11.The School Boards (Scotland) Act 1988 confers functions on School Boards in relation to the selection of headteachers and other senior school staff (see sections 11 and 15 and Schedule 2). Following the McCrone Report (A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century - the report of the Committee of Inquiry into professional conditions of service for teachers), an agreement was reached among the Scottish Executive, education authorities and teachers’ representatives (outlined in a document entitled A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century) which aims to provide an improved and simplified career structure for the teaching profession, to be introduced from April 2002. As part of this new structure the grade of assistant headteacher will no longer exist and will be subsumed into the grade of deputy headteacher.
12.Section 2 of the Act removes all references to assistant headteachers from the School Boards (Scotland) Act 1988. It also disapplies the requirements set out in paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 to that Act (which oblige education authorities to advertise the post of deputy headteacher and to set up a committee to consider a short leet of candidates and make recommendations as to the filling of such a post) which would otherwise apply where an existing assistant headteacher is being regraded to the post of deputy headteacher.