Frank Crawford, HM Chief Inspector
Frank started his education career as a science teacher in St Mungo’s Academy and St
Andrew’s Secondary in the East End of Glasgow, coincidentally the part of Glasgow where
he was born and went to school. Frank had a period of secondment to Glasgow City Council
in science education, a post funded through additional money for deprived areas. He was
appointed to the Inspectorate in 1985 from a senior management post in Holy Cross High
School, North Lanarkshire.
In 1992, Frank joined the new Audit Unit within the Inspectorate and headed up the team
that produced the first national Standards and Quality Report for Scottish Schools (the
forerunner of Improving Scottish Education) and another team which rationalised
performance indicators into the first How good is our school?
Frank became Chief Inspector as head of the Audit Unit at the time of the introduction of the
setting-targets initiative. Frank has taken on a range of remits within the Inspectorate,
including involvement in international projects, and is currently responsible for secondary
inspections, special school inspections, quality systems developments, educational futures
and The Journey to Excellence project. (He likes driving fast cars, motorbikes and ride-on
lawnmowers.)