Commentary on Sections Part 7: Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation
360.This Part provides for the establishment of a new Non-Ministerial Department, Ofqual. In relation to England, the new body will regulate academic and vocational qualifications (excluding foundation, first or higher degrees) and National Curriculum (NC) and Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) assessment arrangements. Ofqual will also regulate vocational qualifications in Northern Ireland.
361.Ofqual will take over the regulatory functions of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), although with differences in the ways the functions are exercised, and with a different set of powers, principles and objectives governing their exercise. Part 8 of the Act re-names the QCA the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), with that body retaining its non-regulatory functions.
362.Regulation of qualifications is, and will remain, voluntary: there is no prohibition on any person offering a qualification without having been recognised by Ofqual. There are two key reasons why bodies will choose to seek recognition by Ofqual and so to have the qualifications they award regulated: first, because being regulated shows that the body has been checked as being fit to award trustworthy qualifications; and second, because, as a matter of policy, the Government will normally only approve qualifications for funding by maintained schools or in colleges if they are regulated.
363.In April 2008, as a first step towards the establishment of Ofqual as a statutory regulator, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families directed the QCA to set up a committee for the purpose of “exercising on behalf of QCA functions and powers in relation to the regulation of qualifications and National Curriculum assessments”. In this way “Interim Ofqual” was established, operating within the parameters of the current legislation. The provisions of the Act complete the transition to having a separate regulator for qualifications and assessment arrangements by establishing Ofqual.