FAQs for moderation

All information is sent to the Programme Contact. Occasionally, the Head of Centre and Exams Contact will also receive communications to ensure all relevant parties are informed. You can update the programme contact by completing the web form on our change of contact details page.   

You'll only be allocated a Moderator if visiting moderation is required, as outlined in the qualification specification. For example, for the Education and Early Years T Level you'll receive confirmation of your Moderator once you've registered and booked your learners onto their Occupational Specialism (OS).  

You won’t be allocated a Moderator for qualifications which don’t require visiting moderation. In these cases, moderation takes place remotely.   

Please visit our Moderation Page for important key dates and helpful resources to guide you through your moderation journey. 

Information on moderation and how it works can be found on the moderation page. 

No. If the qualification has a moderated component, you won’t be allocated an EQA. However, you’ll be allocated a Quality Reviewer (QR) who will conduct your annual monitoring review (AMR).  

You should check the qualification specification and associated documents which outline acceptable assessment records.

It's important for assessors to maintain their CPD and, where possible, hold an assessor qualification. Where assessors are not qualified, centres must provide adequate staff development (for example, attendance at our assessor training events) to ensure assessors are working to national standards.    

You should check the individual qualification specification for specific staffing requirements, as they all differ.  

Yes, the teacher/assessor can be the internal quality assurer (IQA) as long as they don’t internally quality assure their own assessment decisions.  

If you are a small centre with one assessor and one IQA we recommend you internally quality assure each other’s work. The IQA must be occupationally competent and have knowledge of the subject.  

We have created internal standardisation materials which will be available to providers on the website from the beginning of October in each session. This CPD package is designed to bring your teams together to align assessment decisions and expectations for internally assessed, externally moderated components.  

The internal standardisation session should be led by the centre’s lead IQA and be part of annual standardisation activities.   

Centres should follow our special consideration guidance on our website and the JCQ guide to the special consideration process (external link).

The only qualification this is applicable to is the T Level in Education and Early Years. When you have booked students onto their chosen Occupational Specialism (OS), you will be able to see who your moderator is.  

You can find the moderator allocation in the 'Products’ tab, either via the Portal home screen or via the ‘Search’ tab in the Portal.    

For further details on how to access this area of the Portal and view your moderator’s contact details, please see our T Level system user guide, available within the ‘Support’ area of the Portal.  

Once a moderator has been allocated, they will contact you via email.  

The OS component assessment is linear, meaning that learners must complete all assessments at the end of the second year of the qualification, and in the same series.  

In September, NCFE will publish the list of PAAs for the core and optional OS in the Supporting Healthcare Tutor Guide, available on the qualification pages on our website.  

PAAs for the OS can be found in the Portal. All live assessment materials for both part 1 (core) and part 2 (O/S) are contained within the same zip folder under the A2B section. For further guidance on accessing live assessment materials watch our short video. 

The provider guides released with the live assessment materials for each OS will give guidance on the types of evidence that need to be captured for each task. 

The evidence upload checklist, which is provided within the live assessment materials, states that audio-video recordings are required for all students for all tasks. 

You should use your professional judgement to determine the student’s most appropriate band. Final marks should be checked through your internal standardisation process before entering marks in the portal. The marks will then be checked through the moderation processes. Marks can be adjusted through either process if required.  

External clinical staff are not required to attend NCFE training prior to marking. However, you must run your own standardisation sessions using the internal standardisation training materials we provide. These materials can be found on individual qualification pages under the heading ‘Support materials’ - look for the drop-down item that reads ‘Provider standardisation training’. 

Any staff involved in marking assessment decisions must be occupationally competent as per the qualification specification and all staff involved in marking must be standardised.  

All available sample assessments and past papers can be found on our website. At the start of each session, we will release a standardisation pack for you to use internally to standardise assessment practice. This pack will contain examples of marked work from the previous summer. 

The provider guides released with the live assessment materials for each OS will give guidance on the types of evidence that need to be captured for each task. 

The provider guides and evidence upload checklists released with the live assessment materials for each OS will give guidance on the types of evidence that need to be captured for each task.