Welcome to the Regulatory IT Systems (RITS) Roadshow

January 2011

Objectives

By the end of the session you will:

Have a better understanding of the new Regulation landscape

Improve your understanding on how RITS will support regulation now and in the future

Be able to review RITS developments so far

Have an understanding of future developments and how it will affect your awarding organisation

Have a chance to tell us your views on both the Register of Regulated Qualifications and RITS

Know where to go to for any further or technical help

Building RITS to support Regulation now and in the future

Setting the scene

Ofqual is a new regulator with new objectives, powers and duties

Key milestones to date

– ASCL Act and Consultation on our powers (Nov / Dec 2009)

– Vesting & transitional regulatory arrangements (April 2010)

– Current consultations and the launch of RITS (Oct 2010)

Need for a flexible platform to deliver our statutory objectives … BUT

Profound changes to the public sector environment

– Cost savings measures

– Removal of other agencies

From transition to transformation

Consultation on the strategic regulation of awarding organisations – 19 October 2010 – 31 January 2011

See also consultations on economic regulation and on complaints and appeals

Awarding organisations are responsible for the quality and standard of their units and qualifications

The story so far……

Regulating Awarding Organisations rather than individual qualifications

Move from accreditation end dates to review dates

Shift from language of accredited qualifications to regulated qualifications

Contact points for all AOs

Changed QCDA remit ahead of closure

Future chapters……

Application of new conditions of recognition

End of universal approach to accrediting qualifications

More targeted interventions – risk-based

Transformation

Does not mean business as usual

Does not mean tweaking the old to become the new

Does means change – including of behaviour and of relationship

Ofqual is a regulator not a development agency

Consequently……

RITS is a regulatory not a developmental tool

The Register

Ofqual has a statutory duty to publish a register of recognised awarding organisations and regulated qualifications

The Register is not a marketing tool – it is a factual record of the organisations and the qualifications we regulate

Looking ahead

Not all qualifications will be subject to an accreditation requirement - they must be correctly entered on to RITS if they are to be correctly entered onto the Register

Qualifications that are subject to an accreditation requirement can only be accredited if the criteria are met

Risk assessments – of awarding organisations and their qualifications

Ofqual as a strategic regulator

Principles of good regulation

Regulating at the level of the organisation, rather than at ‘product’ level (primarily)

Requires awarding organisations to be accountable for the quality and standards of their units and qualifications and for the efficiency with which they operate

Next steps for RITS

As our regulatory approaches change RITS and the Register will need to too…

However no guarantee of funding for enhancing functionality beyond March

Ofqual is committed to transforming its approach and change will happen

The RITS developments to date and future activities planned

Re-cap on why RITS was needed?

WBA was due to be stopped as part of the QCDA closure plan

RITS will deliver the transformational changes

RITS has to accommodate old and new ways of working

Ofqual must publish and maintain a Register of:

- recognised AOs

- descriptions of qualifications AOs are recognised to offer

- AO specific regulated qualifications

A regulation system that is efficient as well as effective

What we have delivered

AO recognition permissions set up in RITS

Clearly defined data structures to represent QCF and NQF qualifications

The ability for AOs and unit and RoC submitters to add, amend (including extend), withdraw qualifications, units or their components

Validation of submitted qualification structures

Support the decision process for selecting which qualification is subject to the accreditation requirement

Communication of accreditation decisions

Recognised organisations and regulated qualifications showing on the Register of Regulated Qualifications

Interfaces to other organisations that need to use qualifications data (SFA, QCDA)

What RITS does NOT support

We have developed RITS to support our new approach to regulation, therefore:

You won’t be able to develop qualifications in RITS

Once banked QCF units cannot be amended

There is no longer a dialogue (review) phase

Qualifications should only be submitted when they are complete and are suitable (in state/format) for submission onto the Register

We do not need RITS/The Register to store AO information that promotes qualifications

Enhancements already made

1. Enabling the function for amending NQF qualifications (legacy format)

2. Selection of multiple units for bulk review

3. Correction of some data migration problems

4. Enable the function to amend qualifications and structures

5. CSV exports from the Register were truncated to 250 records. Ensure export files are not truncated and include the entire search results.

6. Include a search parameter for Qualification Type in the Register Search Qualifications page

7. Better structure validation and clearer error messages

8. Register view of ASL including by qualification

9. The extension of QCF qualifications beyond five years from start

We’ve started to address your feedback

1. Allow users to amend and reorder unit learning outcomes and assessment criteria fields within core RITS until the end of Feb 2011

2. Qualification/structure amendment will require a new supporting document

3. Ensure the Register ASL file exports are not truncated

4. Addressed learning outcome and assessment criteria anomalies

5. Include the appropriate sub-levels for entry level qualifications

6. Ensure the full set of search results are displayed on all search screen on the Register and improve the navigation of search results

7. Allow search results to be sorted correctly by date

8. Export file of Qualifications performance measures on the Register

9. Provision of a confidential box for uploaded documents

RITS January 2011

Provides further functionality to enhance the usability of RITS and the Register of Regulated Qualifications:

Ability to transfer ownership of QCF units Make full search results available in the RITS user interface Creation of spreadsheets for ASL catalogue Implement the new file downloads Reference data maintenance View audit trails Alerting and limited workflow between regulators and regulated

organisations Improve the create unit and Rules of Combination (structures)

default settings Provide more appropriate organisation search lists for unit and

qualification searches on the Register

RITS February 2011

Provides further functionality to enhance the usability of RITS and the Register of Regulated Qualifications:

Will remove the functionality to amend units Provide online support for the Recognition process Provide a mechanism to upload and track data submissions

requested by Ofqual Allow more flexible searching of unit, structure and qualification

numbers Include a number of miscellaneous user interface improvements

to RITS and the Register

RITS March 2011

Provides IT solutions for other Ofqual activities such as statistics, economic regulation and monitoring:

Welsh Language display on the Register The ability to identify units offered in Welsh at the point of inclusion in a

qualification Improvements to search functionality on RITS and the Register Provide the ability to maintain a fees hyperlink in RITS to be displayed on the

Register (subject to outcome of consultation). Capture statistical and performance data from AOs Support document sharing between regulatory teams Alerting and notification for work flow between regulatory teams Specified reporting functions for Regulators Functionality to support risk based regulation

Minimising the impact on AOs

We will:

Improve the content of the user manual and will include the feedback we have received from AOs

Update the user manual to support each release going forward

Communicate the availability of the training environment more effectively

Re-configure the RITS AO User Group

Arrange IT workshops for AOs that wish to make link the RITS web interfaces and file downloads with their own IT systems

Run RITS Surgeries (drop-in) sessions

Improve our helpdesk and fault tracking system

Help and support

Operational briefings have gone to all awarding organisations

There is a user guide and help text attached to RITS

There is a RITS information page on the Ofqual website (www.ofqual.gov.uk/rits) where you will find user resources including the training environment and FAQs

If you need help or support, you can call our helpdesk on 0300 303 3346 or email ritstechnical@ofqual.gov.uk

Technical support will be provided by our suppliers, but all calls will be logged through Ofqual and redirected appropriately