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 do so by completing the webform 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 e.g. 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). 

For all other moderated qualifications, you won’t be allocated a Moderator as all 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. 

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 no assessor qualification is held, centres must provide adequate staff development to ensure assessors are working to national standards (for example, attendance at our assessor training events).  

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

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

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

As an IQA we would expect you to lead standardisation activities and meetings. We encourage all centres to carry out internal moderation as part of their standardisation of practice. This is good practice. 

NCFE has created internal standardisation materials which will be available to providers in the booking area of the Portal by October each session. This CPD package is designed to bring your teams together to align assessment decisions and expectations for externally moderated components. 

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. This information will be available once bookings have been made on the Occupational Specialism.  

The moderator allocation can then be found 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.  

The PAAs were available for the first time in April/May 2023, and then every April/May for the lifetime of the qualification.  

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. 

Professional judgement should be used to determine the student’s most appropriate band. Final marks should be checked through the provider’s internal standardisation process prior to entering marks in the portal. They will then be checked through the moderation processes. Marks can be adjusted through either process if required. 

There is no requirement for external clinical staff to attend NCFE training prior to marking. However, the provider must run their own standardisation sessions using the internal standardisation training materials provided by NCFE. Any staff involved in marking assessment decisions must be occupational competent as per the qualification specification and all staff involved in marking must be standardised. 

All the sample assessments and past papers that are available can be found on our website.

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.