Service messages

Welcome to a new academic year! To make things easier for you, we’ve now combined all our essential regulatory, qualification and assessment updates for all product areas into one central area of our website.  

We’ll send you a monthly newsletter where we’ll highlight any key updates, and you can click through to this webpage to read the full details. We recommend bookmarking this page so that you can check back regularly for key information. 

Updates across multiple qualification types  

Post-results services  

Following results release in August, we wanted to remind you that you can still access some post-results services, although deadlines are fast approaching. Find out more on our website.

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It’s time to register your learners 

With the new academic year starting, learners in their first year of study should be registered on the Portal to avoid late fees. Please see the assessment timetable 2026-28 for key dates. For more information on how to register learners and use the Portal, please see the Portal User Guide. 

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View our assessment timetable for 2026-27 

We’ve updated our assessment timetable for all V Cert and CACHE qualifications with an assessment for 2026-27 and 2027-28.   

In July, we made some amends to some 2026-27 assessment dates. These changes were mainly to work around GQ exams, aiming to avoid clashes and reduce the burden on schools and colleges in an already busy period. You can find details of these changes here. 

Please note that the assessment timetable is a controlled document and is subject to regular updates and revisions. To ensure you’re always working from the correct version, please don’t download and save the assessment timetable, and instead always access the live version on our website.  

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We’ve aligned to JCQ’s non-examined assessment (vocational and technical qualifications) guidance 

We’ve aligned with the Joint Council for Qualifications’ (JCQ) guidance for the setting, supervision, authentication, marking, internal standardisation and external moderation of non-exam assessments in examination centres. This document, alongside the rest of our mandatory polices and fees, can be located on our website. 

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Declaration of Authenticity

We’re introducing a revised declaration of authenticity for non-exam assessment (NEA) and coursework that is subject to moderation. Developed and agreed by all JCQ awarding organisations, the updated declaration reinforces expectations regarding the authenticity of candidate work and provides clarity on the appropriate use and acknowledgement of sources, including AI tools. These changes support a consistent approach across the sector.

JCQ has updated the Declaration of Authenticity declaration, with the wording now standardised across all JCQ awarding organisations. The revised declaration places greater emphasis on authenticity and transparency.

Candidates must confirm that:

• the work submitted is their own
• all sources have been appropriately referenced
• any use of AI tools has been acknowledged
• the assessment requirements have been followed.

Assessors must confirm that they have:

• taken reasonable steps to authenticate learner work
• recorded any assistance provided
• applied the relevant marking and standardisation processes

Implementation

Please ensure you use the new declaration form for all assessments completed on or after 1 September 2026, even where the work was started before this date.

Legacy declaration forms signed on or after 1 September 2026 will not be accepted. Please note their use will be considered a form of malpractice and may be subject to investigation.

The document can be found in the learner version of the NEA assessment, which is available to download from the Portal via the View Bookings section from 1 October for each assessment session.

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Term-time checkpoints: information coming soon 

In October, we’ll share details about this year’s term-time checkpoints process, to ensure the timely delivery of summer 2027 results. 

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Qualification updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals. This is an essential read to ensure you don’t miss any information about qualifications that may be withdrawn. 

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T Level updates 

Updates for all T Level qualifications 

Book your second-year students onto their occupational specialism 

Remember that you need to book all your second-year T Level students onto their chosen occupational specialism (OS) for the summer 2027 assessment series. The dates for this are below and within Key dates and timetables. We recommend booking as early as possible to avoid any late fees and to help us with resource planning. 

Please ask your exams team to follow the booking guidelines found in the T Level Portal Guide. 

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Advanced assessment materials key dates document now live

We’ve now published the advanced assessment materials key dates document. The document includes key dates for the autumn 2026 Employer Set Project (ESP) series and can be accessed here. To support your planning around October half-term arrangements, we will be publishing the document earlier than last year’s version. 

Please note that live assessment materials, whether supplied as hard copies or downloaded as PDF versions, will be made available no later than  three working days prior to the start date of the assessment or assessment window.

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Final assessment opportunities for Generation 1 T Levels 

The final available assessment opportunity for students completing some NCFE T Levels are coming soon.  

Final timetabled assessments on both the Core Component and Occupational Specialism for Education and Early Years (Generation 1), Digital Support Services, and Digital Business Services, will be the summer 2027 assessment series, with an autumn 2026 series for the core component only, as normal.  

Health, Science, and Healthcare Science will have their final assessment opportunities in the 2027-28 session. Please note that there will be no Generation 1 assessments offered in 2027-28, as previously stated, due to a change in guidance from the Department for Education around resits. 

Full dates can be found in our Key Dates Schedule. 

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Education and Early Years 

Submit your schedule of assessments 

Once students are booked onto their OS (Early Years Educator or Assisting Teaching) and are ready to commence their second year of the T Level, you’ll be able to submit a schedule of assessment for that student via the Portal. The allocated Moderator will use the schedule of assessment to plan moderation visits for the occupational specialism assessment (Assignment 2 for Generation 1, and Assignment 1 for Generation 2). 

The schedule of assessment provides details of the student’s industry placement, rank order, the planned dates the assessor will observe the student for the part 1 competency criteria and part 2 structured observations. 

For further support on how to add or update the schedule of assessment, please refer to the T Level Portal User Guide. You can also find further information on our moderation webpage. 

Share your feedback on the Education and Early Years T Level 

To ensure T Levels remain at the forefront of education, each year they are reviewed by industry representatives and providers to ensure they remain valid and reflective of current industry practice. As part of this process, we’re inviting you to share your feedback. The provider survey will take around 5 to 10 minutes to complete and contains key questions in relation to the T Level Technical Qualification in Education and Early Years (610/5748/4) content. Please complete the survey before Friday 30 October.  

Updated resources

To support version 2.0 of the qualification specification, we’ve updated the learning resources for core elements 1, 2 and 3, as well as the Core Schemes of Work. 

If you’ve previously purchased these resources, you can access these updates at no additional cost. 

• Purchased via the NCFE website: log in and download the latest versions from your Resources Dashboard. 
• Purchased via purchase order: a member of our team will already have contacted you with a direct download link to the updated resources. 

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Health, Science and Healthcare Science  

We want to remind you that September 2025 was the final intake for new students registering with NCFE for the Health, Science and Healthcare Science T Levels. We’ll continue to support existing students registered with us until they complete their T Level.  

From September 2026, the Health and Science T Levels have moved to Pearson. This means that any new students starting either the Health or Science T Level will need to be registered with Pearson.  

The Healthcare Science T Level has now been withdrawn by the Department for Education (DfE) and won’t be transferring to Pearson. September 2025 was the final intake for new Healthcare Science students and no further new registrations can now be made.  

Further information about the move of Health and Science to Pearson, the withdrawal of Healthcare Science and the support available for existing NCFE students can be found in our Health, Healthcare Science and Science FAQs. 

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V Cert updates 

Complete your standardisation training 

We’ve created provider standardisation materials which you can access on the relevant qualification webpages from the start of October.  

The training materials will help you to develop a standardised approach for marking, by looking at the tutor guidance document and marking bands. This will support you to have the confidence that you are marking consistently and help you prepare for the assessment window. 

The provider standardisation training should be led by your centre’s lead IQA and form part of annual standardisation activities.    

