AMR FAQs
What is an annual monitoring review (AMR)?
The focus of this review is to quality assure a centre’s management systems and administration to ensure they remain compliant with our approval criteria. No learners will be sampled as part of this review, as this will be covered during our external quality assurance or moderation reviews.
Centres will be allocated a Quality Reviewer (QR), who will conduct the AMR across all internally assessed qualifications. This means centres only need to submit generic information around management systems and administration once a year.
Following the AMR, centres will receive a report from their QR and will be given an overall risk rating of low, medium or high based on the evidence that was made available. Any actions for centres with a low or medium risk status will be checked at their next review the following session. Actions for centres with a high risk status will be reviewed during an interim review before the end of the session.
The criteria used to determine this status is outlined in our User Guide to the Annual Monitoring Review. The guide will also support centres when planning for an AMR as it outlines the criteria QRs will check as part of the AMR process, the types of evidence centres can make available to meet the criteria and how the centre risk rating is calculated.
When will the AMR take place?
AMRs will take place each academic session between September and July unless you are a T Level Provider. AMRs for T Level Providers will take place between September and November.
How will this affect my centre?
All centres will receive an AMR once a year and there will no longer be a requirement for External Quality Assurers (EQAs) to cover generic policies and procedures at part of our external quality assurance reviews.
Centres will receive one AMR and an external quality assurance or moderation review depending on the qualifications being delivered.
Why is this changing?
We value feedback received from our customers and use this to develop our processes, so we can strive to achieve World Class customer service. Many of our customers have indicated that the process of checking generic information covered currently under Management Systems and Administrative Arrangements and Resources at every external quality assurance review is time-consuming and burdensome, so we’ve removed these generic criteria from the external quality assurance review in order to streamline our processes.
How will this affect current T Level Providers?
T Level Providers may see a change in their allocated QR and the planned review date may need to change now all centres will receive an AMR. Also, the contact for the AMR is changing to the Head of Centre rather than the Programme Contact for Technical Qualification to ensure all qualifications are covered as part of the review. Our Allocations team will be in touch if there are any changes and will confirm who your new QR is via email.
Every effort will be made to accommodate existing dates that are planned in but if this isn’t possible your QR will work with you to find a suitable alternative.
Why do we need a centre risk rating?
As part of our CASS strategy and compliance with Ofqual’s conditions of compliance, H2. Risk rating centres allows us to apply a risk based approach to our quality assurance activities, risk rating centres enables us to tailor our sampling plans and the training and support we can offer our centres.
How will this affect DCS?
No. DCS is not linked to the AMR, therefore this will not affect your DCS.
What will be external quality assurance review look like?
You will still receive up to 2 external quality assurance reviews per QA group per session. These reviews will focus solely on assessment and internal quality assurance sampling. No generic information covered currently under management systems and administrative arrangements, and resources will be covered as part of the external quality assurance review process from the 1 August 2022.
What happens if I do not upload the required evidence prior to my AMR or external quality assurance review?
Failure to upload all required evidence 48 hours prior to your review will result in your annual monitoring/external quality assurance review being cancelled and we reserve the right to charge in line with our published fees and pricing lists. Should the review be cancelled, a new date will be arranged in line with QR/EQA availability. This may result in delays to certificate claims.
What happens if I am missing evidence during my AMR or external quality assurance review?
If during the review the QR/EQA identifies missing evidence, this will be requested on the day of the review. Failure to supply this on the day will result in an action on the report and you may need to pay for an additional review. This may result in delays to certificate claims.
What happens if I need to cancel my AMR or external quality assurance review?
If a planned AMR or external quality assurance review needs to be cancelled for whatever reason, it is a requirement that a minimum of 10 working days’ notice is provided.
Whilst we acknowledge that today’s work environment is a very busy one, the Programme Contact or Head of Centre would be expected to inform the EQA and our Customer Support team if they need to cancel a review by email.
If reviews are not cancelled within 10 working days, we reserve the right to charge the centre in line with our published fees and pricing lists.
Who should be the named contact for each review?
Responsibility for the annual monitoring review lies with the person registered with NCFE as Head of Centre. Although the Head of Centre does not need to govern the annual monitoring review, they are responsible for ensuring the person selected to do so has a detailed knowledge of all internal management and administration processes in the centre, that contribute towards the effective delivery of NCFE qualifications.
Responsibility for the external quality assurance review lies with the person registered with NCFE as the Programme Lead for the individual sector. It is the centre’s responsibility to ensure that the correct individual is listed with us and that that individual liaises with all internal colleagues/departments offering the suite of qualifications being reviewed. If this is not managed effectively it could result in the centre being charged for an additional review should a department be missed during sampling.
Can an external quality assurance review take place before a centre has their AMR?
Yes, the AMR does not run-in conjunction with any external quality assurance reviews.