Guidance

VTQ Special Consideration: guide to the data submission process

Published 22 September 2023

Applies to England

Introduction

In order to fulfil our regulatory and accreditation functions as set out in the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009, we require awarding organisations to provide exams delivery data for regulated qualifications.

What data will be collected?

Data on numbers of requests for special consideration for the following types of Vocational and Technical Qualifications (VTQs):

• VTQ Performance Table Qualifications (PTQs) – Applied Generals, Tech Levels, Technical Awards, Technical Certificates
• International Baccalaureates
• Pre-Us
• Core Maths

When will data be collected?

Data will be collected according to the reporting schedule which is agreed and maintained by Ofqual’s data services team.

Updates to formats and guidance

This guidance document will be updated regularly. Any changes to procedure will be incorporated into the guidance document.

How to submit your data

Your data should be submitted to us in CSV format. Please refer to the ‘Connecting to Ofqual’s data portal and uploading data’ document on our webpage to help you submit your files to us. If you need to ask us about a data submission please contact the Data Services team by emailing data.services@ofqual.gov.uk.

Please do not send your data files via email to Data Services or to any other Ofqual email address, or via Contact the Regulator in the Portal.

Uploaded data

Once files have been successfully uploaded, the data will be validated against a set of validation rules. These are detailed in the sections below. If validation is successful, the data is automatically transferred into our systems and you will receive email confirmation. If the file is unsuccessful at any stage of validation you will receive an email with details of the validation failure. Please correct your file and resubmit it.

Amendments to data

Ofqual staff will not alter data once it has been submitted. If you find an error or omission after you’ve had a successful upload, please notify us by email data.services@ofqual.gov.uk. We need to reject the existing submission before you can upload a new file.

How your data will be used

This data will be used to undertake our regulatory activities and, where required, to produce Official Statistics to fulfil our responsibility as a government department.

File format

The file must be CSV format and the first row must be headers as displayed in the ‘Name’ column of the table below. The subsequent rows must have the values of the data to be reported which must match the format and validation rules below.

General completion guidelines

Data should relate to learners in Centres in England only.

Data should include all special consideration requests made for assessments taken between 1 September and 31 August. The date range relates to assessment dates (or submission dates or equivalent for non-examined assessments), not results dates.

Data should relate to the following qualification types:

• VTQ Performance Table Qualifications (PTQs) – Applied Generals, Tech Levels, Technical Awards, Technical Certificates
• International Baccalaureates
• Pre-Us
• Core Maths

Data should only include post-hoc mark or grade change type requests for special consideration, not requests for pre-agreed adjustments to assessment conditions (for example, a scribe).

For group applications (where a centre submits one application covering multiple learners) please reflect the total number of learners affected in the counts in fields 8 to 12, rather than just counting these as a single request and outcome. Where applications cover multiple assessments, please include these on separate rows.

Data should include cases with little or no evidence banked.

Name	Description	Position	Validation Regular Expression	Description of Regular Expression
ReportingDate	Date the file was due to be submitted to Ofqual regardless of when it was actually uploaded (this date will be made available by Ofqual)	1	^(20)\d\d[-](0[1-9]|1[012])[-](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$	The date in the following format: year (4 digits), a dash, month (2 digits), a dash, day (2 digits) Format accepted yyyy-mm-dd
AcademicYear	The academic year which this data submission relates to (defined as 1 September to 31 August) For example, “2022-2023”	2	^(20)\d\d[-](20)\d\d $	The academic year in the following format: start year (4 digits), a dash, end year (4 digits) Format accepted yyyy-yyyy
AwardingOrganisation	Name of the awarding organisation	3	^.{1,100}$	1 to 100 characters accepted
QualificationNumber	This should be the unique identifier for the qualification as it appears in Ofqual’s Register of Regulated qualifications, for example, 123/1234/1 ‘-2’ accepted if not applicable ‘-2’ also accepted for cases where the assessment can be used for more than one qualification and the qualification is not yet known	4	^.{1,10}$	Valid Qualification Number 1 to 10 characters accepted ‘-2’ accepted if not applicable or not known
AssessmentCode	Unique identifier for the assessment, generated by the AO Codes should not be shared across different assessments This could be the URN, for example For Tech Awards, Tech Certs, Tech Levels and Applied Generals, this should match the assessment codes used for the ‘PTQ outcomes’ data submissions ‘-2’ accepted for special consideration applied at the qualification level	5	^.{1,50}$	1 to 50 characters accepted ‘-2’ accepted for special consideration applied at the qualification level
SpecialConsiderationType	To indicate the type of special consideration applied for	6	^(Present but disadvantaged| Absent with good reason)$	Accepted values: • Present but disadvantaged • Absent with good reason
DisadvantageCategory	To indicate the disadvantage category, see Annex A for further guidance For cases where a special consideration request relates to multiple categories, please use the ‘other causes’ category Disadvantage categories should be given where possible. Where not possible (for example, where disadvantage categories are not recorded for absent leaners), please give ‘-2’	7	^(Illness or injury| Crisis or incident| Bereavement| Other causes| -2)$	Accepted values: • Illness or injury • Crisis or incident • Bereavement • Other causes • ‘-2’ accepted where disadvantage category is not recorded (for example, for absent learners) See Annex A for further guidance
TotalNumberOfRequests	The total number of requests made for the type outlined in field 7 for the qualification assessment given in fields 4 and 5. Values in this field should equal the sum of fields 9 to 12	8	^\d{1,5}$	Five-digit integer
RequestsPending	The number of requests given in field 8 that have not yet been rejected or approved or withdrawn	9	^\d{1,5}$	Five-digit integer
RequestsRejected	The number of requests given in field 8 that have been rejected	10	^\d{1,5}$	Five-digit integer
RequestsApproved	The number of requests given in field 8 that have been approved	11	^\d{1,5}$	Five-digit integer
RequestsWithdrawn	The number of requests given in field 8 that have been withdrawn	12	^\d{1,5}$	Five-digit integer

Annex A: Disadvantage categories

Some guidance to understand the disadvantage categories in Field 7 is given below.

Disadvantage category	Description
Illness or injury	Where the learner was disadvantaged due to an illness or injury immediately before or at the time of the assessment.
Crisis or incident	Where the learner was disadvantaged due to a crisis or incident that occurred outside of their control at the time of the assessment. Examples might include (but are not limited to): • domestic crisis • serious disturbances during the assessment • accidental or unexpected events at the time of the assessment (for example, being given the wrong examination paper) • power failure or other technical issues • cyber-attack on the Centre or provider
Bereavement	Where the learner was disadvantaged immediately before or during the assessment due to the loss of a family member or a close friend.
Other causes	Any other cause not covered above. For example, suffering from shock after witnessing a road accident immediately before the assessment. Also includes cases where a special consideration request might fall under more than one of the above categories.

Contacts

For all queries relating to the data collection process, amendments to data previously provided, or for general guidance. please contact:

Data services

Ofqual
2nd floor, 1 Friargate
Station Square
Coventry
CV1 2GN

Email Data.Services@ofqual.gov.uk