We’ve updated the ‘record of learner observation’ form for the Sport Studies V Cert 

We’ve made a minor update to the ‘record of learner observation’ form for the Level 1/2 Technical Award in Sports Studies in Task 3a. This will be included in the live assessment pack published on Thursday 1 October. 

Introducing our new ‘Level 1/2 Technical Awards: All about V Certs’ podcast  

Welcome to All About V Certs, the go-to podcast for busy teachers delivering NCFE Level 1/2 Technical Awards. Hosted by our experienced Provider Development Officers, Rachel and Beth, each bite-sized episode (just 15–20 minutes long) is packed with practical insights, top tips, and expert guidance on all things V Certs. 

Listen now 

V Certs Level 1/2 Technical Awards standardisation events 

Whether you're new to assessment, assessing our qualifications for the first time, or an experienced assessor seeking continuing professional development (CPD), join us at our in-person training event focused on standardisation and best practice in assessment, taking place in York, Stevenage or Manchester.  

York: Wednesday 30 September 2026  

 🕘 9:00am - 4:00pm   

 📍 Hilton York, 1 Tower Street, York, Yorkshire, United Kingdom, YO1 9WD  

  Sign up now as the booking deadline is 23 September. 

Stevenage: Wednesday 13 January 2027   

 🕘 9:00am - 4:00pm  

📍Holiday Inn, St. George's Way, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, SG1 1HS  

Sign up now 

Manchester: Tuesday 23 February 2027  

 🕘 9:00am - 4:00pm  

 📍The Alan Hotel and Meeting Space, 18 Princess Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, M1 4LG  

Sign up now 

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Functional Skills updates 

Teach, Share, Transform: focus on mindset and motivation, Wednesday 14 October - 3:30-5pm 

This Teach, Share, Transform best practice network session facilitated by NCFE is for delivery staff of Essential and Functional maths, English and digital qualifications. Please come prepared to take part in workshop activities and share your own ideas and strategies for improving your learners' mindset and motivation. 

Sign up now 

Digital Functional Skills onboarding, Monday 5 October 3:30-4:30pm 

This onboarding webinar is aimed towards Digital Functional Skills delivery staff to give an overview of information and all the latest updates on NCFE Digital Functional Skills qualifications. 

Sign up now 

Functional Skills Yellow Label service update  

Parcelforce has now combined its parcel network with Royal Mail, and following a change to arrangements over the summer, the collection booking process is now back to normal. However, there is a new online booking system. 

To book individual collections, you must: 

• complete each booking at least 24 hours in advance – bookings can be made up to 5 days in advance 

• make a booking by selecting 'Arrange Online' on the Parcelforce website or by calling the Parcelforce Exams Helpdesk on 0344 561 7998 

• record your booking reference number for each collection booked on a dispatch log. 

For additional information, please visit our Returning paper-based assessments: Using the Yellow Label Service webpage. 

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Training and events 

Education and Early Years student conference, Thursday 8 October, 10am - 12pm 

Sign your learners up to our next student conference to hear inspiring career journeys from professionals across the education, playwork and early years sector. They’ll develop knowledge and understanding to support their studies and future career. 

Sign up now 

Assessor and Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) training events are available to book 

Sign up now to our upcoming training sessions, using the links below: 

• Assessor training – this training provides an excellent opportunity to connect with assessment professionals and develop your knowledge and understanding of assessment practices and our qualifications 

• IQA training – this training provides a place for you to connect with internal quality assurers and further develop your knowledge and understanding internal quality assurance practices and our qualifications 

• V Cert Assessor/IQA training 

Shape the newsletters you receive from NCFE 

We’d like to understand your views on the newsletters you receive from NCFE, so that we can make improvements to ensure they are as relevant, useful and interesting to you as possible. 

Have your say in our short survey before 4pm on Friday 17 July. 

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Summer assessment series – looking ahead to results in August 

All summer assessments are now complete and marking and moderation are well underway.  

All evidence should now be uploaded and all papers returned, but we still might have to raise queries with your exams teams. Please ensure that your teams are ready to resolve any queries as quickly as possible so that all learners can receive a result where expected.  

Our special consideration deadline has passed, and from now we will only accept requests in exceptional circumstances. Late requests may impact our ability to release results on the advertised results release date.  
As a reminder, results release dates are: 

• We’ll release T Level results from our summer 2026 series to you on Wednesday 12 August, ahead of your students receiving them on Thursday 13 August. 
• We’ll release V Cert results from our summer 2026 series to you on Monday 17 August, ahead of your learners receiving them on Thursday 20 August. This embargo period  allows you more time to prepare for sharing with learners, and nothing should be shared ahead of Thursday.  
• Other external assessment results, such as our CACHE assessments, will be released on the dates stated in the assessment timetable. 

Results, including results slips and reports, will be available in the Portal. Chief Examiner and Chief Moderator reports and past papers and mark schemes will be available on the relevant qualification pages on our website, and you can view information on where to find your Final Moderation Report and Chief Moderator Reports in the results and support section of our moderation webpage.  

If you have queries about learner results following results release, please review our post results services webpage for information on reviews of marking or moderation, clerical checks, or access to scripts (where available).  

Some key points to note are:  

• Any post result requests require the consent of your learner and therefore, you can’t submit any requests before 20 August 2026.   
• You can find the timescales for requests on our website  
• Before you can submit an appeal against a result you will need to exhaust all post-results services in full 

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Annual Monitoring Reviews (AMRs) 

We’d like to let you know about an upcoming change to how AMRs will be carried out from September 2026. Going forward, AMRs will move from a standard annual review for all centres to a risk-based assurance model. This approach allows us to focus support where it’s most needed, while reducing the burden on centres with a strong track record of compliance. 

What this means for you 

Low-risk centres: You’ll receive a desk-based review every other year, with a full AMR taking place in the alternate year. 

Medium and high-risk* centres: You’ll continue to receive a full AMR every year, delivered via Microsoft Teams. All centres delivering V Certs and T Levels are deemed high risk due to incorporating moderation. Centres delivering  Dental qualifications are also deemed high risk due to regulatory requirements. 

This new model maintains robust oversight where risk is higher while introducing greater flexibility and proportionality for consistently compliant centres. 

If you have any questions, please read our FAQs or contact us at [email protected]. 

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Qualifications updates and withdrawals 

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

Changes to NCFE CACHE Level 1 Award in Awareness of Substance Misuse (603/1924/0)  

We wanted to let you know about changes we’ve made to this qualification. We’ve updated the wording in learning outcome 4 of Unit 01 Develop an awareness of substance misuse (H/615/8263), from ‘Understand ways to promote healthy choices and build resilience’ to ‘Understand ways to promote wellbeing in relation to substance misuse’. This is to ensure the learning outcome is up to date with current phrasing and current terminology, and places further emphasis on wellbeing. The assessment criteria for learning outcome 4 have also been updated to reflect this, and an additional assessment criterion 4.6 has been added to promote learning about local and national organisations. 

You must deliver the updated content in version 3.4 of the qualification specification to any new learners registered on or after the date that the change comes into effect (1 September 2026). For learners already registered before this date you should continue to use version 3.3 of the qualification specification . For further details, please check the summary of changes at the back of the qualification specification, found on the qualification webpage, which outlines the changes. 

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Change to quality assurance (QA) group 

From 1 August 2026 our Uniformed Services and Events qualifications will sit in a new QA group. 

