Systems Verification - Visit
Report
Systems verification is the process we use to ensure that SQA centres comply with the quality assurance criteria and
have internal quality assurance systems appropriately documented, effectively implemented and evaluated, and
show continuous improvement in their application. Guidance for centres relating to the systems verification visit can
be found at www.sqa.org.uk/qualityassurance.
Rescheduled date
Centre Name NVQ2Work
Systems Verifier Lisa Dixon
Name
Double Banker
Name (if applicable)
Head of Centre Anthony James
Name
SQA Co-ordinator Sophia Hussain
Name
Summary of Visit
Outcome Statement
Management of a Reasonable Confidence identified in
Centre the systems that support the
maintenance of SQA standards
within this centre. Moderate risks
exist within this category
Resources Reasonable Confidence identified in
the systems that support the
maintenance of SQA standards
within this centre. Moderate risks
exist within this category
Candidate Support Reasonable Confidence identified in Candidate induction must include information
the systems that support the
maintenance of SQA standards
within this centre. Moderate risks
exist within this category
Internal Assessment Broad Confidence identified in the
and Verification systems that support the
maintenance of SQA standards
within this centre
External High Confidence identified in the
Assessment systems that support the
maintenance of SQA standards
within this centre
Data Management Broad Confidence identified in the
systems that support the
maintenance of SQA standards
within this centre
Reason
Centre Number 3022846
Systems Verifier lisa.dixon@sqa-ext.org.uk
Contact Details
Date/Time of Visit 25 Jan 19 - 10:00
Head of Centre Anthony James
Email Address
Centre Email anthonyjamesuk@outlook.com
Address
Non-Compliant Criteria
The roles and responsibilities of those involved in
the administration, management, assessment and
quality assurance of SQA qualifications across all
sites must be clearly documented and
disseminated.
Suspected candidate or staff malpractice must be
investigated and acted upon, in line with SQA
requirements.
The centre must comply with requests for access to
records, information, candidates, staff and
premises for the purpose of external quality
assurance activities.
Assessors and internal verifiers must be competent
to assess and internally verify, in line with the
requirements of the qualification.
Assessors and internal verifiers must be given
induction training on SQA qualifications and
requirements.
about the SQA qualification and SQA requirements.
Internal assessment appeals must be handled in
line with a documented procedure which meets
SQA requirements.
There must be an effective and documented system
for the accurate recording, storage and retention of
assessment records, internal verification records
and candidate records of achievement in line with
SQA requirements.
 SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work

Sanctions Entry in Action Plan

Records of Discussions
Discussions with Candidates No
if YES, please provide a brief summary of the
discussion:
Discussions with Assessors No
if YES, please provide a brief summary of the
discussion:
Discussions with Internal Verifiers No
if YES, please provide a brief summary of the
discussion:

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 SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work

Outcome Summary
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.5
3.1 3.4 3.5 3.6
4.1 4.5 4.7 4.8
5.1 5.2 5.3
6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4

