Transparency data

Chief Regulator’s report: 15 June 2022

Updated 20 July 2023

Applies to England

This document has been subject to redactions

Date

15 June 2022

Title

Chief Regulator’s Report (Open Paper)

Report by

Dr Jo Saxton (Chief Regulator)

Paper for information and discussion

Recommendations

1. The Board is asked to note the matters reported.

Overview

2. The first summer series of exams and formal assessments since 2019 has started positively and by the time the Board meets, will be well over half-way in terms of GCSE and A level papers taken. Our extensive engagement with students, school and college leaders and other stakeholders during the spring has indicated broad support both for the return to exams, and for the package of support that Ofqual and the Department for Education (DfE) have put in place for students.

3. Ofqual’s work to strengthen the qualifications that will remain eligible for funding following the Post-16 Qualifications Review continues, and we plan to publish our Level 3 consultation decisions in June. The responses the Board agreed to the DfE’s consultations on qualifications at Level 2 and below, and on the Lifelong Learning Entitlement and reforms to HE funding, have been published and well received.

4. The 2022 to 2025 corporate plan, launched in early May, was well received by stakeholders as well as in the media. Our aim to safely steer the future of assessment, including the use of technology in assessment, has been widely welcomed.

Summer series of exams and formal assessments

General Qualifications

5. The general qualifications summer exam series started on 16 May. The timetable will end on 28 June, with 29 June set aside as a contingency day.

6. At the time of writing, the series is running smoothly. There has been the typical range of issues arising. Centres appear to be managing with invigilation arrangements, taking advantage of the relaxations we encouraged JCQ to permit this year. We have tracked the exam boards’ recruitment of markers and are assured that concerns about marker shortages have not been realised, except in a small number of historically hard-to-recruit-to subjects for which exam boards have well-established mitigations and action plans on which to draw. There is an ongoing issue, however, with the recruitment of temporary staff to manage logistical and scanning centres, and we are monitoring this.

7. Once marking is underway, we undertake close scrutiny to check it is on track. We will continue to meet regularly with the exam boards throughout the series, both collectively and individually, to gather feedback on how exams are going from their perspective and discuss their management of any emerging risks.

8. The provision of advance information for most GCSEs, AS and A levels this year appears to have been generally well received. The most widely reported issue concerns centres giving their students the advance information for a different qualification to that for which they were entered.

9. From early June, the exam boards will formally provide Ofqual with data about student absence from exams. We have initiated this exceptional data collection because of concerns that more students than usual might miss all their exams in a subject for covid-related reasons. The information we have informally collected indicates, at the time of writing, that attendance rates are around normal levels. The 2022 timetable, which has at least 10 days between the first and last exam in each subject, should reduce the risk that a student misses all of their exams because of illness.

VTQ performance table qualifications

10. The VTQ summer series of performance table qualifications includes over 465k entries to 789 different assessments between 28 April and 1 July. At the time of writing, the series is running smoothly, with the typical range of issues arising. Monitoring of the VTQ awarding organisations offering the largest volumes of assessments in this series (City & Guilds, NCFE) has now increased in frequency, alongside the monitoring of exam boards that offer VTQs.

National assessments

11. Key stage 2 National assessments took place during the week beginning 9 May. Marking is underway and results are to be released to schools on 5 July. We are receiving daily management information from Capita, via the Standards and Testing Agency (STA), throughout this period.

12. Ofqual is currently monitoring marking progress data and will in due course observe standard setting arrangements. If we identify any concerns we would raise them via the appropriate route.

Summer 2022 engagement and communications

Visits

13. My programme of visits has continued and I have now met with over 100 senior leaders in over 70 centres. Since March I have visited a number of schools and colleges, including in Plymouth, Blackpool and Durham. The students I met were keen to sit exams, though some were nervous, having never done so before. In the main they appreciated the advance information, and felt that formulae and equation sheets ‘took the stress from their shoulders’. The editor of Schools Week accompanied us and reported on the Blackpool visit. This engagement has continued to provide a valuable insight into how things are feeling on the ground in schools and colleges. Those I have met have appreciated Ofqual taking the time to visit and to listen to their views and perspectives.

Stakeholder engagement

14. Colleagues continue to engage with a wide range of stakeholders. We provided a blog for the Chartered College of Teaching, and contributed to webinars organised by the Education Policy Institute, the Chartered College of Teaching and Parentkind.

15. We have published a guide for schools and colleges on the 2022 arrangements for GCSEs, AS and A levels, to complement the guide for students, and have updated our guidance for those offering VTQs.