This change means that EQA reviews will need to be arranged independently for this group of qualifications, opposed to having the review combined with sport and leisure qualifications.  

Wherever possible your EQA will remain the same for both Sport and Uniformed Services. We’ll let you know if there is a change. 

The change to QA groups now means that you will be entitled to up to two free of charge reviews per QA Group in each academic year. Further reviews if required will be charged in line with our fees and pricing guide. 

Qualifications that will sit in the new Uniformed Services QA group: 

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Download our new assessment timetable 

Our assessment timetable for 2026/27 and 2027/28 is now available to download, with all V Cert and CACHE assessment dates.  

Thank you for your input throughout the consultation process. We’ve made a number of changes in response to your feedback, to align with other awarding organisations, or to minimise clashes with large volume general qualifications, ultimately with the aim to minimise burden and risk to you and your exam teams. Please see below for more information. 

For our V Cert Technical Awards: 

• Following the publication of the GCSE and GCE results release dates for summer 2027, our result release to learners in 2027 will now be Thursday 19 August. 
• Previously we released V Cert Technical Award results to centres under embargo 3 working days prior to results release to learners. To align with other awarding organisations, from summer 2027, we’ve taken the decision to reduce this embargo period to one working day prior to results release to learners. Therefore, in  summer 2027, you’ll be able to access V Cert Technical Award results on the Portal on Wednesday 18 August. 

We’ve amended some dates and times of our assessments. Please ensure these are updated in your calendars, and that you are using the latest version of the timetable: 

• We’ve amended the previously published time of the NCFE CACHE Level 1/2 Technical Award in Child Development and Care in the Early Years assessment from 9am to 1:30pm on 8 June 2027 due to a clash with GCSE English Language. 
• We’ve amended the previously published date of the NCFE Level 1/2 Technical Award in Engineering assessment from 9am on 19 May 2027 to 1.30pm on 18 May 2027 due to a clash with GCSE English Literature. 
• We’ve amended the previously published date of the NCFE CACHE Level 3 Applied General Award for Early Years, Childcare and Education, which will now take place on 10 June 2027 at 9am due to it being originally timetabled during the May half term holiday. 

For the NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Diploma in Childcare and Education (Early Years Educator): 

• We’ve brought forward the assessment window dates and results release dates for the summer assessment opportunity for DCE2. The summer results release date is now 9 July 2027, giving you additional time to confirm completion of any internally assessed components and complete certification in advance of the general Level 3 results release date in August.  Further information on these amended dates can be found in the assessment timetable. 

We’ve removed a number of assessments from the timetable due to the withdrawal and closing of some CACHE qualifications and NCFE Applied General qualifications. The final assessment opportunities for these qualifications were during 2025-26.  

• DEYEC1 and DEYEC2 
• EYE/SAE 
• EYE/EE1 and EYE/EE2 
• Applied General Certificate – Art and Design 
• Applied General Certificate – Business and Enterprise 
• Applied General Certificate – Music Technology 

Please note that when returning hard copies of assessment papers, they should no longer be returned directly to NCFE. Instead,they should be returned to the address indicated on the assessment paperwork. 

We’d also like to remind you that the assessment timetable is a controlled document and is subject to regular updates and revisions. To ensure accuracy and avoid the risk of working from outdated information, please don’t download, save, or store local copies of the assessment timetable on internal systems or networks. The only valid and up-to-date version of the assessment timetable is the version accessed via our website. We can’t accept responsibility for any issues, delays, or errors arising from the use of outdated or locally stored versions of the assessment timetable. 

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Updates for exams officers 

Read the latest news and updates for exams officers here. 

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.  

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Supporting your delivery 

Sign up to our upcoming events 

Assessor and IQA training events available for booking  

Book now for our events between September 2026 to June 2027.  

We also have a full calendar of subject specific V Cert assessor and IQA events, by popular demand!  

By attending this training, you’ll be eligible to receive a digital credential, which can be added to your email signature or shared on social media. 

Our assessor training events will provide you with an opportunity to: 

• explore the general principles of the assessment process 
• understand what we expect from assessors 
• get to know our paperwork and processes 
• highlight and share good practice 
• meet and network with other practitioners. 
•  Our IQA training events will provide you with an opportunity to: 
• explore the general principles of the internal quality assurance process 
• understand what we expect from you 
• get to know our paperwork and processes 
• review current practices and develop ideas for improvement 
• understand how to achieve and maintain Direct Claim Status (DCS) 
• meet and network with other IQA practitioners. 

Sign up now.  

If you require subject or qualification specific training, please see links to bespoke training. 

Assessment of Preparation for Life and Work Qualifications, Thursday 24 September,  10-11:30am  

This event will support you to understand the assessment of our Preparation for Life and Work qualifications and is suitable for both new and experienced staff who wish to refresh their knowledge. We’ll explore credit values, optional and mandatory units, command verbs, assessment methods, feedback to learners and the EQA process. There will also be opportunities for networking. 

Sign up now 

Training fees from 1 August 2026  

We wanted to let you know about changes to our training fees: 

• Assessor and Internal Quality Assurance training (remote) - £77 per delegate 
• Bespoke event (up to 10 delegates) - £781 
• Bespoke event (11–20 delegates) - £1,199.50 
• Bespoke event (over 20 delegates) - £1,199.50 + £139 per delegate 
• For face-to-face bespoke training, trainers’ expenses are charged separately and may vary. 
   

If you have any further questions, please contact the team at [email protected]. 

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Qualification-specific updates 

• Functional Skills
• T Levels  
• V Certs 

Qualifications updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

Updates to the Interactive Media V Cert 

We’ve made some small changes to the qualification specification for the NCFE Level 1/2 Technical Award in Interactive Media (603/7005/1). We’ll release version 1.5 in September 2026. 

The changes are as follows:  

• 3.5 – removed the assessment criterion referencing resolution. 

• 3.6 – updated the assessment criteria to reflect the export settings learners select when exporting video, audio and image files. 

These updates are simply designed to bring greater clarity and accuracy to the specification. We’ve not introduced new technical content or increased the knowledge requirement for learners. 

The revised terminology aligns with common industry usage and real-world practice, reflecting the export options learners routinely encounter in standard media‑production software. These changes ensure the terminology used is accurate and applied consistently throughout the specification, without altering assessment requirements or increasing technical demand. 

Occupational standard update  

We’ve made small updates to the NCFE CACHE Level 2 Technical Occupational Entry for the Early Years Practitioner (Diploma) (610/4587/1) and NCFE CACHE Level 2 Extended Technical Occupational Entry for the Early Years Practitioner (Diploma) (610/4588/3) qualifications. We’ve done this to reflect revised and/or new knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) within the newly published occupational standard ST0888: Early Years Practitioner Level 2 Version 1.1. 

We've also absorbed the Early Years Practitioner (EYP) assessment principles into the overarching 'NCFE assessment principles for adult care, childcare, early years and health qualifications'. You can find this in the mandatory Support Handbook, and the delivery and assessment guidance sections in each unit have been updated accordingly. 

You’ll need to deliver the new version of the qualification specification (version 2.0) to any learners registered after Monday 3 August 2026. 

If you have any queries, please contact our Customer Support team.  

Deadline for making certificate claims (does not apply to T Levels or V Certs) 

If you have learners registered on vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) with planned end dates this summer, the deadline to make claims for learners who aren't awaiting an external assessment result is Thursday 16 July.  