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Management of a Centre
Criteria
1.1 Policies and procedures
must be documented and
reviewed to ensure full
compliance with SQA quality
criteria.
1.2 Policies and procedures
must be endorsed by senior
management and
disseminated to all relevant
staff.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
Impact Compliance Level Comments Agreed Action Good Practice Recommendations
High Green All of your policies and
procedures are stored
electronically on an i-cloud
system and are versioned
controlled. The centre
handbook listed a table of
contents,version history,
date of version, prepared
by, date of next review and
comments.
Low Green You told me that
documents are reviewed
annually unless there are
any changes identified in
which case they would be
updated with immediate
effect.
You as the centre co-
ordinator are responsible
for updating all policies and
procedures.
You told me that the i-cloud
systems sends notification
to all staff immediately
when a document is
updated. The system
overrides the last
document ensuring only
the most recent version is
used.
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1.3 SQA must be notified of any
changes that may affect the
centre's ability to meet the
quality assurance criteria.
1.4 The roles and
responsibilities of those
involved in the
administration,
management, assessment
and quality assurance of
SQA qualifications across all
sites must be clearly
documented and
disseminated.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
High Green I was able to confirm that
you have kept us informed
of changes that have been
made to the centre,
recently the address email
and IV have been
changed.
You have documented that
the centre co-ordinator is
responsible for informing
SQA of any changes that
may affect your centre’s
ability to meet the quality
assurance criteria.
You have listed the
changes SQA require to be
informed of; Change of
business premises; change
of Head of Centre; owner
or SQA Coordinator;
outcome of
internal/external
investigations; removal of
centre and or/qualification
approval by another
awarding body; lack of
appropriate Assessors or
Internal Verifiers; and
change to centre’s
arrangements for secure
storage.
Medium Amber Documented roles and You must submit the signed sub-
responsibilities are in place contract agreement you have for your
for the assessor, IV and new IV.
centre co-ordinator. All the
roles meet with our
requirements. You use
sub-contract staff to deliver
our qualifications but I was
unable to sample any
signed agreements. You
have recently appointed a
sub-contract IV and are
going to send over their
signed sub-contract
agreement.
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1.5 Suspected candidate or staff
malpractice must be
investigated and acted
upon, in line with SQA
requirements.
1.6 No-one with a personal
interest in the outcome of an
assessment is to be
involved in the assessment
process. This includes
assessors, IVs and
invigilators.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
High Amber You have a detailed You must update your malpractice
malpractice policy that procedure to confirm records will be
confirms the following kept in line with our requirements.
points, definition, centre
and candidate malpractice,
maladministration with
examples, sanctions,
appeals and informing the
awarding body and the
regulator.
You have documented that
records will be kept for 3
years, as you are
delivering regulated
qualifications record
retention must be as
follows: Where an
investigation of suspected
malpractice is carried out,
centres must retain related
records and documentation
for three years for non-
regulated qualifications and
six years for regulated
qualifications. In the case
of an appeal to SQA
against the outcome of a
malpractice investigation,
assessment records must
be retained for six years.
In an investigation
involving a potential
criminal prosecution or civil
claim, records and
documentation should be
retained for six years after
the case and any appeal
has been heard. If the
centre is in any doubt
about whether criminal or
civil proceedings will take
place, it should keep
records for the full six year
period.
Low Green You have a conflict of
interest policy in place that
confirms any conflicts of
interest must be reported
to you as the centre co-
ordinator.
You told me that you had
not had any conflicts of
interest.
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1.7 There must be an effective Medium
process for communicating
with staff, candidates and
SQA.
1.8 Feedback from candidates Low
and staff must be sought
and used to inform centre
improvement plans.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
Green Communication to SQA is
by you and is listed as part
of the job description. I was
able to sample email
communication between
you and the centre. Prior to
the visit I was kept
informed of changes to the
location of the visit. I was
also able to sample
communication to
candidates via email and
also written feedback
recorded in the candidate
portfolio. Meeting minutes
sampled confirmed
communications between
the assessor and IV.
Green I was able to sample Feedback form linked to smart
meeting agendas where phone is an example of good
feedback is featured. SQA practice in your centre.
feedback forms part of the
meeting and meeting
minute’s sampled
confirmed feedback to staff
was given after EV visits.
All candidates receive an
evaluation form which is
compatible with their smart
phones so they can
complete the form as soon
as they receive it. I was
able to sample feedback
forms and was given an
example from you where
you have acted on
feedback.
A candidate had feedback
about a unit on your e-
portfolio, the unit was
unable to be opened and
as a result you were able
to fix this as it had been
bought to your attention.
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1.9 The centre must comply
with requests for access to
records, information,
candidates, staff and
premises for the purpose of
external quality assurance
activities.
1.10 Outcomes of external quality
assurance must be
disseminated to appropriate
staff and any action points
addressed within agreed
timescales.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
High Amber You have documented that You must update the role of the centre
it is the role of the centre co-ordinator to confirm access to the
co-ordinator to liaise with regulator Ofqual/SQA Accreditation will
SQA quality assurance be granted
when SQA staff wish to
visit. You had not
documented who will give
access to the regulator
should this be required.
As you offer regulated
qualifications you must
document that access to
the regulator will be given.
You are going to update
the centre co-ordinator job
description to confirm they
will be responsible for
allowing access to the
regulator.
Medium Green You have documented that
it is the centre co-
ordinators responsibility to
complete any actions that
may have resulted from an
EV visit. You also have a
standard agenda item on
your standardisation
meetings to discuss any
EV visits.
There were no actions from
your last EV visit dated
June 2018 but a
recommendation had been
made.
Meeting minutes sampled
confirmed that you had
discussed the
recommendation with
assessors and IV’s.
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 SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work

