Verified qualifications

For OCR’s verified qualifications, which are centre-assessed and then externally verified, an OCR external quality assurer (EQA) will visit your centre twice a year.

At the visit, the EQA will verify that your centre is delivering the qualifications to the appropriate standards and meets the OCR criteria.

Once you’ve made your entries, we will allocate an EQA to your centre. 

Your allocated EQA will contact you to arrange a quality assurance visit to sample the work of all candidates entered for those OCR qualifications to which they are allocated. This will include candidates at all stages, from those who have just started the qualification through to those who have completed the qualification and been certificated via direct claims status (DCS). 

For centres which do not have direct claims status, once claims have been submitted, your EQA will contact you to arrange a quality assurance visit to authorise the claims. 

If a planned visit needs to be changed at short notice, the verifier must be satisfied there is a legitimate reason; otherwise, there may be a charge (see the fees list). 

Visits are charged as shown below. See the fees list for details of the charges.

Due to internal safeguarding policies we appreciate centres may need to see identification from EQAs before they are allowed access to the site. We do not issue EQAs with any form of identification, and we have advised EQAs they should bring the following with them to any visit:

• A valid form of photo identification (e.g. passport, driver’s licence)
• A copy of their OCR invitation
  
• A valid DBS certificate if they have one (we do not require EQAs to hold a valid DBS certificate in order to fulfil the role).

We also suggest EQAs arrange to meet their named contact on arrival at the centre, as they will have the EQA’s details and can verify these with their identification.

If your safeguarding policy requires some form of supervision for visitors whilst on site, this requirement should be discussed with the EQA before the visit so there is no impact on the quality assurance process.

We have advised EQAs of what identification they should take with them on visits. However, if you have any concerns then please contact our Customer Support Centre.

When you’ve enrolled your candidates on an OCR qualification, you should make entries for them and inform them of their OCR candidate number.

When you have made your entries, you must also establish and follow an assessment plan for each candidate.

Information about the assessment process for each qualification can be found in the centre handbooks, available from the qualification pages.

Assessment is a cumulative process which, as long as the qualification is valid, has no time limit. However, centres may wish to set guidelines on the length of time available to candidates.

Candidates must provide sufficient and valid evidence to prove their competence meets the requirements of the qualification. More information about these requirements is found on the evidence page.

Once your candidates have completed units of the qualification and they have been assessed and internally quality assured, you can claim for their unit or full awards. 

To do this, you need to make a claim via Interchange. Step-by-step instructions for making a claim are provided in the following guide:

In the letter arranging or confirming a quality assurance visit, your EQA will request a list of all active candidates entered for the OCR qualifications to which they are allocated. 

The list you provide should include each candidate’s Internal Assurer (IA) and Internal Quality Assurer (IQA) together with the candidate’s status, ie: completed, work in progress or claimed by DCS. 

You should provide this information to your EQA at least 3 weeks before the arranged visit. 

Your EQA will:

• Review the candidate list you have provided and select a sample
• Send you an agenda for the quality assurance visit and details of the portfolio sampling
• Request meetings with Internal Assurers (IAs), Internal Quality Assurers (IQAs) and candidates. 

You will need to ensure the sample of work requested, assessment staff and candidates are available at the quality assurance visit.

At a quality assurance visit to your centre the EQA will review your centre’s delivery of OCR qualifications. They will: 

• Review the completion of actions and/or recommendations from any previous visits
• Sample candidate work and assessment records
• Meet with assessment staff and candidates
• Review your centre’s resources, management systems and policies
• Confirm whether candidates are appropriately supported
• Either ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ that your centre meets the OCR criteria for verified qualifications and qualification standards
• Provide feedback on their findings and any actions, recommendations and/or sanctions imposed.

Either during or within five working days of the visit, your EQA will review and confirm or edit the claim as appropriate. They will then send it to OCR to process and you will get an email to say the claim has been sent to OCR. 

To view the actual claims sent:

• Log in to Interchange, hover over ‘Certification claims’ and click on ‘View claim history’ in the left-hand menu. 
• Your most recent claim should be at the top of the list (look for Finalised/Processed statuses). 
• You can filter by qualification and order your list of claims by clicking on the column headings.

For externally verified qualifications, after each visit, the EQA will prepare a quality assurance report, which will be emailed to you as soon as it is available. 

You can also access all of your reports via Interchange by hovering over ‘Centre information’ and then clicking on ‘External verifier reports’ in the left-hand menu. 

This report will provide details of any actions and/or recommendations made by the external verifier at the visit. If relevant, the report will also include any recommended sanctions imposed on your centre in line with the OCR criteria for verified qualifications.

If the centre meets the appropriate criteria, the EQA may recommend they are awarded direct claims status. 

When a sanction level 2, 3 or 4 is recommended or lifted by the EQA, the report will be reviewed by OCR and a letter confirming the imposing or lifting of the sanction sent to the head of centre. (See the appeals page for details of how to appeal a sanction.)