If you've already claimed certificates for your learners and are waiting for an External Quality Assurer to accept your claims, no further action is required at this time. 

If you still have learners who require their result on Thursday 13 August and you haven’t claimed their certificates, please check the Portal User Guide for instructions and take the following actions as soon as possible: 

• If you're ready to claim certificates for your learners, you can claim these on the Portal certification screen. 

• If you're not ready to claim certificates for your learners, please extend their planned end date to the new expected completion date in the Portal, My Learners, then Manage Learners screen. 

• If any of your learners will be resitting any external assessments, you need to book these on the Portal bookings screen. 

• If any of your learners are no longer expected to complete the qualification, please withdraw them through the manage learner screen on the Portal, or make a partial claim if they've completed part of the qualification. 

Learners awaiting external results after Thursday 16 July 

For learners registered on NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Diploma in Childcare and Education (Early Years Educator) awaiting an external assessment result on Tuesday 4 August, we’ll contact your centre’s exams contact directly on the day your results are issued, reminding you to make your claims where applicable. 

Reminder to keep your senior designated contacts up to date 

If any of your senior designated contacts have changed since your submission earlier this year, you must update your details here. 

Updates for exams officers 

Read the latest news and updates for exams officers here. 

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.  

Supporting your delivery 

New V Cert Assessor and Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) training 

Starting in October 2026, you'll be able to book Assessor and IQA training specifically for V Cert qualifications.  

This is a fantastic opportunity to explore the assessment and IQA processes related to the Non-Exam Assessment (NEA) through a virtual meeting of subject teachers. This event will allow you to:   

• explore the general principles of the assessment and IQA process in relation to the NEA  

• understand what we expect from Assessors and IQAs  

• get to know our paperwork and processes  

• highlight and share good practice  

• meet and network with other practitioners. 

Please note that discussion will not relate to current live NEA assessment materials.   

This training is suitable for anyone involved in the assessment and IQA of the qualification, whether you’re assessing our qualifications for the first time or you’re an experienced assessor who requires CPD.  

Book here

Skills for Care - support webinar 

Skills for Care would like to invite you to a webinar designed to support training providers working, or considering working, within the adult social care sector to deliver learning and qualifications. 

Adult care qualifications: What training providers need to know – Wednesday 1 July, 2-3pm 

Aimed at: 

• training providers currently delivering adult social care qualifications 

• training providers planning to deliver regulated qualifications 

• employers within the adult social care sector who want to understand more about qualification pathways and provider support. 

This session will explore the latest developments in adult care qualifications and the support available for organisations delivering, or planning to deliver, regulated qualifications. 

Find out more and book your place

Qualification-specific updates 

• Functional Skills -  visit this webpage for the latest Functional Skills updates, including upcoming events and a reminder to book your External Quality Assurance (EQA) review as soon as possible as availability for this session is now extremely limited.

• T Levels  

• V Certs 

May 2026

Portal downtime 

The Portal will be unavailable between 5pm on Friday 29th May and 10am on Saturday 30th May

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Qualifications updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

Updates to the Interactive Media V Cert 

We’ve made some small changes to the qualification specification for the NCFE Level 1/2 Technical Award in Interactive Media (603/7005/1). We’ll release version 1.5 in September 2026. 

The changes are as follows:  

• 3.5 – removed the assessment criterion referencing resolution. 

• 3.6 – updated the assessment criteria to reflect the export settings learners select when exporting video, audio and image files. 

These updates are designed to bring greater clarity and accuracy to the specification. They don’t introduce new technical content or increase the knowledge required of learners. 

The revised terminology aligns with common industry usage and reflects the export options learners routinely encounter in standard media‑production software. These changes ensure the terminology used is accurate, aligned with real‑world practice and applied consistently throughout the specification, without altering assessment requirements or increasing technical demand. 

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Annual monitoring review update 

As part of your annual monitoring review, we wanted to remind you that you’ll be sent a link to an annual monitoring review self-assessment form to complete ahead of the review, and you’ll be sent a OneDrive link to upload evidence. If you indicate no changes to any of your documents, there is no need to upload any evidence unless specified by the Quality Reviewer. Please note that your Quality Reviewer will contact you 4-6 weeks before your review. 

We hope this information will save you time when preparing for your review. If you need support, please contact [email protected]. 

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Updates for exams officers 

Read the latest news and updates for exams officers here. 

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Supporting your delivery 

Our teams are running a variety of events this term to support you and your colleagues. Click the links below to discover what’s coming up and register your place: 

Assessor training 

This training is suitable for anyone assessing our qualifications, whether new to assessment, assessing our qualifications for the first time, or even experienced assessors who require CPD. If you attend this event, you’ll be eligible to receive a digital credential that you can add to your professional development portfolio. The next sessions are taking place on: 

• Wednesday 6 May, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Wednesday 10 June, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Functional Skills Assessor – Wednesday 13 May, 9:30am–12:30pm 

Sign up now 

Internal quality assurance (IQA) training  

This training is suitable for anyone involved in the IQA process for our qualifications, whether you’re new to IQA, applying it to our qualifications for the first time, or even if you’re an experienced internal quality assurer and require CPD. If you attend this event, you’ll be eligible to receive a digital credential that you can add to your professional development portfolio. The next sessions are taking place on: 

• Friday 8 May, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Thursday 11 June, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Functional Skills IQA – Wednesday 20 May, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Functional Skills IQA – Wednesday 8 July, 9:30am–12:30pm 

Sign up now 

If you have any questions about assessor or IQA training, please contact the team at [email protected]. 

Please note, our assessor and IQA training is generic across our qualifications and not subject specific. Colleagues and trainers will be from a wide range of sectors. If you require subject specific training, you can arrange a support visit. 

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Qualification-specific updates 

• Functional Skills  

• T Levels  

• V Certs 

April 2026

Term-time checkpoint closing soon 

The term-time checkpoint is closing on Thursday 30 April. You need to take action if your centre delivers any of the qualifications in scope of this year’s arrangements, in order to ensure the timely delivery of vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) results in 2025-26. Visit our timely delivery of VTQ results webpage for more information on the actions you need to take and where to find support.   

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Qualifications updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

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 Key insights from the government’s response to the post-16 skills pathway consultation 

On 10 March, the Department for Education (DfE) announced that schools and colleges will start teaching new V Levels from September 2027. The first subjects to be introduced will be digital, education and early years, and finance and accounting. 

To help you understand what these changes mean for your organisation and future provision, watch NCFE’s Technical Education expert, David Rowley’s latest webinar. He shares a clear overview of the key updates from the consultation response, highlighting what has been confirmed so far and outlining the timelines that providers and learners should be aware of. 

You can view the webinar and book a one-to-one consultation with NCFE’s team on our dedicated post-16 reforms webpage, where you’ll find further guidance on what these reforms mean for you, your learners and your future curriculum planning. 

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Updates for exams officers 

Read the latest news and updates for exams officers here. 

‘Warning to candidates’ poster – preparation for summer assessments 

As we’re now aligned to the JCQ Instructions for Conducting Examinations document for 2025-26, we’re reminding you to reprint the JCQ ‘warning to candidates’ posters in advance of the summer assessment series. These posters now contain our logo.  

Please note that JCQ centre inspection service representatives will check that the correct version of this document is visible to all candidates, if they visit your centre during the summer term. 

