Correspondence

Delivery of VTQ results for 2024 and beyond

Published 12 October 2023

Applies to England

Dear Headteacher / Executive Leader,

Following my recent letter to you on grading arrangements for GCSEs, A levels and vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs), I am now writing to confirm arrangements to ensure the timely delivery of results for students taking VTQs this academic year and beyond. I encourage you to share the information in this letter with your exams officer, qualification administration and curriculum teams as appropriate.

Key measures

Ofqual recognises the intensity of the work involved in 2023 to ensure students taking VTQs got the results they needed to progress. This was an important step towards parity of treatment for VTQ students. We are putting in place a similar approach for 2024 onwards, with some changes to take account of feedback we received. Building on the success of the 2023 VTQ Results Action Plan:

• Awarding organisations will work with you to identify which students need a result on or before results days in August for progression to further or higher education. This term-time checkpoint will be completed before the main exam season begins in May.

• These arrangements will apply to Level 3, Level 1/2 and Level 2 VTQs used for progression. Your awarding organisations will provide details of which of their qualifications are in scope.

• Results for these qualifications will be issued to students on or before A level/Level 3 results day and GCSE/Level 2 results day, as appropriate. Awarding organisations will release these to schools and colleges in advance, to give sufficient time for exams officers to check and prepare them for final release. The ability of staff to review results and, if necessary, engage with awarding organisations prior to results days proved a critical aspect of the success of the summer of 2023, though we recognise it is a demanding time for schools and colleges. If your school or college handles high volumes of results, I encourage you to consider which staff will need to be available.

• Awarding organisations will continue to keep details of each school and college’s senior designated contact up to date and will escalate any issues as necessary both during and outside term-time. Awarding organisations will ask you to confirm the name of the most relevant person close to exams and assessments who is used to being a point of escalation (this does not necessarily need to be the principal/headteacher).

Your feedback

Exams officers told us that, while they appreciated the checkpoints introduced in 2023 to help identify issues early, the extra effort created burden during the exams period, when exams officers are already very busy. Ofqual has listened to this feedback and asked awarding organisations to undertake a term-time checkpoint before the main exams series begins in May.

Exams officers and awarding organisations also told us that they valued having results early in schools and colleges to identify and resolve any outstanding problems, ahead of results being issued to students. Ofqual is carrying this approach forward. Individual awarding organisations will confirm when results for their qualifications will be issued to schools and colleges.  

Schools and colleges recognised that it would be helpful to extend this arrangement to Level 1/2 and Level 2 qualifications, where they are taken alongside GCSEs at Key Stage 4, for progression. Ofqual is expanding the scope of these arrangements accordingly.

We received positive feedback from schools and colleges about Ofqual’s Information Hub, so we will once again collate and publish awarding organisations’ key dates and deadlines in the new year. 

We also heard that communications from awarding organisations sometimes felt overwhelming and heavy-handed. Ofqual is working with awarding organisations to consider the content, volume and timing of their communications. Awarding organisations will clearly set out their expectations for schools and colleges, including what data they will be collecting, when and why, and any consequences for schools and colleges that fail to meet their deadlines. 

Lastly, Ofqual recognises that individual students’ plans can change. The checkpoint process is designed to ensure that students who need a result on results days get one. This process should not curtail the flexibility that is a valued feature of many VTQs. Students who are not dependent on a result in August to progress will continue to be able to complete their qualification as they are ready, and to the timescales that work for them and their school or college. If an individual student no longer expects a result once the checkpoint process is complete, you should notify the relevant awarding organisation to ensure the student’s progress is captured and, if appropriate, their result is deferred.

Thank you 

I would like to thank you for your support in ensuring results were delivered to students in a timely way in 2023, and for your ongoing support to embed these arrangements for 2024 and beyond. It is important that once again the sector works in partnership to share accurate data in a timely way, and that subject teachers and exams administrators are supported in working together, so that students get results when they need them.

For further information about the content of this letter, please email strategic.relationships@ofqual.gov.uk

Dr Jo Saxton, Chief Regulator