Legislation, Policies and Procedures from an External Quality Assurance Lens

All organisations regardless of industry have to comply with certain legislation and have in place the relevant policies and procedures to ensure compliance with legislation. In regards to centres and awarding organisations the following legislation apply:

• Health and Safety at work Act 1974 – HASAW
• Data Protection 1998 – already evaluated in assignment 8
• The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
• The Equality Act 2010

Examining first the Health and Safety at Work Act; this act is an umbrella for a number of other legislations and regulations including but not limited to:

1. Management of Health and Safety Regulations
2. Control of Substances Hazardous to Health – COSH
3. Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences – RIDDOR
4. Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations

Overall the HASAW Act places responsibilities on employers, employees, and anyone associated with the organisation including contractors, delivery people etc… These responsibilities are enforceable by the Health and Safety Executive and their powers of enforcement are backed by criminal sanctions including imprisonment and unlimited fines.

The objective of the HASAW Act are to secure and protect the health, safety and welfare of all persons associated with the work place including any visitors.

The HASAW Act is relevant to external quality assurance in a number of ways. Firstly, the EQA has a responsibility to ensure they comply with the Health and Safety policies and procedures of the awarding organisation they are representing and those of the centre they are visiting to ensure that they do not cause harm to others or themselves including putting people at risk of harm. Obviously the centres and the awarding organisation have responsibilities, not least, including, making sure there are policies and procedures in place that can be easily accessed, carrying out any necessary risk assessments and putting appropriate systems in place to reduce risks to the minimal level possible and providing free training for staff to ensure they can comply with legislation and workplace policies and procedures.

Part of the role of an EQA is not only to be compliant with legislation, policies and procedures but to also ensure the centres they look after comply. When a centre first applies for approval, the EQA visits the centre and must do a thorough check that the centre are in compliance with the HASAW legislation. To do this they will check things such as:

1. Are the centre displaying Health and Safety poster (that has been correctly filled in and up-to-date)?
2. Are they displaying Public Liability insurance and is it current?
3. Do they have the necessary policies and procedures in place? Are they being reviewed regularly? Are they accessible to staff and others (e.g. learners, visitors etc…
4. Do they have risk assessments in place, including assessment of risks to learners? Are these being updated? Do they include individual risk assessments to welfare where a staff member is perhaps pregnant, or has an illness such as cancer etc…?
5. Have they records of staff training for health, safety and welfare at work?
6. Does learner induction include health and safety training and awareness?

The EQA can check these and other relevant areas by examining products, e.g. policies and procedures, training records, induction material etc…. and by talking to staff members and learners. Once approval has been given to a centre the EQA must continue to monitor and check the compliance of each centre they are looking after. A good indication that a centre might not be complying can be established within minutes of entering the centre. For instance has the EQA been asked to sign in? This is important in case there is a fire drill or bomb alert, especially if the centre is large. Are there fire extinguishers near to doors? Is the health and safety poster displayed in the reception area so it can been seen by everyone easily? These simple checks can be carried out visually and if not in place the EQA should certainly follow-up on it, but it should also prompt the EQA to carry out further checks.

Within their monitoring activities the EQA needs to be checking centre, delivery staff, assessor and internal assurance activities are not putting learners at risk of harm. For example when observing an assessment, does the assessor stop the assessment when they see the learner about to do something that will cause harm to themselves or another person?

The safeguarding of Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 was brought in after the Bichard Inquiry of the Soham murders in 2004. The objective of the Safeguarding of Vulnerable Groups Act was to prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, which included children, whether in paid work or voluntary, through a barring scheme.

In 2012 there were changes introduced following the Freedom of Information Act which included the sharing of information and increased safeguarding processes.

The changes were administered by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) It was a requirement for the ISA to replace the List 99, the current barred list at that time (Protection of Children Act 1999) with two lists of people who are barred from working in regulated activity with children and vulnerable groups; one list for those who work with children and one who work with vulnerable adults. It also places a responsibility for all those who work with children and/or vulnerable adults to register and undergo advanced vetting through the Disclosure and Barring Service who took over the criminal records checks previously carried out by the Criminal Records Bureau. The ISA also introduced safer selection and recruitment processes for employers.

Safeguarding issues cover a broad continuum starting with ‘Promoting Welfare’ to ‘Protecting from Harm’. As well as the well-known types of abuse such as: physical, emotional, sexual, neglect, financial, discriminatory and institutional abuse, with the introduction of the worldwide web there now exists online abuse.

