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Minutes of Access Consultation Forum meeting ACF(15)M1 Date and Time: Thursday 22nd January 2015 – 11:00-16:00 Venue: Meeting Room 4, Spring Place, Coventry, CV5 6UB Attendees: Julie Swan (JS), Ofqual (Chair) Abi James (AJ), BDA By telephone: Amanda Hipkiss (AH), former Carolyn Presland (CP), CIE SENCO & PhD student Jenny Trotman Blake (JTB), researcher Pearson Andrea Baker (AB), BATOD Julia Pace (JC), CIE Clare Beesley (CB), C&G Paula Hannah (PH), CCEA Kala Parasuram (Kala P), IBO Peter Edwards (PE), CCEA Kenn Palmer (Kenn P), Welsh Sharon Williams (SW), UKAAF Government (item 6) Nick Lait (NL), JCQ Bronagh Campbell (BC),CCEA Niki Polydorou (NP), OCR Rory Cobb (RC),RNIB Sian Bewick (Sian B), FAB Karen Wells (KW), Ofqual Sue Barnbrook (Sue B), AQA Steve Hickmott (SH), Ofqual Sue Flohr (SF), BDA Tudor Thomas (TT), WJEC Apologies: Lisa McMahon, CCEA Item 1: Preliminaries Item 2: Minutes of the meeting of 10 October 2014 – approval and matters arising – ACF(14)M3 1. The minutes of the previous meeting were drafted as action points only. Matters arising 2. All previous actions were closed, except for those set out below: Actions carried forward from previous meeting - DfE meeting on 19 November 2014 to discuss issues faced by autistic candidates when taking General Qualifications. ACTION 1: Kala P to send past papers to Mark Snow, Ofqual. Previous Action 1: Sue B confirmed that the report about use of BSL has been drafted and she is waiting for Ofqual to provide details of where to send it. ACTION 2: Sue B to send draft report to [email protected]. Sue B explained that requests for the use of BSL in answering assessments at GCSE and A Level should be considered by awarding organisations rather than ‘approved’ by access arrangements on line because of the associated risks. NL confirmed that requests should be considered on a case by case basis as much depends on the subjects being taken. As it only affects a small number of candidates such an approach is manageable. Previous Action 3: NL informed the Forum that JCQ was not planning on producing further guidance, and noted that the JCQ booklet is reviewed each year anyway. Previous Action 5: Await response from Patricia McDonald re: sharing details of the information made available to candidates through specifications etc. about justifiable limitations on accessibility resulting from qualifications design. Previous Action 6: Ofqual to centrally hold electronic copies of agendas, minutes and papers relating to ACF meetings that will be available to the forum, on request. Previous Action 8: Update found under item 6 below. Previous Action 12: terms of reference & membership. ACTION 3: Forum to advise if there are any proposed changes to representatives attending ACF or whether other organisations should be invited. Previous Action 13: Lisa McMahon liaised with the forum (Lina Read & others) over details of a query about the qualifications needed for specialist assessors. Item 3: Update on qualifications reform (a) GCSEs and A Levels regulated in England 3. JS briefed the Forum that Ofqual was moving ahead with reform of GCSEs and A Levels and publishing various consultations, and expanded on the following two areas that were most relevant to the Forum: The exam boards are continuing to trial different approaches with schools for the new GCSE English Language spoken language assessment that will be separately reported, as it is for current GCSEs (A*-G). NP explained that there has been some support for audio visual recording, although not all parents were comfortable with this due to cultural issues. For new GCSE science there is a proposal for students to undertake practical work and for exam papers to have some marks allocated to show that students have drawn on their experience of this practical work. However, it is not proposed to directly assess a student’s ability to do practical assessments. JS encouraged ACF members to look at Ofqual’s open consultation on the future assessment of practical work in GCSE science. 4. JS reminded the Forum that Ofqual has moved to the GOV.UK website and that current consultations are now found here rather than on Ofqual’s old website. Search GOV.UK website for ‘consultations’ then filter the search to ‘Ofqual’ under the ‘organisations’ heading to find the full list of open Ofqual consultations. ACTION 4: Link to where archive documents from Ofqual’s old website can now be found is at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140813095715/http ://ofqual.gov.uk/ (b) Reform in Wales 5. Kenn P briefed the Forum on the key features of qualification reform in Wales: Kenn P thanked those ACF members who contributed to the ‘Fair Access by Design’ revisions. A response will be circulated to those who contributed to check for errors etc, and then it is intended to publish ASAP. Kenn P told the Forum that an informative newsletter is available, ‘DYSG’ (meaning ‘learn’ in Welsh) that anyone can sign up to receive. Qualifications Wales (who will be the new independent regulator of qualifications in Wales) is due to be functional by September 2015. Exact timing will depend on the passage of the Bill through the Welsh Assembly (the first stage of the Bill was being read in the Welsh Assembly on 22 January 2015). Kenn P explained that A and AS will remain coupled and GCSEs may be unitised if there is a strong rationale. Content is likely to be similar although, for example, English Literature will have approximately 80% same content but will include Welsh poets rather than American poets. 