Qualifications and Regulation Group

Qualifications and Regulation Group

08 March 2016, Paper 2 – Regulation Overview

Regulation in England

Since the last meeting of the Qualification Issues Group on 07 October2015there have been a number ofdevelopments in relation to regulation by Ofqual. Key areas are outlined below:
1. TQT and the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF)

■TQT –From 01 October 2015 it has been a requirement for any new qualifications that are entered into regulation to have a TQT value assigned to them. All existing qualifications will be required to have TQT assigned by 31 December 2017 (but this date will be kept under review). RO39 and RO43 (see RO letters section below) identify categories of qualifications for which are required to comply with the new requirements by 30 June 2016.

■Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) – the RQF is now in operation and is based on level (Entry 1- level 8) and size, expressed as Total Qualification Time (TQT).

■A Regulatory Impact Assessment on withdrawing the QCF was published finally on 22 October 2015 on the GOV.UK website.

2. RO Letters

■RO Letters – Since the last meeting five RO letters have been issued by Ofqual:

-RO42, Regulatory Report, Spring Audits which accompanied the release of the report on the spring 2015 tranche of audits. This reminded AOs thatwhether or not they were audited on this particular occasion, they ‘should have due regard to the findings of this report’. AllAOs were strongly advised to consider both the regulatory context of the report and the audit findings, and consider whether there are lessons for their approaches, systems and qualifications.

-RO43, New Conditions on Total Qualification Time and publication of revised specifications, which followed on from the proposals contained in RO39 and confirmed the arrangements for the introduction of TQT requirements for specific qualifications by 30 June 2016. The qualifications that this applies to are those that are used in school performance measures in England and that have a UCAS tariff (other than GCSEs, AS, A Levels and Functional Skills).

-RO44, Complaints in HE qualifications, which outlined the way student complaints should be handed in relation to institutions which provide relevant HE courses (which lead to the award of Ofqual regulated qualifications), and which are members of the OIA Scheme.

-RO45, Changes to the regulation of vocational qualifications in Northern Ireland, which informed AOs of the plans for CCEA to become the single qualifications regulator in Northern Ireland.

-RO46A, Changes to the regulation of vocational qualifications in Northern Ireland, followed on from RO45 to provide an update on the plans for changes to the regulation of VQs in Northern Ireland. Once the required legislative changes to the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 have been completed (by the end of April 2016) CCEA Regulation will become the regulator for vocational qualifications in Northern Ireland. The letter also provided information on how AOs should manage the withdrawal of qualifications from Ofqual regulation under the requirements of Condition D7.

3. The Ofqual Portal
Ofqual will replace the Regulatory IT System (RITS) with the Portal and this is likely to take place shortly after the date of the meeting. A FAB webinar ‘A Practical Guide to the Ofqual Portal’ was made available on 04 March and is available to listen to again on the FAB website.

4. Guidance
Equal’s recent consultation on guidance closed at the end of January and FAB’s draft and the final response to this was circulated to members via the Update. We do not yet have a date for the final publication of this guidance.
5. Good practice
FAB has continued to have conversations with Ofqual about its approach to identifying and sharing good practice. Where audit teams identify good practice they will report this to Ofqual. AOs can provide Ofqual with examples of good practice if they wish (to Bryan Horne or Emma Scott). FAB is also working with Ofqual to explore the identification and sharing of good practice and will hold a small focus group in late April which will be led by Bryan Horne of Ofqual.
6. Ofqual Annual Statement of Compliance (Sock) 2015
Ofqual released a report on the 2015 Sock which summarises the statement of compliance responses received in 2015 as well as any action that is planned or has been taken by Ofqual. The report also confirmed that:

■During 2016, Ofqual will test declared levels of compliance through a series of risk-based audits which will focus on the validity of qualifications through their lifecycle. It will also include an audit of the arrangements that awarding organisations have in place to ensure their annual Sock is accurate.

■Ofqual plans to use a similar process for statements of compliance in 2016. Dates of the submission window will be announced in the next few months. We know that Ofqual is in discussions with the other regulators in terms of the possibility of harmonising the date for all Socks and would ideally like this to be the June- September window offered in 2015. Ofqual hopes to have added new functionality to the Portal so Socks can be submitted using that system.

7. Ofqual audit report
The Ofqual Spring audit report was published in early December 2016. The report stated that ‘in most cases’ the evidence that Ofqual collected indicated that AOs ‘had in place approaches that could secure compliance with our requirements’. There were some areas of what was referred to as ‘poor practice’ identified.There were a number of points of interest to note, including:

■The Conditions set the minimum requirements for regulated qualifications and the AOs that offer them. Ofqual hopes that AOs see the Conditions as ‘a starting point, not a destination.’

■AOs should be confident about innovating where appropriate, rather than being limited by what they and others have done before. We believe that Ofqual will shortly issue a statement on innovation for AOs.

■Unless there is evidence to the contrary, Ofqual starts from the assumption that all AOs are compliant with the Conditions.