So what does this mean for external quality assurance? As with health and safety a centre seeking approval must demonstrate they are in compliance with safeguarding legislation and requirements including the awarding organisation requirements. Again, after the initial checks have been made the EQA looking after the centre is responsible for checking for ongoing compliance. This involves checking the centre:

• has the necessary safeguarding policies in place including recruitment processes followed
  • Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility
  • Demonstration of ownership of the safeguarding agenda
  • The maintaining of accurate records
  • The following of safe recruitment practices
  • The maintaining of safe premises and equipment
  • Staff awareness training
  • Reporting concerns promptly
  • Being alert to signs of symptoms of abuse
  • Provision of whistle blower policy
  • The need for cooperation with investigators
  • An open door policy
  • Support of protection plan
• Key messages to look for within the Safeguarding Policy are:
• that all staff working with learners have an advanced criminal record check
• that any new staff have criminal checks carried out before they are allowed contact with learners
• that all staff have received safeguarding training and that this is up-dated regularly
• that there is a named Safeguarding Officer in place and that all staff are aware who it is and how to contact
• that staff are aware of their own responsibilities and know what to do if they suspect a safeguarding issue or a disclosure is made
• that learners are aware of the centres safeguarding policies and procedures and know who to talk to if they have any safeguarding issues and what happens once they have disclosed issues

These checks are relatively easy to conduct as part of the quality assurance visit, for instance, when interviewing assessors/ internal quality assurers and learners, asking to look at training records and CPD records, asking to look at policies and procedures, asking to look at learner induction materials and even monitoring a learner induction as part of the planned quality assurance activities. When interviewing staff and learners it is important that the EQA not only checks that awareness training has been given but that for staff:

• They know what constitutes abuse
• They know the signs and symptoms of abuse
• They know how to respond to a leaner who has disclosed a safeguarding issue
• That they understand the boundaries and limits of their responsibilities
• They know how to make appropriate and accurate records of disclosure
• They know who to report safeguarding issues to and what to do if the named safeguarding Officer is not available.

For leaners the EQA needs to ensure:

• They have received an induction which includes safeguarding
• That they are aware of their rights and responsibilities
• That they know who to talk to if they have want to disclose a safeguarding issue
• That they know what might constitute a safeguarding issue
• That they know how their disclosure will be dealt with

(These lists are not exhaustive)

Of course, as well as checking the centres comply with Safeguarding legislation and awarding organisation requirements an EQA also needs to be aware of the awarding organisation safeguarding policies and procedures to ensure they themselves are compliant and know what to do if they need to report safeguarding issues.

Last but not least, 2010 the following Acts and regulations were brought together under the umbrella of The Equality Act 2010:

Equal Pay

Sex Discrimination

Race Relations

Disability Discrimination

Discrimination in Employment on the grounds of religion and belief, sexual orientation and age.

The Equality Act 2010 requires equal and fair treatment in relation to access to employment, education and other services regardless of:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage
• Civil partnerships
• Race
• Religion and Belief
• Sexual orientation
• Sex
• Pregnancy and maternity/paternity

In addition, the Equality Act requires service providers to be pro-active and not reactive. Therefore, they must ensure they have done everything reasonably practicable to accommodate all disabilities and not wait until, in the case of a college or Training Provider, they have a learner with a disability already enrolled before making any attempt to make necessary adjustments.

In relation to external quality assurance the EQA needs to monitor centres to ensure they are providing learning and assessment opportunities that are fair and accessible to all, regardless of any of the above characteristics. As with Data Protection, Health & Safety and Safeguarding, any centre seeking approval must have the correct policies and procedures in place to ensure compliance with legislation and awarding organisation requirements. In addition, as with other legislation discussed the EQA needs to continue to monitor compliance with equality legislation and the awarding organisation requirements. Very closely related to equality is diversity and whilst equality is about opportunity, diversity is about promoting differences.