Download the poster 

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Supporting your delivery 

Our teams are running lots of events this term to support you and your colleagues. Click the links below to discover what’s coming up and register your place: 

Assessor training 

Our assessor training events will provide you with an opportunity to: 

• explore the general principles of the assessment process 
• understand what we expect from Assessors 
• get to know our paperwork and processes 
• highlight and share good practice 
• meet and network with other practitioners. 

This training is suitable for anyone assessing our qualifications, whether: new to assessment, assessing our qualifications for the first time, or even experienced assessors who require CPD. If you attend this event, you’ll be eligible to receive a digital credential that you can add to your professional development portfolio. The next sessions are taking place on: 

• Wednesday 6 May, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Wednesday 10 June, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Functional Skills Assessor – Wednesday 13 May, 9:30am–12:30pm 

 Please note, this training is generic across our qualifications and not subject specific. Colleagues and trainers will be from a wide range of sectors. If you require subject specific training, you can arrange a support visit.  

Sign up now 

Our internal quality assurance (IQA) events will provide you with an opportunity to: 

• explore the general principles of the IQA process 
• understand what we expect from you 
• get to know our paperwork and processes 
• review current practices and develop ideas for improvement 
• understand how to achieve and maintain Direct Claim Status (DCS) 
• meet and network with other IQA practitioners. 

This training is suitable for anyone involved in the IQA process of our qualifications, whether you’re new to IQA, applying it to our qualifications for the first time, or even if you’re an experienced internal quality assurer and require CPD. If you attend this event, you’ll be eligible to receive a digital credential that you can add to your professional development portfolio. The next sessions are taking place on: 

• Friday 8 May, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Thursday 11 June, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Functional Skills IQA – Wednesday 20 May, 9:30am–12:30pm 
• Functional Skills IQA – Wednesday 8 July, 9:30am–12:30pm 

Please note, this training is generic across our qualifications and not subject specific. Colleagues and trainers will be from a wide range of sectors. If you require subject specific training, you can arrange a support visit. 

Sign up now 

If you have any questions about assessor or IQA training, please contact the team at [email protected]. 

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Qualification-specific updates 

• Functional Skills  

• T Levels  

• V Certs 

March 2026 

Supporting you with logging into the Portal using multi-factor authentication 

We understand that with the introduction of multi-factor authentication (MFA) to help keep your account secure, you may have noticed some changes to how you access and use the NCFE Portal. To support you, we’ve put together some helpful tips, guidance, and troubleshooting information to answer common questions and help you log in more smoothly. Read more.

Term-time checkpoint opening next week 

We want to remind you that the term-time checkpoint is opening on Monday 23 March. Your centre must take action if you deliver any of the qualifications in scope of this year’s arrangements to ensure the timely delivery of vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) results in 2025-26. You’ll need to complete this checkpoint by Thursday 30 April. Visit our timely delivery of VTQ results webpage for more information on the actions you’ll need to take, and where to find support.   

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Qualifications updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

Key insights from the government’s response to the post-16 skills pathway consultation 

In October 2025, the post-16 Education and Skills White Paper set out the government’s plans to reform the skills system in England. Since then, the Department for Education (DfE) has released further details, including updates published on 10 March 2026 as part of its response to the consultation. 

The response confirms that new V Levels will begin teaching in colleges from September 2027. The first subjects to be introduced will be digital, education and early years, and finance and accounting. 

To help you understand what these changes mean for your organisation and future provision, watch NCFE’s Technical Education expert, David Rowley’s latest webinar. He shares a clear overview of the key updates from the consultation response, highlighting what has been confirmed so far and outlining the timelines providers and learners should be aware of. 

You can access the webinar and book a one-to-one consultation with NCFE’s team on our dedicated post-16 reforms webpage, where you’ll find further guidance on what these reforms mean for you, your learners and your future curriculum planning. 

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Updates for exams officers 

Read the latest news and updates for exams officers here. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________ 

Supporting your delivery 

Our teams are running lots of events this term to support you and your colleagues. Click the links below to discover what’s coming up and register your place: 

Assessor and internal quality assurance (IQA) training events available for booking now 

Assessor training 

Our assessor training events will provide you with an opportunity to: 

• explore the general principles of the assessment process 
• understand what we expect from assessors 
• get to know our paperwork and processes 
• highlight and share good practice 
• meet and network with other practitioners. 

This training is suitable for anyone assessing our qualifications, whether you’re new to assessment, assessing our qualifications for the first time, or even an experienced assessors who requires CPD. Delegates who attend this event will be eligible to receive a digital credential that you can add to your professional development portfolio. 

Assessor training – Wednesday 22 April 2026 – 9:30am–12:30pm 

Assessor training – Wednesday 6 May 2026 – 9:30am–12:30pm 

Assessor training – Wednesday 10 June 2026 – 9:30am–12:30pm 

Functional Skills Assessor – Wednesday 13 May – 9:30am–12:30pm 

Sign up now 

Please note, this training is generic across our qualifications and not subject specific. Colleagues and trainers will be from a wide range of sectors. If you require subject specific training, you can arrange a support visit. 

IQA training 

Our internal quality assurance (IQA) events will provide you with an opportunity to: 

• explore the general principles of the internal quality assurance process 
• understand what we expect from you 
• get to know our paperwork and processes 
• review current practices and develop ideas for improvement 
• understand how to achieve and maintain Direct Claim Status (DCS) 
• meet and network with other IQA practitioners. 

This training is suitable for anyone involved in the IQA process of our qualifications, whether you’re new to IQA, applying it to our qualifications for the first time, or even if you’re an experienced internal quality assurer and require CPD. Delegates who attend this event will be eligible to receive a digital credential that you can add to your professional development portfolio. 

IQA training – Thursday 23 April 2026 9:30am–12:30pm 

IQA training – Friday 8 May 2026 9:30am–12:30pm 

IQA training – Thursday 11 June 2026 9:30am–12:30pm 

Functional Skills IQA – Thursday 20 November – 9:30am–12:30pm 

Functional Skills IQA – Wednesday 20 May – 9:30am–12:30pm 

Functional Skills IQA – Wednesday 8 July – 9:30am–12:30pm 

Sign up now 

Please note, this training is generic across our qualifications and not subject specific. Colleagues and trainers will be from a wide range of sectors. If you require subject specific training, you can arrange a support visit. 

If you have any further questions, please contact the team via email at [email protected]. 

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Qualification-specific updates 

• Functional Skills  

• T Levels  

• V Certs 

February 2026 

Portal is now live 

We’re pleased to let you know that you can now use all functionality within the Portal; from registering learners to booking assessments, from claiming certificates to accessing secure materials. You should not see any change in the way that you use the Portal, but please note that it’s now only available between the hours of 6am and 10pm GMT to support active monitoring of the platform. We’d like to reassure you that the Portal has been rigorously tested, and we’ve put in place additional security measures so that you can use it with confidence. 

If you’re experiencing challenges when logging in, this will likely be due to the introduction of multi-factor authentication which was put in place in November 2025 to increase the security of your account.

Multi-factor authentication is required every time you log in, and you’ll need to set this up in order to access the Portal. Read our troubleshooting guidance.

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Skills for Care and Development: updated Shared Assessment Principles  

Skills for Care and Development: updated shared assessment principles   

In December 2025, Skills for Care and Development (SfC&D) updated and published the shared assessment principles to support high-quality, consistent assessment and quality assurance of qualifications for the social care, social work, early years and childcare workforces throughout the UK.  

