Access Arrangements
- What are access arrangements and special consideration?
- Assessing Requirements - Who can conduct assessments for candidates?
- Where can I find help in carrying out the tests to assess the candidate's needs?
- Do we have to apply for arrangements for each series?
- Does the centre need a report for a candidate where access arrangements are required?
- Does the candidate’s report have to be dated within a certain time period?
- What happens if the centre wants to make access arrangements for candidates sitting GCSE and GCE qualifications?
- Does it matter if the report the centre has provided is signed within the two-year rule but tests were carried out three years ago?
- Do we attach approval of the arrangement to the script?
- Should I have on file examples of a candidate’s free writing and dictation of word processing when processing an application for a scribe?
- Does a centre need to have on file a report if the candidate requires a word processor?
- Can a candidate have extra time in an art controlled test?
- Does the examiner marking the script make allowances?
- What happens if a disabled candidate cannot demonstrate the skills being assessed?
- If I require further assistance, who should I contact?
What are access arrangements and special consideration?
Access Arrangements are approved before an examination or assessment and are intended to allow attainment to be demonstrated. An example of an access arrangement would be the provision of a modified enlarged paper for a candidate with a visual impairment.
Special Consideration may be given following an examination or assessment to ensure that a candidate with a temporary illness, injury or indisposition at the time of an examination or assessment is given some recognition of the difficulty he/she has faced. Clearly, any special consideration granted cannot take away the difficulty the candidate has faced and can only be a relatively minor adjustment to ensure that the integrity of the standard is not compromised.
Please ensure that you refer to the current JCQ booklet ‘Access Arrangements, Reasonable Adjustments and Special Consideration’ for further details. This is available on the website.
Assessing Requirements - Who can conduct assessments for candidates?
Private or LA Educational Psychologists, Clinical Psychologists or teachers approved by their head of centre (known as ‘Specialist Teachers’).
Please refer to Chapter 4 of the JCQ booklet ‘Access Arrangements, Reasonable Adjustments and Special Consideration’. This is available on the website.
Where can I find help in carrying out the tests to assess the candidate's needs?
If your local provider is not currently offering Inset training, look on the PATOSS web site (www.patoss-dsylexia.org) for the following guide:
Dyslexia: Assessing the need for Access Arrangements during Examinations A Practical Guide, Fourth Edition, edited by Anwen Jones.
The JCQ cannot advise on how to use each test.
Do we have to apply for arrangements for each series?
Only if you are applying for modified papers. If you are applying for other access arrangements you do not need to apply for each series as long as the candidate's report remains valid throughout the course.
Please refer to the JCQ booklet ‘Access Arrangements, Reasonable Adjustments and Special Consideration’. This is available on the website.
Does the centre need a report for a candidate where access arrangements are required?
You must check Chapter 2 of the JCQ booklet ‘Access Arrangements, Reasonable Adjustments and Special Consideration’. This lists the precise requirements for each access arrangement.
For GCSE and GCE qualifications, applications for access arrangements are processed online. Where approval is granted, it is important that centres have appropriate documentation held on file which substantiates the need for the arrangement. Centres' applications will be sampled regularly by the JCQ Centre Inspection Service.
Does the candidate’s report have to be dated within a certain time period?
Not if the candidate only needs up to a maximum of 25% extra time. In this case the report must date from the secondary school period, after KS2. Where a candidate has a confirmed learning difficulty and requires: a reader, a scribe, an Oral Language Modifier or extra time of more than 25%, the report must be within twenty six months of the examination.
What happens if the centre wants to make access arrangements for candidates sitting GCSE and GCE qualifications?
Depending on the arrangement, for candidates with a confirmed learning difficulty, you will need a report from a specialist dated within twenty six months of the examinations. For applications relating to OLMs, readers, scrives, or extra time of more than 25%, you will need to complete Form 8 – JCQ/AA/LD, available on this website, or a centre devised equivalent which addresses the same key questions.
