The Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) has expressed concern over the details of Ofqual proposals in which non-accredited qualifications would appear on its official register.

The qualifications watchdog announced the plans in a consultation document, entitled Lifting the Accreditation Requirement, which puts forward allowing qualifications on its register even though they have not been submitted to Ofqual for review — known as the accreditation requirement.

However, some qualifications will still have to be accredited before going on the register, “where there is good reason to do so but in a targeted and specific way”, including A-levels, AS qualifications and GCSEs, and for awarding organisations (AOs) where Ofqual has concerns or which are newly-recognised and where additional targeted checks would be “valuable”.

The consultation, which closes on August 6, was issued along with a letter from chief regulator Glenys Stacey in which she said there would be more consultation on requiring AOs to produce a “validity strategy” on how they would ensure qualifications were valid and met the needs of end users.

She further wrote: “Our current regulatory focus for many qualifications is at the point that qualifications are first made available to schools, colleges and training providers.

“We want to change this and tailor our approach to incentivise AOs to take responsibility for their qualifications over their life cycle — as they are developed, delivered and awarded.

“We will also expect much more of a focus by AOs on gathering and acting on feedback from end users including employers as the ultimate test of a qualification’s value.”

Jill Lanning (pictured above), FAB chief executive, said she was concerned about the details of the move and was planning to meet with Ofqual officials to discuss the issue.

“We share Ofqual’s commitment to high quality vocational qualifications and welcomes the long awaited proposals to lift the detailed accreditation requirements for new vocational qualifications,” she told FE Week.

“As ever the devil will be in the detail and there is a lack of clarity around the details such as Ofqual’s proposed ‘validity strategy’ mentioned in Glenys Stacey’s letter.

“Our initial interpretation of the new condition contained in the consultation document was that the proposal was to require all qualifications offered by AOs to be submitted for Ofqual regulation — including bespoke qualifications for employers and others which are currently non-regulated.

“We are pleased to have received an assurance from Ofqual that this is not their intention which is very welcome. We look forward to meeting with Ofqual to find out more about the details of their proposals and to working with them to support the development of a regulatory system that ensures vocational qualifications can continue to be trusted and valued.”

In her letter to the sector, Ofqual’s Ms Stacey (pictured left) said the consultation, “sets out proposals to lift the requirement that all qualifications be checked by us before they are added to the list of regulated qualifications, known as the accreditation requirement. ”

Although some awarding bodies would not comment on the plans — among them was NCFE, which has been selected to pilot the new accreditation, and OCR, which said it wanted to wait until its consultation response was finalised — they have nevertheless been welcomed by David Short, head of regulation, audit and improvement at City & Guilds.

He said: “We support the changes that Ofqual is proposing, especially as it underpins a renewed focus on the validity of qualifications across their life cycle.

“It recognises that bodies like ours have effective mechanisms in place to develop qualifications and, as a result, we firmly believe that this important step will allow us to be more responsive to the skills needs of the country.”

Ofqual Q&A on accreditation proposals

Why is Ofqual proposing to allow non-accredited quals onto the register?

For most qualifications, we do not believe accreditation is the most effective way of regulating to ensure fitness for purpose across the qualification life cycle.

We want to tailor our approach to incentivise awarding organisations to take responsibility for their qualifications over their life cycle — as they are developed, delivered and awarded.

We will implement a systematic audit and inspection approach to detecting problems over the life cycle of the qualifications.

Our audit schedule will be risk-based and will include a proportion of randomly selected awarding organisations and qualifications.

We will prioritise those that pose a greater risk, are publicly funded and taken by large numbers of students, but any qualification could be reviewed at any time.

What is the difference between a regulated qual and a qual with an accreditation requirement?

Regulated qualifications are those we recognise an awarding organisation to award.

A qualification with an accreditation requirement is a regulated qualification which must be submitted to us for review (accreditation) before it can be made available to learners.

Currently, all regulated qualifications have an accreditation requirement. Our proposals mean fewer qualifications would have an accreditation requirement in the future.

Ofsted’s plan to introduce separate graded judgements for school sixth forms next academic year has enjoyed overwhelming support in an official consultation.

It had already been welcomed by much of the FE sector because it will allow school sixth forms to be directly compared with colleges, and more than 74 per cent of consultation respondents agreed, many of them strongly, with the idea (pictured is a pie chart from the consultation report, which can be viewed here).