16. In the run-up to the summer series, a large number of one-to-one meetings with a wide range of stakeholders were undertaken. We heard a variety of different views. Often stakeholders were positive that exams would be going ahead, but some also highlighted concerns about how schools and colleges would secure sufficient invigilators and how they would provide for reasonable adjustments, particularly for those students who are anxious.

17. Close engagement with those centres and stakeholders with a particular interest in VTQs also continues, through a range of one-to-one, and group meetings, some held jointly with DfE. We presented to the Association of Colleges’ Policy Group on how grading is working this summer, and how this may play out. Overall stakeholders, colleges and other providers are positive about the progress of exams and formal assessments so far. They are managing the logistical challenges of exam delivery. They remain very alert to the potential of perceived unfairness between groups of students and qualifications. Close engagement will be maintained throughout the delivery period.

18. In addition, we are speaking to some of the schools and colleges visited on the listening tour and through our Centre Reference Group, to hear their views during the series. Intelligence gathered from all discussions is being shared internally on a weekly basis and, as appropriate, with DfE and exam boards.

19. We have been engaging with UCAS about the issues in relation to applications to university this year. We have worked and continue to work with them to support us in communicating the arrangements for qualifications this year, particularly grading, to higher education providers.

Communications and media

20. Our focus in April and early May was to reassure students and remind them of the unprecedented package of support in place for this year’s exams and assessments.

21. We shared our guide for schools and colleges widely on social media. We also published material on social media aimed at students, signposting to our student guide and stress management techniques. This content included short videos of students and alumnae explaining how they prepared for exams.

22. I have engaged informally with education correspondents at the Press Association and the BBC. I gave an interview to TES on grading, while the Chair and Deputy CR spoke to ITV Meridian and BBC Leeds. The Chair also recorded clips for the BBC package on the first day of exams.

23. Recognising the need to explain grading more clearly to teachers, we recorded a podcast with Laura McInerney. It explains how grading will work this year, and we have promoted via TES, our own social media channels, and those of stakeholders.

24. When exams started, in mid-May, we reduced our communication activity to avoid distracting students. We have updated our rolling brief with advice about sites falsely claiming to offer live exam material for sale, and a reminder of requirements for secure handling of exam papers.

Arrangements for 2023

General qualifications

25. The changes made to general qualifications in response to the pandemic were put in place for 2022 only. In light of this, and the current absence of public health restrictions that would affect the conduct of assessments, Ofqual and DfE issued a statement on 10 May. The statement confirmed the arrangements in the next academic year for subject content in GCSEs, AS and A levels, and non-exam assessment (NEA) in those qualifications. In line with our respective roles and responsibilities, Ofqual confirmed the arrangements for non-exam assessment and DfE for subject content. We shared that statement with Board members prior to publication.

26. The statement noted that the DfE and Ofqual will continue to monitor the path and impact of the pandemic and evaluate the delivery of arrangements this year, including the provision of exam aids, such as formulae sheets, and advance information, before finalising 2023 arrangements. It also confirmed that Ofqual would consider the approach to grading for 2023 in light of outcomes in 2022 and that Ofqual would ask exam boards to consider the 2023 exam timetable.

27. We have started to gather the evidence we will need to determine our position on these issues. Decisions on grading are solely Ofqual’s responsibility. Decisions that have an impact on the assessment of the subject content, for which DfE is responsible, require both organisations to agree that they are appropriate.

Vocational and technical qualifications

28. The statement explained that for VTQs, awarding organisations decided which adaptations were appropriate for their qualifications in accordance with Ofqual’s Vocational and Technical Qualifications Contingency Regulatory Framework (VCRF) and some adaptations were in response to public health restrictions. Given that public health restrictions are no longer in place, the statement explained that these adaptations are no longer necessary for the academic year 2022 to 2023 onwards.

29. For those VTQs used alongside or instead of GCSEs, AS and A levels, we aim to ensure that students taking VTQs are not disadvantaged compared to their peers taking general qualifications. Therefore, we need to understand what the final arrangements for general qualifications are in 2023 before we can decide whether it is necessary to retain the VCRF beyond the summer and to permit awarding organisations to make adaptations in academic year 2022 to 2023.

30. When we have reached a decision on the appropriate time to close down the VCRF, we will issue a notice in order to bring that into effect. We are however considering whether to retain the VCRF in academic year 2022 to 2023 as a contingency measure. We will also be working with colleagues across the organisation to determine whether there are aspects of the VCRF that could helpfully be retained in Ofqual’s General Conditions of Recognition after it has been closed down.

Ofqual consultations and decisions

31. On 31 March we published consultation decisions, along with Conditions, requirements and guidance, for Digital Functional Skills qualifications. Technical evaluation will take place from 5 September 2022. There will be upfront engagement with awarding organisations throughout July in preparation for the technical evaluation window.