Where approval is granted, a copy of the approval notification should be printed and attached to the relevant documentation, i.e. Form 1 or Form 8, and retained on file for inspection purposes.
Further information may be found within the JCQ booklet ‘Access Arrangements, Reasonable Adjustments and Special Consideration’
Does it matter if the report the centre has provided is signed within the two-year rule but tests were carried out three years ago?
Yes. We are looking at an assessment of the candidate’s needs and these may change over time.
Do we attach approval of the arrangement to the script?
A cover sheet for the use of an oral language modifier, a scribe, practical assistant, a transcript, a word processor or the use of a sign language interpreter should be attached to the candidate’s completed script. For applications completed online, a pre-populated cover sheet can be generated from Access Arrangements online. There is no need to attach a printout from Access Arrangements online confirming approval of the arrangement.
Should I have on file examples of a candidate’s free writing and dictation of word processing when processing an application for a scribe?
No. The psychologist or specialist teacher needs to set out in their assessment of the candidate that the arrangement reflects the candidate’s normal way of working because the candidate cannot communicate in any other way. As stated in the regulations, a scribe should be requested for a candidate ‘whose free writing cannot be read by others, is grammatically incomprehensible or is produced so slowly that answers cannot be recorded with the extra time allowed’. Where a candidate can use a word processor (and this is their normal way of working) then he/she must use a word processor in their examinations.
Please refer to Chapter 2 of the JCQ booklet ‘Access Arrangements, Reasonable Adjustments and Special Consideration’. This is available on the website.
Does a centre need to have on file a report if the candidate requires a word processor?
No, there is no longer any need to process an application for the use of a word processor via Access Arrangements Online, and no need to keep evidence on file at the centre.
Please refer to Chapter 2 on the use of word processors in the JCQ booklet ‘Access Arrangements, Reasonable Adjustments and Special Consideration’.
Can a candidate have extra time in an art controlled test?
Some Art examinations have different requirements to others. The regulations state that no extra time will be permitted in examinations testing the time in which a skill is performed, such as sports, musical performance or expressive arts, where the timing may be a crucial part of the assessment.
The operative word here is may; for example, if a brief or commission were part of the examination and it had to be produced in a given time, no extra time could be allowed. However, most GCSE Art controlled tests are a ten-hour assessment and it would be possible to allow some extra time in these, where this is reflected in the candidate’s history of provision and need.
The regulations have to cover a broad range of qualifications and it is not possible to set out the assessment criteria for all specifications, which is why we say that timing “may” by a crucial part of the assessment. Where a centre wishes a candidate to have extra time, but is unsure whether this would be permissible within the specification being taken, they should contact the JCQ or the relevant awarding body for advice.
Please refer to Chapter 2 in the JCQ booklet ‘Access Arrangements, Reasonable Adjustments and Special Consideration’.
Does the examiner marking the script make allowances?
No. For example, if a modified enlarged Maths paper has different measurements, the answer will be adjusted, but no allowances can be made for the nature of the disability itself.
What happens if a disabled candidate cannot demonstrate the skills being assessed?
Candidates will not gain marks for skills or knowledge that they are unable to demonstrate. For example, in a Science practical, the candidate cannot be given marks for the implementation of a skill that is demonstrated by a practical assistant who is carrying out the candidate’s instructions. However, the candidate can be awarded marks for planning, analysis and evaluation.
A practical assistant may, however, carry out practical tasks at the instruction of the candidate. In an examination this might be holding a ruler or turning the pages of the script. In practical assessments, the practical assistant might pour liquids, weigh solids or hold equipment for the candidate. A practical assistant cannot make a D&T realisation, paint artwork, or perform music, which would be an integral part of the assessment. Candidates cannot be awarded marks for skills they are not able to demonstrate.
If I require further assistance, who should I contact?
Please send an email to JCQ ( info@jcq.org.uk ) and we will respond to your enquiry as soon as possible or alternatively call 0207 638 4132 where we will be happy to assist you