Regulatory actions against City and Guilds
Details of a Notice of Intention to accept a Settlement Proposal from City & Guilds to pay a Monetary Penalty, and a decision to accept an Undertaking from City and Guilds.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Notice of Intention to accept a Settlement Proposal from City & Guilds to pay a Monetary Penalty: 27 May 2021
Ofqual has decided to give notice that it intends to accept a Settlement Proposal from the City and Guilds of London Institute (“City & Guilds”) in terms that City & Guilds:
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admits that it breached a number of its Conditions of Recognition in relation to the delivery of its Level 3 Animal Management Qualifications in Summer 2018;
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agrees to pay a Monetary Penalty of £50,000; and
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agrees to pay Ofqual’s reasonable legal costs in respect of this matter.
This follows an investigation carried out by Ofqual which found that one of the five tasks used in the synoptic assignment for these qualifications was unfit for purpose because one of the tasks was written in a way that potentially made the requirements unclear and ambiguous to candidates causing some candidates to struggle to access higher mark bands. The level of demand was also found to have been higher in 2018 than it was in 2017.
As a result of this incident, 300 Learners initially received results that did not reflect their level of attainment. Following a re-marking exercise, City & Guilds re-awarded the qualification and issued upward grade changes to the affected learners within a month. The qualifications were sat by a total of 2227 candidates from 27 Centres in England, and by 89 candidates from three Centres in Wales.
The issue was initially identified through complaints made to City & Guilds from Centres about Learners’ results and the moderation process. Whilst City & Guilds took significant steps to rectify the issue quickly at the time it was discovered, it did not promptly notify Ofqual of the incident.
City & Guilds made a Settlement Proposal to Ofqual in respect of this matter in March 2020. However, with the agreement of City & Guilds, Ofqual postponed any further consideration of the matter until further notice, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The matter was resumed in November 2020 and was considered by an Enforcement Committee in January 2021.
Interested parties now have the opportunity to make representations.
City and Guilds Undertaking: 19 May 2021
In 2018 and 2019, a number of internal and external reviews highlighted areas of potential non-compliance in relation to City & Guilds’ development, delivery and award of qualifications. In November 2019, we asked City & Guilds to commission an independent review of its controls for the development and delivery of Technical qualifications.
This review identified certain weaknesses in City & Guilds’ processes for developing Technical qualifications and identified a number of areas for improvement which could also apply more broadly to City and Guilds’ full offer of regulated qualifications.
Ofqual conducted an analysis of all event notifications submitted by City & Guilds in 2018 and 2019 under General Condition B3. Most of the event notifications related to assessment material errors resulting in the content of the assessments in question not being fit for purpose.
A substantial number of event notifications related to delivery failures. Some incidents resulted in City & Guilds issuing incorrect results. In all cases, City & Guilds appears to have acted as quickly and appropriately to address the issues as soon they were identified.
In response to the independent review and Ofqual’s review of event notifications, City & Guilds has admitted that it breached a number of its Conditions of Recognition and has developed an action plan to address those issues and to secure compliance.
City & Guilds has given an undertaking to Ofqual that it will perform the actions set out in its action plan and that it will provide regular updates to Ofqual on its progress.
Under B8 of the General Conditions of Recognition, City & Guilds must now take all the steps set out in the undertaking. We may take further action if it does not follow through on its commitments.