New ‘honesty’ rules for awarding organisations kick in from December

Awarding organisations required to act with honesty and integrity or face fines

Awarding organisations required to act with honesty and integrity or face fines

Awarding organisations have warned they face fresh layers of bureaucracy after Ofqual confirmed plans to add new enforceable “principles” to its bulging rulebook.

The assessment regulator confirmed on Thursday it will introduce new “principle conditions” to its already 100+ page general conditions of registration (GCR) for awarding organisations from December 4.

The six principles instruct awarding organisations to “act with honesty and integrity”, use evidence to make decisions, make sure their qualifications are fit for purpose and “where possible, promote public confidence in qualifications”.

AOs must also act in an “open, transparent and co-operative manner with Ofqual and, as appropriate, with users of qualifications” and conduct activities “with a proactive approach to compliance with its conditions of recognition”.

Ofqual said the principles will “help ensure a consistent understanding of our rules and make their underlying expectations clear” and help awarding organisations make decisions in “novel situations”.

But awarding representatives are concerned about the additional regulatory burden this could place on them and how the subjective language of the new principles could be interpreted.

A consultation on the proposals attracted 49 responses. Analysis of the consultation responses, published alongside today’s guidance, found that 17 respondents said the first principle – to act with honesty and integrity – lacked clarity and was “subjective in nature”.

Others were concerned how the principles will be interpreted “consistently”, particularly where subjective language is used.

Ofqual addressed fears by publishing extra guidance on the principles, and told awarding organisations they will not need to declare compliance or non-compliance in their annual statement to Ofqual for 2025-26. For future years, AOs have been told to make declarations about the principles “by exception”.

Breaches of a principle condition would rarely occur in isolation, meaning AOs declaring a breach of another GCR rule will likely also have breached a principle condition, which should be declared.

But, “where the principles condition is relied on in a new, unexpected or novel scenario not covered by other conditions and it is breached, we would expect that to be reported,” Ofqual said.

Non-compliance will result in sanctions including financial penalties, remove an AO’s awarding powers and instructions for certain improvements.

Rob Nitsch, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, told FE Week that his members thought the proposals were “inevitable” but “few had any disagreement with the substance” of the new principles.

He added: “We do remain concerned about the potential for overlap with existing conditions and the additional regulatory burden that will be created for awarding organisations.

“It will be important that the three-month lead-in period is used well and that the measures that Ofqual are putting in place to improve the operational viability of the introduction of a principles condition carry through.”

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