The response to plans to introduce separate gradings for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) was also positive.

The report says: “Ofsted will introduce separate graded judgements for the EYFS and sixth form in September 2014. These judgements will be underpinned by separate grade descriptors.

“As with all other inspection grades, inspectors will be expected to gather evidence during the course of the inspection in order to arrive at a professional judgement for each area. Ofsted will deploy inspection teams with appropriate expertise.

“When arriving at the judgement on the quality of education provided by a school, expressed by the overall effectiveness, inspectors will take account of the EYFS and/or sixth form judgements (where relevant).

“However, these will not be ‘limiting judgements’ on the school’s overall effectiveness. Inspectors will consider the outcomes for the EYFS and/or sixth form and make a professional judgement of the impact on the school’s overall effectiveness grade.

“We believe that these changes will increase focus in these important areas of school provision and help to ensure that many more children and young people have the best education possible.”

The consultation received 1,498 responses, of which 39.6 per cent (536) came from teachers and 20 per cent (271) came from head teachers.

Only 10 per cent of respondents disagreed with the new judgements, which the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said could be down to schools concerned by the impact their sixth forms could have on inspection reports.

A spokesperson told FE Week: “We don’t have an issue with the separate grade. This was only removed a few years ago, so schools and colleges will be familiar with the format.

“But in schools where sixth form provision isn’t particularly strong, there may be concern about going back to separate grades. However, as the consultation response shows, for most it should not be an issue.”

Lambeth College staff who have been on strike since June 3 over new contracts went back to work today — just two days before the summer break.

The move, which means workers will be entitled to full holiday pay having returned to work before the end of the college year, comes after three days of talks between college principal Mark Silverman (pictured below) and the University and College Union (UCU), which accepted an hour’s increase in teaching per week to 36.

However, staff are still refusing to accept a 10-day reduction in annual leave entitlement to 50 days — and the UCU warned further industrial action next year was possible.

A UCU spokesperson said: “We have succeeded in getting management to talk to us despite the principal’s initial refusal to do so while we were still out on strike.

“Our action has also led to a small amount of movement on the contracts, and we now believe that further action next year can keep up the pressure and get a better deal.”

Mr Silverman has said the terms of the new contract, which was introduced from April 1, were “in line with sector norms,” but the UCU  has said it would leave staff with longer working hours, less sick pay and less annual leave.

“I am deeply disappointed that despite three days of negotiations with UCU, the members rejected the proposal taken to them by the full time officers,” said Mr Silverman.

“We are clear that the new contract for new staff will remain in place.  We had moved on to talk about how there might be changes in the contract for existing staff and made very constructive proposals, including the reduction in holiday pay being phased in over a four-year period with staff agreeing to teach an additional one hour per week from September 2015.

“Even these extremely moderate changes have been rejected by the union.”

The return to work comes amid UCU claims that Mr Silverman had threatened to axe courses for disabled students and English for Speakers of Other Languages (Esol) if it did not accept the new contract proposals.

He said the courses had been put at risk by the strike, adding that it would be “irresponsible to recruit students if the teachers weren’t guaranteed to be there in September”.

The UCU, which had been supporting strikers by paying them £50 a-day in lieu of college wages, said the return to work would allow it to “get a fresh mandate” from members for the new academic year, adding that staff had committed to working during the enrolment period “to secure the future of the college”.

The UCU spokesperson said: “All efforts were made on the union’s part to reach an agreement that would bring the dispute to an end. Unfortunately, management put forward a proposal that shows very little movement on the new contracts.”

Mr Silverman has said the contract change was part of the college’s recovery plan following financial deficits of £4.1m in 2012/13 and £3.5m this year.

“I am absolutely clear that we have to deliver these changes to be fit for purpose,” he said.

“I have thanked the overwhelming majority of staff who have worked extra hard to cover those who chose to go on strike. The strike has achieved absolutely nothing in terms of changing the college’s resolve to deliver improved outcomes.

“In the short term, it has caused the setback for some learners, which I deeply regret and which should have been avoided. Union members have simply put themselves before the students. It is as simple as that.

“UCU needs to understand that it is contributing to the potential decline of the college and damaging its future, putting everyone’s jobs at risk.”

City College Coventry principal Steve Logan started in post just this week, and one of the first items on his desk was a requires improvement inspection result from Ofsted.

But with the college having previously received a disastrous report that branded it inadequate, the new grade was welcomed.