Resources
Criteria
2.1 Assessors and internal
verifiers must be competent
to assess and internally
verify, in line with the
requirements of the
qualification.
Impact Compliance Level Comments
High Amber Your last EV report
confirmed that you had
sufficient assessors and
IV’s in place. Since then
your IV has left but you
have replaced them and
notified your EV.
Agreed Action Good Practice Recommendations
1. You must document how long
assessors and IV’s have to achieve a
relevant qualification where they are not
qualified when they start to deliver.
2. You must submit updated CPD logs
for the assessor and IV.

I was able to sample the

certificates for the new IV
but not their CPD record.

You had CPD records in

place for the assessor but
these had not been
updated since the last EV
visit June 18.

We discussed the
importance of keeping
CPD records up to date.

You had not documented

how long assessors or IV’s
have to complete a
relevant qualification where
they are not qualified when
they start to deliver.

2.2 Assessors and internal
verifiers must be given
induction training on SQA
qualifications and
requirements.
Medium Amber You have assessor and IV
induction checklists that
covers some of our
requirements; qualification
assessment strategy,
appeals and internal
verification.
1. You must update your assessor/IV
induction checklist to cover
assessment/verification of qualification,
assessor, IV, EV, appeals, complaints,
conflict of interest, data protection,
CPD, malpractice, secure storage and
transportation of records.

The rest of the information 2. You must submit completed induction

we require to be covered; checklists with the new information.
conflict of interest, data
protection, CPD,
malpractice, secure
storage and transportation
of records are covered in
the handbook. However we
require confirmation that
they all have been covered

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2.3 There must be a
documented system for
initial and ongoing reviews
of assessment
environments; equipment;
and reference, learning and
assessment materials.
2.5 All sites where candidates
undertake assessments for
SQA qualifications must be
safe and appropriately
resourced, and must provide
access for candidates, staff
and SQA personnel.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
Medium Green You have assessment
practice forms that are
completed to ensure safe
and sufficient resources
are used; the forms are
completed every time the
assessor has a new site to
deliver assessments on.
You have meeting minutes
available confirming that
the new assessment
strategy was discussed.
Your IV procedure confirms
that all reviews of
assessment material,
environments, equipment
and reference materials
are carried out regularly.
Completed IV forms
confirming the process is
being followed were
sampled.
Medium Green You are using our template
to record site safety and
have every record
available of all the sites
you have delivered
qualifications on.
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 SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work

Candidate Support
Criteria Impact Compliance Level Comments Agreed Action Good Practice Recommendations
3.1 Candidate induction must High Amber You candidate induction 1. You must email all live candidates
include information about checklists covers all of the with our privacy statement link.
the SQA qualification and information we require to
SQA requirements. be covered; content and
structure of the 2. You must update the induction
qualification, roles and checklist to include the privacy
responsibilities of the statement link.
Assessor, IV, EV and
Learner, Assessment and
support including
reassessment, equal
opportunities, data
protection (aware details
are shared with us),
appeals procedure and
malpractice.

You have not covered our

privacy statement or
included the link for
candidates to access the
statement if they wish.

We discussed this and the

best way to inform
candidates of the link.

You are going to email all

candidates with the privacy
statement link and blind
copy me into the email so I
can accept this as
evidence for this action.

3.4 Policies and procedures Low Green Your equal opportunities

must give SQA candidates statement covers the
equal opportunities for protected characteristics
assessment. and informs candidates
that they will have access
to equal and fair
assessment if required.

