Our regulatory responsibilities
The Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 established us as the independent regulator of qualifications and assessments in England and vocational qualifications in Northern Ireland. This legislation means we’re responsible for:
- Maintaining standards in qualifications and assessments
- Raising awareness of any issues while maintaining public confidence in the qualifications system
- Ensuring the qualifications industry is as efficient as possible
Regulating Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) assessments
The Department for Children, Schools and Families is responsible for the EYFS. Our duty is to keep all aspects of EYFS assessment arrangements under review. So far we have published a summary of our initial approach.
Regulating National Curriculum assessments
The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) develops and delivers National Curriculum assessments. Our duty is to ensure the QCDA maintain standards and have fair procedures and assessments. The criteria for these standards are set out in the agreed National curriculum assessments: Code of practice 2010.
Economic regulation
Under the ASCL Act Ofqual has a statutory objective to secure that regulated qualifications are provided efficiently and that any relevant sums payable to an awarding organisation represent value for money. Ofqual also has the power to cap fees where necessary. We will be consulting on our framework for economic regulation in October 2010.
More about economic regulation.
Recognising awarding organisations and accrediting their qualifications
It’s our duty to ensure standards are maintained in the qualifications system. We primarily do this by evaluating qualifications, and the bodies that award them, against nationally established criteria. More about regulations for qualifications
For this reason we formally recognise awarding organisations by checking they have adequate resources to award their qualifications. More about becoming an awarding organisation
We also run an accreditation system that ensures the qualifications awarded by recognised bodies meet specific criteria. Use our web-based accreditation system.
Our objectives
As set out in the ASCL Act our main objectives are:
- the qualifications standards objective,
- the assessments standards objective,
- the public confidence objective,
- the awareness objective, and
- the efficiency objective.
The Register of Regulated Awarding Organisations and Qualifications
The Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 (the 2009 Act) requires us to maintain and publish a register of all recognised awarding organisations together with details of the regulated qualifications that they offer for award.
This document sets out a list of all awarding organisations recognised to award regulated qualifications and a list of the descriptions of qualifications in respect of which they are recognised. For each awarding organisation listed there is a hyperlink to the relevant page on the national database of accredited qualifications (NDAQ) that lists all the regulated qualifications that it currently offers.
The form and content of the register will be subject to further change and development as we continue to develop our approach to the longer term implementation of the provisions of the 2009 Act and as part of our ongoing work to update our Regulatory IT Systems.
Download the Register.
The National Database of Accredited Qualifications (NDAQ) will be replaced by the Register of Regulated Qualifications in late October 2010.
For further information see the frequently asked questions.