Ofqual’s governance, accountability, working with others, funding & success criteria

Governance and accountability

4.1The Secretary of State will appoint the members of Ofqual (which we will refer to as our Board) following consultation with the Chair, who is appointed by the Crown. One of the members must be appointed following consultation with the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland. The Chair will be known as the Chief Regulator of Qualifications and Examinations.

4.2We have to report annually to Parliament and to the Northern Ireland Assembly.  We expect our work will be scrutinised by the relevant select committees. We will also publish an annual business plan. The Act stipulates that Ofqual’s Annual Report must include:

  1. a statement of what Ofqual has done in performing its functions in the reporting period
  2. an assessment of the extent to which Ofqual has met its objectives in that period
  3. details of any information obtained by Ofqual in that period on the levels of attainment in school qualifications.

We shall report to the Northern Ireland Assembly on Ofqual’s regulation of vocational qualifications in Northern Ireland.

Since Ofqual was established in 2008 the Chair, Kathleen Tattersall, has published an annual Chief Regulator’s Report, setting out her vision of issues of principle concerning the future maintenance of standards in regulated qualifications. At present, we see this as serving a different function from that of the Annual Report, and we plan to issue the Chief Regulator’s Report separately. However, we shall continue to seek views from stakeholders – and from Parliament – on our arrangements for reporting in public and the focus and appropriateness of the content of future reports.

Working with others

4.3We will work with other public bodies when it is appropriate for us to do so. Cooperative working may enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our performance and reduce any burden on those that we regulate. The regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland have indicated their broad support for our proposed approach to the regulation of qualifications and their wish to continue to regulate cooperatively with both us and each other in the future.

4.4Such cooperative working will include:

  • interacting with the statutory functions of the QCDA, including their development of qualification criteria
  • sharing information with Ofsted or the qualification funding bodies so as to reduce the need on those that we regulate to provide duplicate evidence or data
  • aligning our monitoring of awarding organisations with the regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland
  • seeking the advice of Sector Skills Councils and Standards Setting Bodies on the fitness for purpose of qualifications
  • working with government departments to understand educational policy objectives.

This list is not exhaustive.

Funding

4.5Our funding will come from the taxpayer. Funding will be agreed within the context of the overall education family of organisations, coordinated by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The Act does not permit us to charge for our main regulatory activities.

Measuring our performance

4.6In this consultation, we set out and seek views on how we propose to achieve each of these objectives.

4.7The statutory objectives provide the framework within which we will measure our performance and report on what we have achieved. In the following tables we set out for comment each objective from the Act with proposals as to the outcomes we need to achieve, the actions we would take and the measures and indicators of success.

Examples of success criteria against Ofqual's objectives

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