In an exclusive Q&A with FE Week, Mr Logan discusses the report — and what’s next for the college.

The latest result must have been the first thing you’ve dealt with at the college. Were you aware of the previous inadequate result and what’s been happening at the college since then?

I’ve been in touch with the college and I’ve been aware of where it’s been going before I came here, but it’s been very welcomed to no longer be inadequate.

It’s a particularly good report and we’ve got some grade twos in there as well. We recognise, obviously, that there’s still a lot of work to do and we’re already on with that journey and I’ve taken a flying start to that this week, along with staff here.

There is an acknowledgement of the work that has been done to turn the college around by leaders, managers and governors, but also teaching staff as well, their expectations of learners being particularly high now. The other bit is this sort of pride that the students felt in the college and the high level of support that they get while they are here.

And the Skills Funding Agency lifted the notice of concern with the improved Ofsted grade, so what is happening next for you?

We’ll be developing an updated post-inspection action plan, so it’s pretty much business as usual for us. We’ve got to maintain intensity of focus on improvement that we had previously, so we’re not going to change that — that’s one of the key messages that I’ll be saying.

We need to focus on the core business, which is the student experience, and most importantly the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. And that will be very much at the heart of the work that I’ll be leading. You will see in the report that there is emphasis on things like target-setting, you know, even greater focus on developing maths and English as key skills for all learners, and other things such as equality and diversity, which we have already done a lot of work on but something that needs further embedding.

We need a little bit longer to try and embed those changes and see that the real evidence and impact that those things are having in terms of retention and achievement and the overall success and progression of learners etc. And probably the only other thing that is going to be a key aspect for us is developing our focus on employability, and through that, increasing the amount of work experience that our learners get.

But we’ve done an awful lot of work already, working with employers to develop employer board in Coventry with our key employers, and they are going to play an increasing role I think in influencing the design of that curriculum, including work experience, in the future. The good thing for me is the route map is there.

What specific things are you going to be looking for? What KPIs [key performance indicators] are you going to be keeping your eye on?

We’ve got some inconsistencies, and you will see the word ‘inconsistent’ a few times in our report. So we’ve got lots of really good practice, both in teaching and learning and assessment, and in outcomes for learners, they’re not the same throughout the college — so I think the key message is, we have got to strive towards greater consistency in all areas so that good practice is shared across the college, and that the outcomes for learners — which are good and improving in many areas — are also good and improving in some of the weaker areas that we know about, which we continue to improve on.

What changes are you putting into place?

I think for us, the keys to the direction the college has taken in recent months around focusing on the needs of Coventry as a city, and our partnership with the local enterprise partnership and the city council, that’s pretty much the only change. We’re going to be focusing very much more about our own learners, our own communities, and their employers, and making that very much the single focus of what we do. And within that, we are looking at the economic needs of Coventry. I think we will be turning our attentions to that broader work of getting people into the labour market, and making our city strong economically. I mean, strive for skills and education of the workforce that’s needed.

Are there any issues in terms of finances or staffing levels?

There are strains on college finances across the sector; we’re no different from any other college, so we’re having to face up to those now. I think the vast majority of colleges are having to make some really difficult decisions about staffing levels now, they’re ongoing, we have recognised that these are difficult times for staff, so having been buoyed by the success of Ofsted, we’re out meeting the realities of reduced funding next year and having to balance our budget — that’s a difficult job for any college, and Coventry is no different.

Nothing has been done yet though, has it?

Locally, at the same time that the Ofsted inspection has been going on, we’ve been having to consult with staff about restructuring and staffing reductions overall for next year, so we’re in the midst of that now but I’m picking it up. But again, I think pretty much almost every college — certainly our region, but elsewhere — is probably in a similar vein. We are having to balance budgets, not just for next year but ongoing, and that will be something that probably we’ll need to continue to do into next year as well.

We have been looking at losing around 70-odd staff across a range of areas really, the whole college. But the positive slant on that is that we have obviously dealt with a majority of those through voluntary severance and through redeployment — and we’re probably down actually now to about only 15 or so compulsory redundancies.To get from that quite high figure down to that low number for compulsory redundancies is testament to the work that the staff and the colleges here, but working with our unions as well. It’s difficult for everybody, but it’s necessary to really put the college on a firm footing moving forward, because financially, all colleges are struggling at the moment to meet those funding issues that are coming along.