This Annual Review 2006 reports on the work of QCA during the past year.

We had four objectives

The first was to exercise our 'watchdog' role: to ensure a fair deal for all learners, and for those who teach them. QCA is the regulator of the supply side (the 117 awarding bodies accredited to deliver qualifications and assessments) in the interests of learners of all ages and the public. Our effectiveness and independence as a regulator is critical to the assurance of national standards, and to maintaining public confidence in qualifications and assessments.

The second was to deliver the examinations and tests for 2006 in a way that provides support for schools and colleges and reduces the administrative burden involved in the management of assessment. The 'cottage industry' of five years ago has been transformed and modernised, thanks to the provision by Government of the required financial resources, the professionalism and commitment of the awarding bodies and contractors, and the programme management skills of National Assessment Agency staff. In addition, very significant steps have been taken to support professional judgement in the classroom, and to prepare the ground for further improvement in the future.

Our third objective was in qualifications and skills. Here the challenges have been to introduce the new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF), in anticipation of the skills agenda proposed by Lord Leitch and without which that agenda cannot be delivered effectively; the introduction of the first five Diplomas from 2008, with the others to follow in the two subsequent years; the revision of A levels and GCSEs; and the introduction of other reforms set out in this report. In scale, ambition and potential, the Diplomas alone amount to the biggest single educational reform currently in progress in the Western world.

The fourth objective has been to develop the foundation on which everything else is built - the curriculum. What children should be like, and what they should know, be able to do, and be able to understand are matters on which every adult in this country has an opinion. This is in some respects the most difficult area of our work. As the curriculum authority for the nation, we are assiduous in listening to the views of the teaching profession, business and industry, media and the community, and in taking those views into account. But we have a statutory responsibility to take a position based on professional judgement, and not merely to reflect a consensus. Our advice to Government is informed, considered, based on evidence, independent and public.

It has been a good year: one of energy, commitment and very real achievement. But the agenda is a work in progress: much remains to be done. I am privileged to lead an organisation of such talent and professionalism.