■Recognised AOs may be audited at any time, although Ofqual makes sure ‘that the burden on any particular AO is not disproportionate’. This is point that a number of members may not agree with based on their recent, frequent inclusion in audit activity.

■Where Ofqual incorporates good practice into guidance it will be necessary ‘for all AOs to have regard to it’.

■If Ofqual judges that that the good practice it has found should become an expectation it will consider whether it should consult on amending the Conditions.

■The summary of the findings of the Spring Audits (pages 8-11) provides information in relation to each of the Conditions that were audited (E1.1, E1.2, E1.3, E4, A5.1- A5.3). This information includes examples of ‘poor practice’ which in many cases reflect ‘an instance’ or ‘an example’ which was identified in the overall audit sample of 22 AOs.

8. Ofqual conference – 08 December 2015
Ofqual held its inaugural annual conference on 08 December 2015. AOs were invited to send two delegates and to submit questions in advance of the event. We believe it is their intention to hold a similar event again, potentially in the Spring of 2017.

Regulation in Wales

Qualifications Wales (QW) formally commenced its duties on 21 September 2015 as the independent regulator for Wales. Since then, there has been activity in a number of areas, including:

1.DAQW cleanseactivity has taken place to remove qualifications from DAQW before the data is transferred into QiW.

2. QIW development, user testing and training to support AOs in their use of this IT system once it is launched (in early April 2016).

3. Risk exerciseto gather AOs ‘top 5 risks’ and inform QWs understanding of the risks that AOs are facing.

4. Statement of compliancefollow- up, and as noted above we are hoping that QW can harmonise its Sock window in 2016 with that of Ofqual and CCEA.

5. Sector QualificationReview activity which has begun in the Health and Social Care sector and is planned to expand into other sectors. QW has promised to supply a list of sectors where this activity is planned to take place.

6. Charging policy for regulatory activity was published in February and confirmed that there were currently no plans to charge for this activity but the policy would be kept under review.

7. Categories of qualifications

In February, QW issued its Rules about Applications for Approval and Designation of Qualifications. The rules aimed to provide clarity to AOs about the information that Qualifications Wales needs to be able to consider a qualification for approval or designation.

The rules also aimed to provide clarity on the process to apply for a qualification to be approved or designated.

8.Apprenticeships

There was a consultation on apprenticeships in Wales with a closing date of 24 April. FAB responded to this consultation and worked with the Wales Advisory Group on the response.We are still awaiting the formal Welsh Government response to this consultation. The Welsh Government currently has a member of staff working on how the Welsh apprenticeship system could work effectively beside the new trailblazer approach to apprenticeships in England.

Regulation in Northern Ireland

RO45 (see above) was issued earlier this year and confirmed that in future, CCEA will take responsibility for the regulation of VQs in Northern Ireland. Progress towards meeting this goal is expected to be very swift with supporting legislative changes due in April 2016. This will certainly be an area requiring increased focus and attention from FAB in the future.

At the same time as RO46A/2016 was issued by Ofqual, CCEA issued a letter to Responsible Officers, which included a number of points of interest, including:

■From 1 April 2016, CCEA Regulation will accept the Ofqual recognition status for AOs currently offering Professional and Technical (P&T) qualifications in Northern Ireland.

■CCEA has a statutory requirement to accredit qualifications offered to learners in Northern Ireland and this requirement will be phased in over the next 2 to 3 years.

■CCEA’sfirst task will be to develop and publish qualifications criteria that reflect the use and purposes of P&T qualifications. The initial focus will be on the qualifications offered to support learners accepted by FE colleges onto the new DEL Youth Training and Apprenticeship programmes.

■From April 2016 CCEA Regulation will use the Portal (replacement for RITS) developed by Ofqual and accommodating specific Northern Ireland requirements agreed with CCEA Regulation.

■CCEA Regulation will work with Ofqual on a hand over of Northern Ireland specific compliance and audit activities ongoing at April 2016. Awarding organisations impacted by this information transfer are being written to separately by Ofqual.

■CCEA Regulation will take a risk-based approach allowing for a focus of effort on those areas/AOs considered to have the greatest potential impact.

■CCEA will require an annual statement of compliance from all AOs.

■Further detail of these changes to regulation in NI will be provided by representatives of DEL, CCEA and Ofqual via a webinar which will take place on Wednesday 16 March 2016.

A Frequently Asked Questions document for Awarding Organisationswas provided in Annex 1 of the letter.

Regulation in Scotland

The landscape in Scotland remains relatively stable. Items covered at the recent FAB/JCQ Scotland Advisory Group included:

■SQA Accreditation’s planned simplification to qualification titling conventions.

■Ongoing concerns about the future of NOS.

■Progress on the Education Scotland Bill.

The Group is asked to:

■Identify any areas of recent regulatory change that require further clarification.

■Identify any issues or concerns that arise in relation to recent regulatory developments.

■Identify any further action required by FAB in relation to the regulatory developments outlined above.