6. In discussion, the following points were made: Qualifications Wales will be responsible for regulating all qualifications (other than higher education). There are still some grey areas, such as licences to practice. Whether qualifications are modular or linear should not require changes to the Terracotta Book as there shouldn’t be any impact on access arrangements. WJEC will be the sole provider to maintained schools in Wales, unless it doesn’t offer qualifications in a particular subject. Item 4: JCQ/FAB update 7. NL confirmed that JCQ are planning to make some changes to the way its members receive and consider requests for Reasonable Adjustments to reduce administration and bureaucracy for centres, and another change relating to risk. JCQ aims to publish its requirements by July/August 2015, and confirmed that no changes will relate to this academic year 2014/15. 8. Sian B confirmed that FAB continues to consider how it can promote good practice by its members. Item 5: Update on review of specifications under s96 of the Equality Act 2010 - (ACF(15)1): 9. SH briefed the Forum on Ofqual’s proposals to review its Section 96 specifications: Ofqual’s specifications set out the circumstances when awarding organisations are not subject to a requirement to make reasonable adjustments. It also lists the qualifications, prescribed by DfE, to which these specifications apply. The paper sets out: Ofqual’s proposals for reviewing the existing specifications; an alternative approach to making specifications and proposals for asking DfE to update the list of qualifications. 10. In discussion, the following points were made: Despite differences between qualifications in England and Wales, it is desirable to have consistency between the two where possible, whilst noting that the specifications may not be identical in the two countries. ACTION 5: Welsh Government to provide contact details for Section 96 to Steve Hickmott, Ofqual. Members queried the list of qualifications in the paper, in particular the proposal to include all qualifications from the ‘other general’ RITS category. It was felt that this category was too broad and it would be preferable to list individual qualifications. It was also noted that it would be helpful to have additional clarity in some of the current categories, for example which Entry Level subjects are included. ACF members believe the current approach to setting specifications, whereby specific adjustments are listed, is preferable to the criteria approach outlined as an alternative in the paper. The current approach provides clarity for awarding organisations and centres; a less prescriptive approach could lead to inconsistency between awarding organisations. It was noted, however, that the criteria are helpful in understanding why specifications are made and could be included alongside the specifications. Members believe that the existing specifications are effective. There may be some minor changes needed, for example, to take account of changes to qualification structure, but members do not believe major changes are needed. JCQ’s existing reasonable adjustment requirements are based on Ofqual’s specifications. The timelines for updating JCQ’s requirements and the need for Ofqual to consult mean it would not be possible for awarding organisations to implement changes for the 2015/16 academic year. Any changes would need to take effect from 2016/17, meaning changes being agreed by late- 2015. It was noted that any changes will need to reflect both existing and reformed qualifications being available at the same time. ACTION 6: ACF members to provide feedback on the existing specifications and the list of qualifications to [email protected]. Item 6: Update on electronic papers, e-assessments and assistive software issues - ACF(15)2 11. Two papers were introduced by SW under this item. The first was the UK Association for Accessible Formats (UKAAF) minimum standards: Accessible PDFs for Assessment that aims to set minimum standards where PDFs are used to ensure that they include certain features. The second was UKAAF: Consultation Summary of Minimum Standard for Accessible PDFs for Assessment: The documents set out the standards that awarding organisations should meet when producing accessible PDFs and the responses to the consultation UKAAF ran when developing these standards.