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 SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work

3.5 Individual candidates' Medium Green You have a documented

requirements for particular assessment
assessment arrangement requirements procedure in
must be discussed, place.
identified, implemented and
recorded.
The policy confirms that
any additional support
required will be supported
and the awarding body will
be informed.

As documented your
assessor and IV will be
responsible for ensuring
assessment requirements
are monitored and
implemented.

You told me you have not

had any candidate’s
requesting additional
support, but if they should
they are informed at
induction to discuss this
with their assessor.

3.6 Candidate complaints must Medium Green Your complaints procedure

be handled in line with a is in stages with timescales
documented complaints attached. You inform the
procedure which meets candidates they have the
SQA requirements. right to complain to SQA
and have included
complaining to the
regulator. The procedure
then lists the appeals
procedure. We discussed
the difference between a
complaint and an appeal
and our requirement of
keeping the procedures
separate(see action at 4.8)

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Internal Assessment and Verification
Criteria
4.1 Internal assessment and
verification procedures must
be documented, monitored
and reviewed to meet SQA
requirements.
4.5 Assessment materials and
candidate evidence
(including examination
question papers, scripts and
electronically-stored
evidence) must be stored
and transported securely.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
Impact Compliance Level Comments Agreed Action Good Practice Recommendations
Medium Green You have an IV procedure You should add the name of the
that confirms pre,during candidate to the IV form even though it
and post verification takes is completed in the individual
place. candidate portfolio.
I was able to sample
completed records of
verification which are
contained in the individual
candidate portfolio.
The IV forms did not
confirm the name of the
candidate and we
discussed this. Records
could get misplaced, you
agreed although the IV
opens the individual
candidate portfolio and
completes the IV form in
the file. You are going to
add the name of the
candidate to the IV form.
Standardisation meeting
minutes were sampled and
an IV plan where
assessors are RAG rated
is in place.
You carry out assessor
observations in line with
the procedure and update
the sampling plan on a
regular basis.
High Green All records are stored
securely in the individual
candidate portfolio on the
e-portfolio system which is
password protected.
As you download
information from our
secure site you have
documented that any
breach to the security of
assessment material will
be reported to us
immediately.
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 SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work

4.7 Candidate evidence must be High Green Your record retention

retained in line with SQA statement confirms all
requirements. candidate evidence will be
kept for 3 years this is
above our requirements
which is; For SVQs, other
regulated qualifications and
Skills for Work courses,
centres are required to
retain candidate
assessment evidence for
three weeks after the
candidate group award
completion date notified to
SQA. However if the centre
is selected for external
verification the candidate
assessment evidence
selected must be retained
for the qualification visit.

4.8 Internal assessment Medium
appeals must be handled in
line with a documented
procedure which meets
SQA requirements.
Amber Your candidate
assessment appeals
procedure is in stages with
timescales attached but
forms part of the
complaints procedure. We
require a separate appeals
procedure.
1. You must separate the appeals
procedure from the complaints
procedure.
2. You must ensure that you have
included reference to appealing to SQA
awarding body and the regulator (SQA
Accreditation/Ofqual)

As you are offering

regulated qualifications you
must inform candidate that
they can appeal to SQA
awarding body once they
have exhausted your
centre’s appeals
procedure.

You must also include can

appeal to SQA
Accreditation or Ofqual if
they are not satisfied with
the outcome of the appeal
and have exhausted your
centres and SQA awarding
body appeals procedure.

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 SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work

External Assessment
Criteria Impact Compliance Level Comments Agreed Action Good Practice Recommendations
5.1 Assessment evidence must High N/A You are not offering
be the candidate's own qualifications that are
work, generated under externally assessed.
SQA's required conditions.
5.2 Assessment materials and High N/A You are not offering
candidate evidence, qualifications that are
(including examination externally assessed.
question papers, scripts and
electronically-stored
evidence) must be securely
stored and transported.
5.3 The centre must submit, Medium N/A You are not offering
where appropriate, within qualifications that are
published timelines, results externally assessed.
services requests.

