Direct claim status

When a centre has delivered a verified qualification for approximately 12 months and, in that time, has consistently met all the required criteria they may be eligible for direct claim status (DCS).

This is when a centre can claim their candidates' achievements in between their quality assurance visits. DCS is only awarded for those qualifications that are externally verified (see the vocational qualifications entry codes booklet for an up-to-date list of verified qualifications).

If your centre meets the following criteria, the External Quality Assurer (EQA) may recommend your centre for direct claim status in their external quality assurance report.

• The specified qualification has been delivered for at least 12 months and quality assured by OCR at least twice without sanctions being imposed, including the visit at which the recommendation for DCS is made. 
• All full certificate claims for each verified qualification have been sampled and quality assured as compliant with the qualification criteria. 
• The centre’s quality management, assessment and internal verification strategy has been sampled within the centre and for all satellite sites. 
• The centre’s financial transactions with OCR are in good order. 
• The centre advises OCR immediately of any changes that will affect the centre approval, e.g. changes to resources and particularly the assessment and internal quality assurance team. 
• The centre identifies a member of the assessment and internal quality assurance team as the officer accountable for all DCS claims made for those qualifications recommended for approval for DCS. 

The following diagram shows the admin process for DCS approval:

Once you have received your confirmation letter, and candidate work for completed unit(s) has been assessed and internally quality assured, you can make claims in the usual way:

These claims will be automatically processed and certificated. All claims made via DCS are subject to external quality assurance. Therefore: 

• All portfolios claimed by DCS and the associated assessment records must be available at the next quality assurance visit when they will be sampled by the EQA. 
• A centre must have a final quality assurance visit before it withdraws from delivering the qualification or the last certification date for that qualification. 
• If portfolios claimed by DCS are not available for sampling, a sanction will be imposed and certificates issued by DCS may be withdrawn.

Centres will need to prepare for their quality assurance visits in the usual way. They must provide their EQA with the information they request, which includes details of any DCS claims made since the last quality assurance visit.

Direct claim status will be removed if: 

• The centre no longer meet the criteria for eligibility
• A Level 2 sanction or above is imposed on the qualification
  
• The centre is subject to a compliance/malpractice investigation
• A centre does not make direct certification claims for the qualification for 12 months
• A quality assurance visit has not taken place for 12 months
  
• OCR is notified of the centre’s cessation of business
• A centre does not allow a quality assurance visit to take place
  
• A centre makes incorrect claims and/or candidate portfolios are not available for sampling by the OCR EQA
• The qualification has been withdrawn. We will automatically remove DCS from all centres three months before a qualification's last certification date (unless the centre is advised otherwise). 

If DCS has been withdrawn, the EQA may recommend that OCR: 

• Reinstates DCS following the next quality assurance visit if all action points have been completed or 
• Requires the centre to go through the full DCS process again. 

The route for reinstatement will depend on which of the DCS/OCR criteria resulted in DCS withdrawal. OCR will make the final decision on whether DCS will be reinstated or not. 

OCR reserves the right to remove or refuse to award/reinstate DCS.