Accreditation Newsletter

In terms of its definition, transparency means that regulators should be open, and keep regulations simple and user-friendly.  

We strive to be a transparent regulator and we do this in several ways.  

We use our website to publish a range of information. We publish the decision lists for our Accreditation Coordination Group on a weekly basis. All audit and provider monitoring reports and action plans are published on our website. We also update the action plans on our website as and when an awarding body provides evidence to close out an issue.  

If we have to place a sanction on an awarding body, then we will publish that in the sanctions register on our website. However, we very rarely have to issue a sanction.  

On a monthly basis, we publish the listing and lapsing reports. The listing report details all current accredited qualifications including the Accreditation End Date, Certification End Date and whether the qualification is in a Modern Apprenticeship. The lapsing report provides details of those qualifications that will reach their Accreditation End Date for the month in which we publish it. 

One of the reasons for introducing the Regulatory Principles was to try to simplify our approach to regulation. It was felt that the Criteria which we previously used were specific and inflexible. Moving to a principles-based approach, means greater flexibility in how awarding bodies decide how they can best meet the requirements of the principles. In our most recent stakeholder survey, we received positive feedback on the most recent version of the Regulatory Principles.