If you deliver any qualifications which specifically reference these principles (including our Level 2 Adult Social Care Certificate, Level 3 Diploma in Adult Care, Level 4 Diploma in Adult Care or Level 5 Diploma in Leading and Managing an Adult Care Service - the redeveloped version of the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Adult Care), please read on. 

The updated principles provide clarification and cover: 

• robust initial assessment, recognition of prior learning and reasonable adjustments 

• fully evidencing and justifying assessment decisions  

• direct observation as the primary method for skills-based assessment 

• demonstrating occupational competence and sector knowledge  

• assessment of knowledge-based learning outcomes 

• recording and documentation requirements 

• use of technology in the assessment process, including guidance on AI 

• internal quality assurance processes. 

These principles aim to ensure qualification delivery uphold sector values, promote inclusive practice, and maintain the voices of individuals who use services at the heart of learning. 

Access the full shared assessment principles document here. 

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Qualifications updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Updates for exams officers 

Read the latest news and updates for exams officers here. 

Returning assessment papers: Yellow Label update 

  Following last month’s communication, here’s further information on the Secure Dispatch of Scripts (Yellow Label) process following the merger of Royal Mail and Parcelforce.  

What’s changing? 

In March 2026, the Yellow Label service offered by NCFE will move from Parcelforce to Royal Mail. 

Once this transition takes place, you’ll notice the logo on your return Yellow Label will change from Parcelforce to Royal Mail. 

Changes to the actual process will be minimal: 

• You’ll still be able to book a telephone collection using the same telephone number.  

• Arranging ad hoc online collections will be subject to slight alterations, however, further guidance on this method will be shared on our Yellow Label webpage.  

• Scheduled collections will still take place as normal during the summer period. If you have timetabled Yellow Label-eligible assessments on three or more days during any week in the summer assessment series (May to June), you’ll automatically have daily scheduled collections, as before.  

If you have any queries, please contact [email protected]. 

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Supporting your delivery 

Our teams are running lots of events this term to support you and your colleagues. Click the links below to discover what’s coming up and register your place: 

Functional Skills events: 

Cracking the code: problem-solving strategies for Functional Skills Maths, Tuesday 24 February, 3-5pm 

AI in Functional Skills English, Wednesday 25 February, 3-5pm  

Assessor and IQA training 

Assessor training 

Our assessor training events will provide you with an opportunity to: 

• explore the general principles of the assessment process 
• understand what we expect from assessors 
• get to know our paperwork and processes 
• highlight and share good practice 
• meet and network with other practitioners. 

This training is suitable for anyone assessing our qualifications whether new to assessment, assessing our qualifications for the first time, or even experienced assessors who require CPD. If you attend this event, you’ll be eligible to receive a digital credential that you can add to your professional development portfolio. 

IQA training 

Our internal quality assurance (IQA) events will provide you with an opportunity to: 

• explore the general principles of the internal quality assurance process 
• understand what we expect from you 
• get to know our paperwork and processes 
• review current practices and develop ideas for improvement 
• understand how to achieve and maintain Direct Claim Status (DCS) 
• meet and network with other IQA practitioners. 

This training is suitable for anyone involved in the IQA process of our qualifications, whether you’re new to IQA, applying it to our qualifications for the first time, or even if you’re an experienced internal quality assurer and require CPD. If you attend this event, you’ll be eligible to receive a digital credential that you can add to your professional development portfolio. 

Discover all our events and training 

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Qualification-specific updates 

• Functional Skills  

• T Levels  

• V Certs 

January 2026

Service continuity 

We’re pleased to share that we’re making strong progress in restoring key services from the recent cyber security incident. Thank you for your patience and support during this time. If you have any queries, please visit our service continuity webpage.  

Update on the Portal  

While we work to restore the Portal we have a team available to support you with administering these Portal functions: 

• learner registrations 

• assessment bookings, including bookings for controlled assessments for Functional Skills and external assessments for CACHE and Functional Skills 

• certificate claims. 

You can access this support by visiting our interim Portal support webpage, where you can complete the relevant webform for the Portal function you need. The webforms capture all the information you would usually provide when completing these processes on the Portal and give our teams all the details we need to complete the process on your behalf. 

Updates on assessments and results 

All external assessments are continuing, including on-demand Functional Skills assessments, and timetabled CACHE external assessments. From Monday 12 January, Functional Skills assessment results have returned to their usual 6-day turnaround for online and paper-based assessments.  

While the Portal is unavailable, we’ve made alternative arrangements for upcoming CACHE assessments to allow your learners to complete them as scheduled.  

Read more on our service continuity webpage. 

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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.  

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Qualifications updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

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Artificial intelligence 

Download our new guide: how to use AI with confidence when marking 

Thinking about using AI to support marking and feedback, but unsure where to start? Our new guidance – Using AI with Confidence – gives you clear, practical advice to help you use AI tools effectively, ethically and with confidence. Download this resource now.

You can also catch up on our webinar that took place in November, to hear directly from our experts. Catch up now.  

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Updates for exams officers 

Read the latest news and updates for exams officers here. 

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].  

________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Supporting your delivery 

Our teams are running lots of events this term to support you and your colleagues. Click the links below to discover what’s coming up and register your place: 

• Functional Skills events, including: 

• • Exploring the Level 2 Functional Skills English assessment  

• • CPD maths: unlocking underpinning skills 

• • Teach, Share, Transform: focus on SEND 

• Internal Quality Assurance (IQA training) 

• Assessor training 

• T Level events  

Discover all our events and training 

Education and Early Years student conference: the professional education and early years educator 

Our next student conference, taking place on Thursday 12 February, will bring together professionals from across education and childcare to discuss professional practice and to support your learners in their career journey.  Suitable for learners on any early years, education or childcare qualifications. 

Sign up your learners now 

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Qualification-specific updates 

• Functional Skills  

• T Levels  

• V Certs 

No communications for December 2025.

November 2025  

Registrations 

Remember to register your learners to avoid late registration fees  

We wanted to send another reminder about our late registration fees to ensure you have all the information you need to register your learners on time and avoid any additional charges.  

T Levels: the late registration period is now open, in line with our fees and pricing guide.  

V Certs: the registration deadline for V Certs is 31 January 2026.  

All other qualifications (excluding Functional Skills): 

• Learners should be registered within 3 months of their start date.  

• Registrations made after the 3-month period will incur an additional 10% of the registration and certification fee.  

Read more on late registration fees and make your registrations on our Portal. 

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Term-time checkpoints (timely delivery of VTQ results) 

We’ve communicated arrangements with your heads of centres and exams contacts to ensure the timely delivery of vocational technical qualifications (VTQ) results for learners in 2025-26.    

We’ve created a webpage with everything you need to know ahead of our term-time checkpoints this year, including:     

• qualifications in scope of these arrangements     

• key dates for our two term-time checkpoints and results    

• information we need from you     

• consequences of failure to meet deadlines for information requests     

• further support and FAQs.     

Visit our term-time checkpoints webpage  

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Qualifications updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

_________________________________________ 

Updates to our travel and tourism qualifications  

We’ve refreshed our qualification specifications for our travel and tourism qualifications. The changes are focused on ensuring alignment with current industry practice, improving readability and updating references. 

