The assessment arrangements regulatory frameworks: Regulating assessment arrangements

59.The 2009 Act will require us to keep all aspects of statutory national curriculum and EYFS assessment arrangements under review. We propose initially to focus our review activities on:

• facilitating the successful delivery of national curriculum tests in summer 2010 through monitoring
• collecting information and data about other statutory national curriculum assessments in order to develop a regulatory approach, including the preparation and publication of the national curriculum regulatory framework to be put in place in the longer term
• collecting information and data about statutory EYFS assessments in order to develop our regulatory approach, including the preparation and publication of the EYFS regulatory framework to be put in place in the longer term.

60.We will work closely with the Secretary of State and responsible bodies to agree an appropriate approach that will allow us to collect relevant information and to develop procedures for notifying any significant failings. We propose to use the following risk factors to assess whether further monitoring is necessary and, where appropriate, to inform any decision to notify the Secretary of State and relevant responsible bodies of a significant failing:

• the potential impact on pupils and public confidence in the assessment arrangements
• evidence that responsible bodies are unable to demonstrate that the requirements of the relevant regulatory framework are being satisfactorily met
• any failure of a responsible body to provide information requested by Ofqual in line with the provisions of the 2009 Act
• evidence from stakeholder engagement activities that indicates the statutory purposes of the assessment arrangements are not being met
• the publication of new guidance and support materials
• potential impact of failure on pupils and public confidence in the assessment arrangements
• substantiated complaints received
• concerns based on relevant and objective information provided by Ofsted.

61.There are some additional factors that would lead us to conclude that particular assessment arrangements need particularly close monitoring, including:

• outcomes of self-assessment exercises undertaken by responsible bodies
• significant changes to the assessment model and associated quality assurance or moderation arrangements
• the publication of new guidance and support materials.

These risk factors are taken from our separate consultation but we believe that they provide an appropriate approach for the period immediately after vesting.