Access Arrangements

The ‘Access Arrangements and Special Consideration Regulations and Guidance Relating to Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations’ are designed to facilitate access to qualifications for candidates who have particular requirements, which are set out in two categories:

Access Arrangements – which 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 paper for a candidate with a visual impairment.
Special Consideration – which may be given following an examination or assessment to ensure that a candidate with a temporary illness, injury or indisposition at the time it is conducted is given some recognition of the difficulty they have 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 ‘Access Arrangements and Special Consideration Regulations and Guidance Relating to Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations’ for further details. This is available on the website.

2. Assessing Requirements -Who can conduct assessments for candidates?

Private or LEA Educational Psychologists, Clinical Psychologists or teachers holding an approved qualification (known as ‘Specialist Teachers’).

Please refer to the ‘ Access Arrangements and Special Consideration Regulations and Guidance Relating to Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations’. This is available on the website.

3. Assessing Requirements -Where can I find a list of approved qualifications for specialist teachers carrying out assessments?

The accepted qualifications are listed in the JCQ ‘ Access Arrangements and Special Consideration Regulations and Guidance for Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations’. As the list is continually revised and updated we also keep a separate copy on the website.

The JCQ member Awarding Bodies will accept a report on a candidate's needs from any qualified psychologist whose professional association would deem them suitably qualified to assess candidates. We do not keep a list of psychologists' qualifications.

The ‘Regulations and Guidance Relating to Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations’ states that an appropriately qualified teacher is defined as a teacher or tutor who is employed at a secondary school or college of further education and who also holds one of the qualifications listed on the following pages.

We included this statement to try to explain that the person carrying out the assessments did not necessarily have to hold a formal teaching qualification so long as they were employed by their Centre as a teacher. This is not meant to exclude an individual who is employed/contracted by a centre to carry out candidate assessments from doing so. For example an LEA may employ teachers who hold a JCQ approved qualification to carry out assessments for a number of schools and colleges even though they may not teach at these Centres.

5. How can I ask for my qualification to be included?

The list of approved qualifications gets updated during the year and the most up-to-date version is posted on the website.

Please follow the steps below:

i) Check the current list of approved qualifications on the website;

Read the criteria listed in the ‘ Access Arrangements and Special Consideration Regulations and Guidance Relating to Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations’ and compare it with your qualification to see if it meets this;
Make a list including the following information:
Full and exact course title
Name and contact details (e-mail address and telephone number is always helpful) for the awarding institution (including whether this has closed or been amalgamated with another institution)
Date of award
Name of course tutor (if possible)

iv) Then e-mail your request to: info@jcq.org.uk or write to us at:

Joint Council for Qualifications

Veritas House

125 Finsbury Pavement

London EC2A 1NQ

We will then write to the institution and ask the course tutor (or relevant individual) to confirm whether the qualification you have completed meets the criteria for carrying out assessments. We will let you know that we have written and get back in touch to confirm whether or not your course can be added to the list of qualifications.

If we do not hear back from the institution, we will write again after a month and let you know that we are chasing the enquiry. If we have still have not heard we will write a third and final time a month later and will again let you know that we have contacted the institution. We will let you know if and when we receive a response.

6. Where can I find help in carrying out the test?

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 by Gill Backhouse with Elizabeth Dolman and Caroline Read.

The JCQ cannot advise on which tests to use or how to use each test.

7. Do we have to apply for arrangements for each session?

Only if you are applying for modified papers. If you are applying for other arrangements you do not need to apply for each session as long as the candidate's report remains valid throughout the course and as long as you apply for every unit the candidate is taking. Please remember that you cannot transfer arrangements from GCSE to GCE, or from one subject to another.

8. Does the Centre need a report for the candidate where the Access Arrangements required are delegated to the Centre?

A Statement of special educational needs will suffice but either the statement of special educational needs or a report must be available for inspection if requested by an Awarding Body or inspector.

Arrangements that are delegated to Centres include:

Permitting a maximum of 25% extra time to a candidate;
The use of a prompter;
The use of a transcript;
Centres may also allow a candidate whose first language is not English, Irish (or Gaelige) or Welsh and is not entered for a Modern Foreign language examination to use a bi-lingual dictionary.
Centres may also allow a candidate up to a maximum of 25% extra time when using a bilingual dictionary, where appropriate. Where the candidate's first language is not English and they have been in the UK for less than two years.

9. Does the candidate’s report have to be dated within 2 years of the examination?

Not if the candidate only needs up to a maximum of 25% extra time or another Centre delegated arrangement. In this case the report must date from the secondary school period, after KS2.

10. What happens if the Centre wants to make arrangements for a candidate other than those which are delegated to the Centre?

You will need a report dated within 2 years of the date of the start of the examination series and you will need to submit a completed Access Arrangements form. JCQ/AA Form 1 should be completed for candidates with a physical disability where it is not necessary to have a report from an expert and JCQ/AA/LD Form 8 should be completed for candidates with a learning difficulties where an assessment from an expert (i.e. psychologist or specialist teacher holding one of the JCQ approved qualifications) will be required.

11. 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 for non-centre delegated arrangements?

Yes. We are looking at an assessment of the candidate’s needs and these may change over time.

12. When do we attach the Awarding Body’s letter to the script?

When you are attaching a Cover Sheet for the use of word processors or scribes, practical assistants or the use of BSL. Please note you must obscure the name of the centre if this appears on the Awarding Body’s letter.

13. Should I provide examples of a candidate’s free writing and dictation of word processing when requesting a scribe as an Access Arrangement?

No. The psychologist or specialist teacher needs to set out in their assessment of the candidate that the arrangement would reflect 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 could not be recorded with the extra time allowed”. Where a candidate can use a word processor (and this is their normal way of working) then they should do so.

14. Does a Centre need to provide a report if the candidate requires a computer?

Yes, unless the candidate has a physical disability which does not need to be verified.

Please refer to the section on the use of Word Processors in the ‘ Access Arrangements and Special Consideration Regulations and Guidance Relating to Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations’. This is available on the website.

15. 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 keyboarding, or in practical activities such as swimming, musical performance, art controlled tests 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 related to a ten-hour assessment and it would be possible to allow some extra time in these, where this reflected 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 relevant Awarding Body for advice.

16. Does the Examiner marking the script make allowances?

No. For example, if an enlarged Maths paper has different measurements, the answer will be adjusted, but no allowances can be made for the nature of the disability itself.

17. 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 but 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. But 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.

18. Who produces the Regulations and Guidance?

The JCQ produces Regulations and Guidance on behalf of its members in a number of areas where it is beneficial to have common procedures and rules. This includes the Instructions for the Conduct of Examinations, Post-Results Enquiries and Regulations and Guidance Relating to Candidates who are Eligible for Adjustments in Examinations. Day-to-day enquiries about how the regulations operate should be directed to the relevant Awarding Body, as it is the Awarding Bodies which administer the regulations. However, if you wish to suggest a change in policy then please send this to the JCQ ( info@jcq.org.uk ) and we can share your suggestion with the relevant group of individuals from our members who are involved in the annual review of publications.

All of the documents can be downloaded free of charge on the website. Please note that we do not supply hard copies of any documents.