In a letter dated 26 February 2020, Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education asked the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to undertake a formal review of the L7 Senior Leader occupational standard. In the review of the standard, the Secretary of State has asked us to “ensure that the standard meets the current policy intent and rules, including the mandatory qualifications policy, and provides value for money.”
To meet the Secretary of State for Education’s request, we are invoking the Institute’s published “Revisions and Adjustments” process which will involve the Leadership and Management Trailblazer (with support from the Institute) reviewing the Occupational Standard and End-Point Assessment (EPA) Plan against our current policy and developing revised versions that are policy compliant.
The Trailblazer Group is working hard to make its membership as relevant and inclusive as possible and they have reached out to the current Training Providers, End Point Assessment Organisations, as well as the current Professional Bodies to ensure that decisions on content and wording take on board “real world” and “real-time” outcomes being experienced in the market place currently. All groups are very mindful that the review provides an opportunity to resolve both policy and technical issues as well as head off delivery problems that become evident as standards move through their lifecycle. The Institute is supporting this approach by engaging with a number of current providers delivering the apprenticeship and advising the Trailblazer on policy and process. We have already run a virtual workshop with the Trailblazer to develop a first draft of the revised standard and, as part of the ongoing development process, the Trailblazer will consult stakeholders beyond its membership on the draft wording of the revised standard. This is of course subject to the exceptional circumstances presented by Coronavirus and we realise that organisations will have a great many other priorities at this time. However, our intention at present is to have a revised standard and EPA plan ready for submission into the Institute’s Cycle 29 Approvals process, the deadline for which is 20 May.
The Trailblazer have now agreed the wording of a revised draft of the occupational standard and we have launched a consultation of this on their behalf. The consultation is now available and we and the Trailblazer look forward to receiving responses from all interested parties by the deadline of Wednesday 29 April.
In the light of the coronavirus and the impact that it is having on all parties with an interest in the future of this standard, since my last blog, we have agreed with the Trailblazer to decouple the development of the standard and EPA plan with only the former now due for submission in May as detailed in the revised timeline.
Summary of activity and timeline for standard review (subject to change if participants’ involvement is impacted by the coronavirus)
| Action | Date | Status | |
| 1 | IFATE/Trailblazer evidence gathering from training providers and employers delivering the standard | 16-27 March | Completed |
| 2 | Remote Intensive workshop with the trailblazer to develop a first draft of a policy compliant revised occupational standard | 18 March | Completed |
| 3 | Finalise redrafting of the occupational standard | 23 March - 3 April | Completed |
| 4 | Trailblazer consultation on revised occupational standard | 8-29 April | |
| 5 | Consult IFATE Peer Reviewer and Worldskills on the draft occupational standard | 11-15 May | |
| 6 | Remote intensive workshop to revise the occupational standard following consultation feedback results | 5 May | |
| 7 | Finalise occupational standard | 6-19 May | |
| 8 | Final checks of standard and submission | 19-20 May | |
| 9 | Remote intensive workshop to revise the End-Point Assessment plan so that it is policy compliant and aligns with the revised standard | 1-5 June | |
| 10 | Trailblazer to request costings from training providers and an end-point assessment organisation to inform IFATE’s funding band recommendation | 10 June | |
| 11 | Finalise EPA plan and revisit standard to check for any knock-on effects on KSBs to enable grading descriptors | 6-17 July | |
| 12 | Draft EPA reviewed by Education Advisor | 20-24 July | |
| 13 | Finalisation of EPA plan and costings | 27 July – 23 August | |
| 14 | Final checks of standard, EPA plan and costings | 26 August – 10 September | |
| 15 | Final checks of EPA Plan and submission | 10-16 September |
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