights, support for families, child protection, regulation of childcare centres and pre-school education, looked after children and quality of social care services.

Schools Group- manages policy covering national priorities in education, teachers and schools, New Community Schools, social justice, school ethos and pupil welfare, health education, special educational needs, support and inclusion, new educational developments and qualifications, and the curriculum.

Tourism, Culture and Sport Group- manages policy covering tourism, the arts, film, architecture, cultural heritage, sport, Gaelic and liaison with the UK Government on broadcasting and the lottery.

Information and Analytical Services (IAS) Division- assist the department by producing statistics, promoting international links, managing the department's research programme and carrying out economic analysis and evaluation of policy.