The updates include: 

• New references to the business travel association (BTA), travel management companies (TMCs), online travel agents (OTAs), and the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions sector (MICE). 

• Inclusion of electronic travel authorisation (ETA), sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), air passenger duty (APD), and updated European Union (EU) aviation security regulations. 

• Updated traveller types and job role examples and modernised terminology (for example, remote work hubs). 

• Improved inclusivity in wording, clearer timelines, and additional environmental considerations in event planning. 

Please ensure you are using the most up-to-date qualification specification from our website. You can access these through the qualification webpages. 

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Direct claims status (DCS) for Spectator Safety qualifications  

From 1 January 2026, the following qualifications will be eligible for DCS:  

• 603/6703/9 NCFE Level 2 Award in Understanding Stewarding at Spectator Events  

• 603/6704/0 NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Spectator Safety  

• 603/6756/8 NCFE Level 3 Certificate in Spectator Safety Supervision  

We will get in touch with programme contacts at centres currently delivering these qualifications with further information. FAQs are also available on our website. 

If you’d like to move your EQA review forward to earlier in 2026 to gain DCS, please contact your Sport, Exercise and Fitness EQA as soon as possible. Please note: EQA capacity may be limited as demand increases.  

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Supporting your delivery 

Sign up for our upcoming assessor and IQA training events   

Sign up now for our assessor and IQA training events.  

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Learning resource offer update: Level 3 Early Years Educator qualifications  

We’ve updated our learning resources for our Level 3 Early Years Educator qualifications.   

If you’ve previously purchased or downloaded our learning resources for the following qualifications, please download the new versions:   

• NCFE CACHE Level 3 Diploma for Working in the Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator) (610/4164/6)   

• NCFE CACHE Level 3 Technical Occupational Entry for the Early Years Workforce (Early Years Educator) (Diploma) (610/3984/6)  

• NCFE CACHE Level 3 Extended Diploma for Working in the Early Years Sector (Early Years Educator) (610/6133/5)  

The updated learning resources can be accessed from the ‘Teaching Materials’ tab on the relevant qualification pages on our website. If you’ve previously purchased resources, you’ll find the updated version on your centre dashboard.   

What learning resources are available and what updates have been made?  

If you have any queries about the updated learning resources, please contact our Learning Resources team via email at [email protected]  

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Qualification-specific updates 

• Functional Skills  

• Including information on the last date your learners can sit paper-based bookings before the break and the first date your learners can sit paper-based bookings in the new year.  

• Details on our upcoming CPD events. 

• T Levels  

• V Certs 

October 2025  

Registrations 

Remember to register your learners to avoid late registration fees  

We wanted to send a reminder about our late registration fees to ensure you have all the information you need to register your learners on time and avoid any additional charges. 

As a reminder, we introduced a late registration fee from 1 August 2024 for all of our qualifications (with the exception of Functional Skills), to ensure we’re able to support learners at every stage of their journey and ensure we have the appropriate resources in place to support you during busy assessment periods. Please note that for V Certs and T Levels, late and very late registration fees are calculated differently. 

How much are late registration fees? 

For the products this applies to, if the learner is registered more than 90 days after their start date, a 10% late fee will be applied (which is 10% of the applicable registration and certification fee).  

For example, if you register a learner on 1 December 2025, but the learner’s start date was 1 August 2025, the late registration fee would apply as they’ve been registered with us more than 90 days after the learner started on the qualification. 

Read more about late registration fees, and which products they apply to, in our fees and pricing guide. 

V Cert late registration fees 

As of Friday 1 August 2025, we’ve introduced new V Cert late, and very late registration fees for registrations made after Saturday 31 January 2026. This will help us to ensure we have the resource to quality assure your learners’ work in a timely manner and ensures that we can best support you during periods of high demand.  

Read more information on learner start dates and late registration fees on our fees webpage.   

T Level late registration fees 

For T Level qualifications, you need to register your new cohort of students before Saturday 1 November. After this date, you’ll be charged a late registration fee (from Sunday 2 November until Tuesday 23 December) or a very late registration fee (from Wednesday 24 December until Friday 31 July), in line with our fees and pricing guide. You’ll be unable to register students for the 2025-26 session after Friday 31 July 2026. Take a look at our T Level Portal User Guide for instructions on how to register students.   

Further queries 

If you have any queries about late registration fees, please contact our Customer Support team via Live Chat on our website or by email at [email protected]. You can also speak directly to your Account Executive if you have any concerns.   

Please note: registering learners on a two-year course 

If learners are on a two-year course such as a Level 3 CACHE Diploma, please ensure that they are only registered once. If they’re progressing from the Award or Certificate to the Diploma, please use the transfer button in the Portal, rather than creating a new registration.  

Term-time checkpoints (timely delivery of VTQ results) 

We wanted to confirm key dates with you for the timely delivery of VTQ results this year. Please note that direct comms to centres in scope of the arrangements will be sent before half term. 

 *Most external assessment results release dates have been brought forward to Friday 10 July 2026. NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Diploma in Childcare and Education (Early Years Educator) 601/8437/1 is released in August and the deadline for claiming will be Thursday 6 August 2026.  

Quality assurance and annual monitoring reviews  

Arrange your external quality assurance and annual monitoring reviews (AMRs) as soon as possible  

You can now arrange your external quality assurance reviews for the 2025-26 session by contacting your External Quality Assurer directly (if you haven’t already done so). Every centre with live registrations will require annual monitoring review (AMR) this session, and quality reviewers are currently organising these if they weren’t booked last year.    

If your centre has multiple accounts but operates as part of a group and has separate AMRs, you may only need one AMR to cover all accounts. If this is not already in place, please contact your allocated quality reviewer to discuss.    

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Reasonable adjustments: form to complete 

If you need to record reasonable adjustments for internally assessed units and components, please use our new reasonable adjustments tracking document. 

This is a replacement for JCQ’s VQ/IA form, which has now been removed from their policies.  

Please note: If you have already recorded reasonable adjustments using JCQ’s previous VQ/IA form, you don’t need to transfer this information on to the new form.  

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Qualifications updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

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Changes to our processes and systems  

 Improved security for the Portal: multi-factor authentication  

We’re making changes to the Portal. You’ll shortly need to set up multi-factor authentication to log in. We’ll let all Portal users know via email ahead of the change being made.   

What is multi-factor authentication?  

Multi-factor authentication is a security process that requires users to provide more than one method of verification to gain access to an account or system. It's a crucial step in strengthening online security and protecting against unauthorised access.   

Why are we enabling multi-factor authentication in the Portal?  

We're committed to ensuring the highest standards of security for our systems. This extra layer of protection will help to safeguard sensitive learner data. With MFA, the Portal will be better protected against unauthorised access, reducing the risk of security breaches.  

Will I need a new account for the Portal?  

No, but the first time you log in, you’ll need to create a new secure password.  

Need help setting up multi-factor authentication?  

We'll be adding information to the Portal User Guide to walk you through the process of logging in with MFA.  

Can I opt out of using multi-factor authentication?  

No, this extra layer of protection will help to safeguard sensitive learner data. With multi-factor authentication, the Portal will be better protected against unauthorised access, reducing the risk of security breaches.  

This will go live from Friday 24 October, and we’ll contact all Portal users directly to confirm this. 

