Progress on restoration of services
For an update on our progress restoring our services, FAQs and how to access support while the Portal is unavailable, visit our service continuity webpage.
Exams officers
Here at NCFE, we know how vital exams officers are.
Without you, it would be impossible to run and administer our exams successfully, so we work hard to make it easy for you to work with us.
On this page you’ll find all the key information to support you in your role, including timetables, a key dates calendar and FAQs, as well as monthly updates to ensure you’re kept up to date with any changes, events and training opportunities.
Your monthly update (January 2026)
Below you’ll find your monthly update for January 2026.
Term-time checkpoints (timely delivery of VTQ results)
Following the recent cyber security incident, we let you know that the first term-time checkpoint will no longer take place. You don’t have to complete any actions in relation to this change.
We will instead proceed with a single term-time checkpoint. That checkpoint will open on Monday 23 March 2026 and close on Thursday 30 April 2026.
Please share this update with exams officers, curriculum teams, and senior leaders. For full details, including qualifications in scope, information we need from you, and FAQs, visit our term-time checkpoints webpage.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Qualifications updates and withdrawals
View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.
________________________________________________________________________________________
What does the Royal Mail and Parcelforce merger mean for the secure dispatch of scripts (yellow label) service?
In August 2025, Royal Mail and Parcelforce announced their merger and decision to move to a new single delivery network, which involves an integration of their IT systems.
We’ve been working with Parcelforce and Royal Mail to mitigate the impact of any changes to our current yellow label process, which is currently operated by Parcelforce. The existing systems and process will remain in place until March 2026, and we’ll let you know about any future changes to the process and timeframes. We can confirm that the service will continue under Royal Mail into summer 2026, meaning that although the provider details may change, the service will still work as planned for returning your assessment papers.
In the meantime, if you have any specific questions, please contact our Assessment Delivery team by email at [email protected].
________________________________________________________________________________________
Qualification-specific updates
________________________________________________________________________________________
Events
Join our workshop at the National Exams Officer Conferences Are you attending the National Exams Officer Conferences? If you are, remember to join us for a practical session on how to get evidence uploads right first time. We’ll look at common pitfalls, share simple ways to avoid missing evidence, and help you to submit accurately and with confidence.
Book your place
Assessments
You can find the upcoming post results deadlines for assessments for our CACHE and T Level qualifications in the Key Dates Schedule.
Post results services
We understand that there are times when a student or provider feels that a result is at variance with their reasonable expectations. Therefore, there is a range of post-results options available to providers to support you and your students.
Requests for reviews of marking or access to scripts can be submitted by the provider on behalf of the student (with their consent), however before doing so, please ensure you’re familiar with our Enquiries about Results and Assessment Decisions Policy.
More information on post-results services can be found here.
Assessment support
Visit our assessment support page where you'll find everything you need to support you with assessment, including policies, forms and guidance on online assessment, remote invigilation, assessment and results queries, appeals, certificates, special considerations, access arrangements and reasonable adjustments, and much more.
Delivery support
Visit our delivery support page where we have over 1000 informative and engaging learning resources. Here, you'll find all you need to deliver our qualifications and support your learners.
Qualifications for Specific Delivery (QSID)
View our Qualifications for Specific Delivery (QSID) document which provides qualification-specific instructions relating to the administration of external assessments for NCFE qualifications.
Exams officer training
The Exams Office, in conjunction with their training partner Exams Training, offers a range of face-to-face training events delivered by industry experts, supported by high quality resources and held at 4/5-star venues across England. Events are available for:
- Exams officers
- Senior leaders/line managers
- Invigilators.
Learn more about how you can keep up to date with your training
Reasonable adjustment timescales
If you require a reasonable adjustment submission and/or paper modification, please ensure they’re booked before the below deadlines:
- Reasonable adjustments (PDF requests, language modifiers and speech recognition): prior to the booking cut-off date
- Paper modifications (braille): 30 working days before the assessment
- Paper modifications (enlarged paper or coloured paper): 15 working days before the assessment
- Reasonable adjustments (practical assistant): one day prior to the assessment
- All other reasonable adjustments: up to the assessment date.
For more information on reasonable adjustments and how to submit an application, visit this page.
Please note: the events we have linked from The Exams Office and Exams Officers & Data Solutions LTD are not an endorsement by NCFE. Exams Officers need to select the training that they believe is required for their role and circumstances.