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Data Management
Criteria
6.1 Candidates' personal data
submitted by centres to
SQA must accurately reflect
the current status of the
candidate.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
Impact Compliance Level Comments Agreed Action Good Practice Recommendations
High Green Records checked on Congratulations email asking
navigator confirm the candidates to confirm their
candidate is being address
registered under the home
address and this is
included in your data
management procedure.
You told me that you would
only register the candidate
under the centre address if
there was a problem
finding the address using
the postcode provided.
You send out a
congratulations email when
the candidate has
completed the qualification
and you showed me
examples. In the email you
ask the candidate to
confirm that they are still
living at the address they
had recorded on the
induction form. If they are
not you go in and update
the new address on the
system.
Data protection is covered
at 3.1
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6.2 Data on candidate entries
submitted by centres to
SQA must accurately reflect
the current status of the
candidate and the
qualification.
6.3 Data on candidate results
submitted by centres to
SQA must accurately reflect
the current status of the
candidate and the
qualification.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
High Green You have 22 live entries on
the system and you have
contacted each candidate
to see if they wish to
continue.
You induct all candidates
once they have paid their
invoice, this is due to
problems you have had in
the past.
You have a full
documented data
management procedure in
place and was able to
show me how you check
for the lapsing period, how
you check for previous
SCN, unit registration,
resulting candidates on the
instruction from the
IV/HOC and data
cleansing.
You were able to give me a
full explanation of the
group awards and units
and are aware of the 10
week rule although this
does not apply to the
construction awards.
High Green See 6.3
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6.4 There must be an effective
and documented system for
the accurate recording,
storage and retention of
assessment records,
internal verification records
and candidate records of
achievement in line with
SQA requirements.
SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work
Medium Amber You have a document 1. You must update your record
retention procedure that retention table to cover our record
confirms all records will be retention requirements.
kept for 3 years, you have
a table confirming each
record. 2. You must make sure that once the
centre is closed all records are kept
securely for 6 years.
The document retention
table is not inline with our
requirements as you are
offering regulated
qualifications.
We looked at the document
retention table on our
website and you are going
to include the link to the
table in your document
retention procedure to
ensure you are kept up to
date with our record
retention requirements.
The following details are
stored in the candidate file;
name,
qualification,assessor,IV,da
tes of assessment,and
date certificate claimed.
We discussed our record
retention requirements of 6
years as you will be closing
the centre.
You are going to invest in a
hard drive that will be
secure to store all of our
records for the retention
periods required.
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 SQA Systems Verification Visit Report for 3022846 - NVQ2Work

Summary of Feedback to Feedback was ongoing as the centre co-ordinator was present throughout the visit. We
Centre went through the quality assurance criteria together and matched the evidence you
had.

You had referenced all your records to the grid that was sent to help you prepare for
the visit.

You have a well managed centre, all records were available and easily accessible. All
records are stored on an I-Cloud.

During the visit we accessed the SQA website and I was able to show you the quality
assurance page we have that has guidance documents on for centre's. You
bookmarked this page so you have reference to it.

We discussed the actions and set a date for them to be completed. We discussed the
importance of completing the actions within the given target date and you agreed.

I thanked you for your hospitality and for the lift back to the train station.

Name of Centre Representative present during feedback

Name Designation
Sophia Hussain Centre Co-Ordinator

Evidence Seen Evidence listed under specific criteria.

Staff Interviewed Sophia Hussain, Centre Co-ordinator
General Information I met with the centre co-ordinator who is responsible for ensuring the centre is
compliant and all the records are kept up to date.

Due to personal issues the centre will be closing in March once all the live candidates
have been completed. I was informed that if the live candidates had not been
completed you would remain open until they had or you would consider transferring
them to another centre. This would need to be agreed with the head of centre who was
not present at the visit.

You offer Plant NVQ’s all assessments are carried out on customer sites.

Agreed Action Date/Type

Agreed Action Date 06 Mar 2019
Evidence Type Electronic

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