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Supporting your delivery 

Sign up for our upcoming assessor and IQA training events   

Sign up now for our assessor and IQA training events.  

Our assessor training events will provide you with an opportunity to:    

• explore the general principles of the assessment process    

• understand what we expect from assessors    

• get to know our paperwork and processes    

• highlight and share good practice    

• meet and network with other practitioners.    

Our internal quality assurance (IQA) events will provide you with an opportunity to:    

• explore the general principles of the internal quality assurance process    

• understand what we expect from you    

• get to know our paperwork and processes    

• review current practices and develop ideas for improvement    

• understand how to achieve and maintain Direct Claim Status (DCS)    

• meet and network with other IQA practitioners.    

Each event costs £75 per delegate and is delivered via Microsoft Teams as an interactive session. Please ensure you have a microphone, camera, and chat availability to take part in the discussions. The registered delegate will be eligible to receive a digital credential for attending.  

If you have any further questions, please contact our team on [email protected].  

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New learning materials available: supporting learners completing units on nutrition, health, fitness and food  

We’ve launched new learning materials focused on dietary requirements that are suitable to use across a range of qualifications with relevant units relating to nutrition, illness, health, fitness, and food. These materials are free and designed to complement your teaching and delivery and provide CPD opportunities for your learners. 

The materials include: 

• a glossary providing concise definitions of key terms with useful links to external websites 

• information displays: printable A2 displays featuring key facts on dietary subjects 

• interactive knowledge quizzes: an eLearning resource which learners can use to test and develop their knowledge of key areas. 

They can be found in the teaching materials section of each relevant qualification page and are the same across each qualification. Relevant qualifications include, but are not restricted to:  

• NCFE Level 1/2 Technical Award in Food and Cookery (603/7014/2)  

• NCFE CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Common Health Conditions (601/4306/X)  

• NCFE CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Working with Children in Early Years and Primary Settings (603/5937/7)  

• NCFE Level 3 Certificate in Sport and Physical Activity (Sports Coaching) (601/8878/9/COA)  

• NCFE CACHE Level 4 Diploma in Adult Care (603/2614/1).  

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Qualification-specific updates 

• Functional Skills  

• T Levels  

• V Certs 

September 2025  

Assessments and reviews  

Arrange your External Quality Assurance and Annual Monitoring Reviews (AMRs) as soon as possible 

You can now arrange your external quality assurance reviews for the 2025-26 session by contacting your EQA directly (if you haven’t already done so). Every centre with live registrations will require an Annual Monitoring Review (AMR) this session, and Quality Reviewers are currently organising these if they weren’t booked last year.   

If your centre has multiple accounts but operates as part of a group and has separate AMRs, you may only need one AMR to cover all accounts. If this is not already in place, please contact your allocated Quality Reviewer to discuss.   

Deadline for external quality assurance reviews ahead of summer 2026 results 

If you have learners registered on VTQs, your external quality assurance review will need to take place on or before 30 June 2026, to ensure learners receive their results on Level 3 results day.   

Please keep learner data in the Portal up to date, including planned end dates, and withdraw any learners who are no longer on programme.   

Update your centre contact details   

If any contact details have changed at your centre such as a programme contact, head of centre, or a finance or exams contact, please notify us as soon as possible using our change of centre contact details form. Keeping contact details up to date ensures that EQAs can organise reviews effectively and important updates reach the right people. 

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Instructions for conducting non-exam assessments (NEAs)   

We’ve been working with colleagues across other awarding organisations and JCQ to create instructions for the supervision, marking, internal standardisation, and external moderation of NEAs in centres. You should use these instructions in addition to NCFE instructions (which will always take precedence) when delivering NEAs to ensure compliance with assessment and marking requirements.    

These instructions are applicable from 1 September 2025 and apply to NEAs for the following qualifications:   

• alternative academic qualifications   

• Level 1/2 Technical Awards  (V Certs) 

• T Levels.  

You can find the instructions on our mandatory policies and fees webpage. 

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Updated assessment timetable for 2025-26    

We’ve updated our assessment timetable for all relevant V Cert and CACHE qualifications for 2025-26 and 2026-27. Follow this link to view the timetable and supporting documentation.    

Since the consultation period and previous version of this document, we’ve:   

• included details of V Cert registration cut-off dates for the next two academic years years (please note that the deadline for registrations for summer 2026 is 31 January 2026, but from summer 2027 onwards, the deadline will be 31 January of the first year of the standard two-year delivery of these qualifications)   

• provided clarity that V Cert booking cut-off dates and NEA submission dates are 30 April for the year of assessment   

• changed dates for three of our summer 2026 V Cert external assessments to avoid clashes with high-volume GCSE exams.    

The qualifications impacted, and the details of the changes, are as follows:    

*please note a change from previous communications  

The above changes should support you in your assessment administration in an already busy period – avoiding clashes and minimising impact on learners – and in most cases, assessments are moving to a later date. Please ensure that your exams administration teams are aware, and these assessment dates are updated in your systems to avoid any potential disadvantage to learners.   

Please also note:  

• All Northern Ireland CACHE qualifications with a summer assessment opportunity have had their summer 2026 results release dates brought forward to 12 June 2026 so that centres can access their learners’ results before the end of the summer term. 

• The vast majority of Level 3 CACHE qualifications with a summer assessment opportunity that had a corresponding results release date occurring after 10 July 2026 have had their summer results release date brought forward to 10 July 2026. This will allow centres additional time to confirm completion of any internally assessed components and, hence, complete certification, in advance of the general Level 3 results release date in August. 

If you have any queries on this, please contact our Assessment Delivery team via email at [email protected]     

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Qualifications updates and withdrawals  

View this month’s Horizons update for the latest qualification changes and withdrawals.  

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Supporting your delivery 

Sign up to our next Education and Early Years student conference  

Prepare your learners for success in their placements and future careers by enrolling them in our upcoming Education and Early Years student conference. Taking place on Tuesday 14 October from 10am-12pm, this conference will focus on working with babies, children, and families. We’ll bring together early years and education professionals who will share their wealth of specialist knowledge and expertise when working with these groups, giving your learners an insight into this sector. Sign your learners up now. 

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Sign up for our upcoming assessor and IQA training events  

Sign up now for our assessor and IQA training events. 

Our assessor training events will provide you with an opportunity to:   

• explore the general principles of the assessment process   

• understand what we expect from assessors   

• get to know our paperwork and processes   

• highlight and share good practice   

• meet and network with other practitioners.   

Our internal quality assurance (IQA) events will provide you with an opportunity to:   

• explore the general principles of the internal quality assurance process   

• understand what we expect from you   

• get to know our paperwork and processes   

• review current practices and develop ideas for improvement   

• understand how to achieve and maintain Direct Claim Status (DCS)   

• meet and network with other IQA practitioners.   

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Additional product applications   

If you’re interested in applying for approval for additional products, just a quick reminder that you can add multiple qualifications on to a single application. This will save you time through avoiding the need to complete multiple forms.   

Before applying, please do check whether you are already approved to deliver the qualification. You can do this by logging into the Portal, navigating to the Products section, and searching for the qualification by name or code. 

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Follow us on WhatsApp  

Never miss a deadline or upcoming action by signing up to receive reminders directly on your phone via our WhatsApp channel. These will include a clear recap of what you need to do and by when, as well as any links, to save you time and ensure you’re always in the know!   

Join our WhatsApp channel  

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