FOI release

Revised secondary curriculum introduced in schools in September 2008

Published 16 August 2010

  • Date requested: 19 July 2010
  • Publish date: 16 August 2010
  • Updated: 09 November 2010

1. Request

Can the department disclose the following information:

  • the amount of money it spent on research in preparation for the revised secondary curriculum introduced into schools in September 2008
  • the amount spent on developing and writing the subsequent curriculum guidance
  • case studies and relevant documentation, advice and guidance, including the monies given to CfBT for introducing the curriculum into schools between September 2008 and March 2010
  • costs incurred by QCA for developing the new secondary curriculum website.

2. Release

Most of the work relating to the development and introduction of the revised secondary curriculum was undertaken by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) under its remit from the former Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). All the information set out in the table except for the support provided by CfBT has therefore been provided by the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), which is the successor body to QCA.

1. Research in preparation for the revised curriculum (cost of consultation, conferences and seminars) £458k
2. Developing and writing the curriculum guidance, case studies, etc. including curriculum and other associated guidance (printing and distributing handbooks) £652K
3. CfBT support for schools £4.8m
4. Developing the new QCA secondary curriculum website (best estimate) £1.7m
  1. These figures exclude VAT.
  2. Where relevant, figures do not include any estimates for related QCA staff salaries, and staff IT equipment and related IT expenditure. It has not been possible to attribute a proportion of QCA staff costs to the revised secondary curriculum work as staff were employed across a range of other curriculum activity at the same time when the revised curriculum was developed.
  3. It has not been possible to estimate how much was spent on DCSF staff time in relation to the development of the new curriculum.