New independent regulator for the exam and qualifications system

Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families today announced that the Department will legislate to create a new independent regulator of qualifications and tests. Building on the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency’s achievements in regulation, it will be responsible for:

• continuing to secure the standards of qualifications and tests; 
• ensuring that public investment in qualifications provides good value for money; 
• accrediting existing and new qualifications; 
• monitoring and reporting on the standards of tests and qualifications; 
• regulating the awarding body market.

It will also make regular reports, which will be laid before Parliament, assessing how well the systems for maintaining standards and delivering exams are working, making recommendations for improvement, and reporting on action taken on its previous recommendations.

Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, said:
'At the moment, the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) both develops and regulates qualifications, and reports to ministers. The new independent regulator will help us ensure that young people and their teachers feel that their hard work and achievements are properly recognised, and give us greater confidence that exam standards are being maintained.

The QCDA has successfully led the development of qualifications and tests over the last ten years and shown robust independence in its work. An independent report said that no examination system is so tightly or carefully managed, and confidence in the system among teachers and students has grown over the past few years.

And yet, once again, this summer we saw a debate about whether standards in qualifications had been maintained, even as the QCDA and others provided reassurance that they had been. But the fact that the QCDA reports to Ministers can make it harder to demonstrate that it is acting wholly independently in carrying out its regulatory role.

We have also learned from elsewhere in Government, where organisations like the Food Standards Agency and the Competition Commission have been created. These bodies have improved public trust in the systems they regulate through independence, clarity of remit, and clear and transparent accountability.

Independent bodies already look at appeals against admissions decisions and at the quality of teaching and learning while in school. Our plans mean that at every stage of the school system, independent bodies will have clear responsibilities for ensuring fairness and high standards.

As we develop new qualifications such as Diplomas and pilot new tests, we need to make sure not only that they are of the highest quality, but that they are seen to be so by employers, universities and the public. The awarding body market is changing, and we need to ensure it develops in a way that promotes innovation and increases efficiency. Technology has the potential to make a big impact on assessment in the coming years, in ways we have only just started to explore.

For all of these reasons, the time is right to make this change. We must put beyond question the independence of the public guardian of standards. We believe that our proposals will both provide greater transparency in qualifications and tests and secure the confidence in standards on which they depend.'

John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said:

'This move will help QCDA to focus on delivering our big reform agenda for qualifications for work. I will be working closely with Ed Balls over the coming weeks to ensure we get the new system up and running quickly.'

Sir Anthony Greener, QCDA Chairman, said:

'QCDA has always jealously guarded the separate roles of advice and regulation, and we welcome this development. Statutory independence for regulation will further safeguard the standards of exams and tests.'