Monitoring the compliance with equality and diversity legislation and requirements can be carried out as part of a planned visit through the following activities:

• Checking policies and procedures regularly and checking they have been updated
• Interviewing staff to check they understand the meaning of equality and diversity. It is often misunderstood with people thinking equality is about treating everybody the same. If you treat everybody the same you will very soon be discriminating whether directly or indirectly, intentionally or inadvertently and this is unlawful.
• Interviewing learners to check equality and diversity awareness was covered during induction; that they know what to do and who to report to if they feel they are being discriminated against; that they are aware of their own organisation’s equality and diversity policy and procedures
• Examining induction materials to ensure equality and diversity is promoted and sufficiently covered
• Checking the centre monitors and measure the diversity in the recruitment of learners to ensure it is representative of the community and so the centre can promote underrepresented groups
• Examining resources used and created by the centre to ensure for instance they:

• Promote diversity – for instance checking that resources used for the female dominated industry of childcare include reference to males to help promote it as a job equally accessible to men and not just women
• Are accessible for all – for instance if resources are on a computer making sure there are accessibility tools available, ensuring learners are providing with the training where necessary to be able to use computers and learning platforms etc…
• Ensuring resources are available in a range of formats
• Ensuring resources are available in different languages e.g. in Welsh for Welsh-speaking learners

In addition to the above activities the EQA needs to monitor the assessment decisions and internal quality assurance procedures to ensure learners have not been unfairly treated or disadvantaged. All assessment processes should be transparent and consistent across the centre to ensure learners are not be treated unfairly, being disadvantaged, or being asked to produce work in excess of what is required. EQA’s need to check centres are not insisting on bureaucratic procedures to meet their own purposes when it is not a legislative or awarding organisation requirement. A good indication that equality and diversity is not being complied with is if learners’ portfolios all look similar by producing similar outcomes because learners are all different and no two leaners work and learn in the same way. Assessment decisions need to demonstrate assessors are being objective and not representing their own opinion. The same principles apply with the quality assurance practices for instance: EQA’s should monitor the training given to centres, is training given to meet the individual needs of assessors? Have all assessors got a development plan? Is the support and guidance given to assessors from internal quality assurance activity consistent and meeting assessors’ needs? Are all assessors given equal access to development opportunities?

However, the EQA role is not just to ensure the centre complies with equality and diversity requirements but to also comply within their own practice. This requires EQA’s to ensure when they are planning visits they are not asking centres to ‘jump through hoops’ by planning over the top monitoring activities that are not necessary, or making requests that are not a regulatory requirement for instance insisting learners, assessors and IQA’s sign and date all evidence. The EQA must treat all centre staff with respect, when giving feedback ensure it is relevant to the standards and regulatory requirements and not what the EQA personally thinks. It is also a requirement that EQA’s provide the same standard of support and guidance to all the centres it looks after and therefore not giving one centre more support and guidance because the staff are friendlier, than another where staff are not so friendly. This is flawed within itself because what one EQA considers friendly another may not and this then leads to inconsistency across the awarding organisation’s external quality assurance practice. The awarding organisation has a responsibility to ensure all their EQA’s are complying with equality requirements and promoting diversity. This includes making arrangements for reports and other documents to be available in a different language where there is a bilingualism need.

Clearly there exists some overlapping within the legislation and centres not complying with one area of legislation will likely be in breach of another piece of legislation. It is essential EQA’s are aware of legislative requirements and their awarding organisations policies and procedures that sets out how to meet these requirements. Compliance with legislation and requirements should be monitored throughout all the EQA’s monitoring activities and just checking the centres have the correct policies and procedures is not sufficient, they need to be seen working to these policies and procedures. It can be seen quite clearly that the legislation and requirements exist to protect all those associated with the provider, including learners, staff and visitors. In addition by complying with legislation and requirements centres, EQA’s and awarding organisations can be sure they are providing a good level of service that is not only lawful but which promotes best practice.

Bibliography

Equality and Diversity: https://www.gov.uk/…/about/equality-and-diversity Assessed 19/02/15

Gravells. A, (2012) Achieving your Assessment & Quality Assurance Units (TAQA). 2nd ed. London. Learning Matters SAGE.

Health and Safety Executive: www.hse.gov.uk Assessed 17/02/15

NVQ Code of Practice (2006) Great Briton, QCA

Ollin, R. and Tucker, J. (2012) The Vocational Handbook: Including a guide to the QCF units for assessment and internal quality assurance (IQA) 5^th ed. London. Kogan Page.

The Freedom of Information Act (2004) https://gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request/if-your-request-is-turned-down  Assessed 18/02/15

The Soham Murders: http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2010/11/11/child-protection-scheme-recommended-by-soham-murders-inquiry-ruled-unlawful/ Accessed 19/02/15