32. We received 88 responses to the technical consultation on Conditions, requirements and guidance for the new GCSEs in French, German and Spanish. We aim to publish consultation decisions, along with Conditions, requirements and guidance, in June.

33. In May we published new guidance for awarding organisations on designing accessible assessments. This was positively received by stakeholders.

Technical Education Reform

34. The Skills Bill has received Royal Assent and now becomes the Skills Act.

35. The technical education reform programme, including the introduction of the remaining T Levels and the next cycle of Higher Technical Qualifications, remains on track. IfATE intends to engage the market to procure the ‘next generation’ of T Levels this summer.

36. Our work to strengthen the qualifications that will remain eligible for funding following the Post-16 Qualifications Review continues to progress. We have concluded our policy consultation on our proposals for the relevant Level 3 qualifications and are preparing to launch our corresponding technical consultation setting out the regulations. A separate paper is provided to the Board on this matter.

37. Related to this, DfE have just concluded their consultation on their proposals for qualifications at Level 2 and below. We published our response to this consultation on 3 May, where we welcomed the proposals and advised that the timeline is reviewed to correspond with the revised Level 3 timeline which has gone back a year. We also recommended that further work is done to better segment the market and define provision based on qualification purpose. Our response was welcomed by DfE and we are now working with them to support their segmentation.

38. We published our response to the Department for Education’s consultation on the Lifelong Learning Entitlement and reforms to Higher Education funding on 12 May. We focused our response on the proposals to increase modularity and therefore the need for a system of credit-accumulation-and-transfer. We advised that this needs careful introduction so as not to compromise qualification quality and integrity.

39. We have engaged extensively with stakeholders in relation to the reform and the implementation of the Skills Act, and on our regulation of apprenticeship end point assessments. As well as the joint strategy day with IfATE, we attended the strategy day of the FAB Board, and provided a keynote and supported workshops for their EPA conference. We have also contributed to AoC members’ meetings.

Recognition

40. The end of May sees the end of the first phase of the External Quality Assurance transition programme. Around 100 apprenticeship End Point Assessment Organisations (EPAOs) applied for Ofqual recognition and 52 have achieved it. We have managed to retain the quality bar whilst also maintaining market coverage, as 96% of phase 1 apprentices are now protected by regulation. We now have 480 Apprenticeship Standards in total in our purview and are on track to have 592 by 31 December.

41. We now enter phase 2 of the transition programme, which is the final phase. All 30 applications from EPAOs that we were expecting came in on time and will now be processed with a view to transferring the outstanding Apprenticeship Standards by Christmas. With 110 recognised awarding organisations in total now offering End Point Assessments, we are confident that a thriving market will remain.

42. In business-as-usual recognition activity, 4 organisations have surrendered their Ofqual recognition in the last 12 months.

Strategy and Markets

Technology in Assessment

43. A key component of Ofqual’s strategic priority of “Shaping the future of qualifications and assessments” is our work to explore the potential benefits of technology in assessment. We have formed an internal programme to bring together this work. This will help inform the optimal timeline, investment required and pros and cons of different approaches.

44. Ofqual will undertake this work jointly with DfE, recognising that both parties have key roles to play in decision making and safe implementation of any increased use of technology. The outcome of this work will enable us to take thoughtful, evidence-led and cautious decisions – recognising the significant risks that any greater use of technology will bring.

45. The technology in assessment programme of work will focus particularly on where technology might realise improvements in validity, reliability and accessibility. We do not see technology as an end in itself and recognise that there will likely always be a place for handwritten assessment.

46. The major project looking at implementation options will be designed in the next few months, to launch fully in the autumn. We anticipate this work may take a minimum of 12 months to complete – in light of the complexity to address and the number and interest of stakeholders to engage.

Regulatory and Corporate Services

Government Finance Function Award

47. The Finance and Commercial team has won the Government Finance Function Award for Inclusion. The Awards recognise and celebrate individuals’ and teams’ hard work and achievements within the government finance and internal audit community. The team won the award for demonstrating that inclusivity is core to their values.

Information Management

48. The team has been supporting the introduction of new ways of working, ensuring all technology is fit-for-purpose and supporting users as they make much more use of the office again.

49. A key area of focus over the last quarter has been on shaping and developing digital solutions that will support several key areas of Ofqual’s work, most notably the management of external experts, Public Facing Services and Legal Case Management. Alongside these new developments, the team is delivering improvements to existing digital solutions, which signals a positive step forwards – until recently capacity was significantly constrained and the team was limited in its ability to deliver improvements to live services.

50. Improvements have been made to the technology that supports the collection, storage and movement of data in readiness for the summer and to better support the emerging VTQ data strategy.