Introduction to Access Arrangements

Special Educational Needs and Access Arrangements for Home-Educated Students

Terms used on this page

AAs - Access Arrangements. Accommodations put in place to assist students who have special educational needs/disabilities or other difficulties. These can include use of technology such as a laptop or reader pen, extra time, opportunities for breaks during the exams, a separate room, scribe, reader, etc. Students who think they may need such arrangements must discuss their needs with their exam centre as early as possible in the process; some centres are more helpful than others

EO - Examinations officer. The person responsible for making the centre's exam entries and who is also responsible for ensuring compliance with the regulations.

JCQ - Joint Council for Qualifications. The body which oversees administration of most UK school examinations. Joint body formed by the main exam boards.

SENDCO - Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator for an exam centre / school. Sometimes the older term, SENCO, is used.

Access Arrangements procedures for home-educated candidates

There a few changes in recent years to the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) regulations on Access Arrangements (AAs) for examinations which will affect home educators. The complete regulations are on the JCQ site.

Whilst in the past the emphasis has been on assessment of need for AAs, such as extra time, reader, scribe, and a diagnosis by a doctor or an assessment by an Educational Psychologist (EP) was seen as the passport to AAs, it is now NOT this. The starting point is now evidence-gathering by teachers in the centre of a history of need and provision which, of course, is where home educating families are likely to encounter some difficulty.

Evidence of the history of need, eg teachers habitually allowing the student to complete work at home that s/he had no time for in class, will be gathered over a long period and kept in the candidate’s file. This file may be inspected at any time by both the exam board and the JCQ inspector, after an application for AAs is processed by the centre.

Because SENDCOs and Exams Officers are rightly concerned about violations (which could include insufficient evidence of the history of need within the centre) which could lead to their centres being sanctioned or having registration removed, we are now seeing fewer centres offering to help with AAs for HE children. The difficulty of providing JCQ inspectors with sufficient centre-based evidence of need may be too great for many Exams Officers and SENDCOs to wish to deal with.

Access Arrangements Flowchart

This is courtesy of Faregos Home Education Exam Centre, but similar procedures will apply to other centres. Click on the image to see a larger version.

How can you assist your child's request for Access Arrangements?

1. Approach a potential exam centre early on in the process. A year before the exam, in the June – September before, is probably not too early, and say that your child may need AAs.

2. Ask if you may submit a report of an assessment which you have paid for privately or whether the centre has anyone qualified and able to complete the assessment.

3. If the report you have is by a medical consultant or a professional who meets the Specialist Assessor criteria, then make sure that you state this. Criteria are here. http://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/access-arrangements-and-special-consideration/regulations-and-guidance/criteria-for-a-specialist-assessor

4. If you use any tutors for any part of your child’s education, such as a home education group being taught by a qualified teacher, or a music teacher, or anyone who can support the request by supplying evidence of need for an AA, then ask them to write a letter outlining how they have to adjust their teaching to meet your child’s needs.

5. Be prepared for your child to be reassessed by the SENDCO or for them to have to complete a mock exam at the exam centre. This will inevitably entail extra costs.

See EHE-SEN : Home Education and Special Needs England - Exams

Types of Access Arrangement

Scribes

A few thoughts follow, coming from the Faregos SENDCO, a person who has scribed for candidates in exams, a home-ed mum, and an English tutor.

• Scribes are not easy to arrange. Certain specific criteria must be met for it to be approved. Normally, the child needs to be assessed by either the centre's SENDCO or a Qualified Assessor whom they employ, well in advance of entering for the exam. You can't just try to enter for the exam just before the deadline and tell the centre, 'Oh, by the way, s/he'll need a scribe.'
• Where there are obvious physical difficulties (eg no hands), then it is more straightforward to have approved.
• Some people find it very difficult to organise their thoughts verbally and to dictate, including punctuation, and edit everything the way they want. Some people's brains just don't work like that. Mine doesn't! (I know. I've tried it!)

• It needs a lot of practice. It really needs practice with the actual person who is going to be doing the scribing in the exam. And no, that can't be Mum. ;-)
• It's quite difficult from the scribe's perspective, too. When I've done it, I've been sorely tempted to fill in things which I know the student has forgotten, for eg, but I can't. I'm not allowed to bring MY knowledge or skills to bear.
• You can use a scribe in the Reading portion/paper of an English exam with no loss of marks, but not in the Writing paper or portion. Unless you dictate the spelling of every single word and piece of punctuation, you will lose all the marks available for SPaG. In English, this is often a considerable number.

• The JCQ is encouraging all who can to use laptops instead of scribes. After all, they argue, you are unlikely to have scribes in the workplace. Usually, it will be word processors.
• If it is handwriting legibility which is the issue, then a laptop is going to solve that problem, but it will require practice.
• If it is aching hands/arms, often practice will help to improve stamina and muscle strength. Think of it as being similar to running a marathon. You wouldn't tackle that with no practice in the months leading up to the race.
• If there is a genuine on-going problem with hand/arm strength which isn't improving, then sometimes the option of regular rest breaks will solve the problem. These are easier to arrange for the exam centre, with a lower burden of evidence for them.

Separate Invigilation (Own Room)

Separate invigilation within the centre. Or having a room of your own for an exam.

Firstly, and most importantly, ‘separate invigilation within the centre’ is an access arrangement (AA) and the need for the arrangement is determined by the SENDCO, in conjunction with relevant teaching staff and Exams Officer.

JCQ (the body responsible for setting the rules about AAs) are clear in that the decision if a candidate is entitled to the arrangement is the responsibility of the SENDCO. So, on what criteria should the SENDCO base this decision? On page 69 of JCQ’s Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments publication, it is clearly stated that the decision must be based on the following criteria:

• The candidate’s difficulties are established within the centre - the candidate’s difficulties are known to a Form Tutor, a Head of Year, the SENCo or a senior member of staff with pastoral responsibilities.
• Separate invigilation reflects the candidate’s normal way of working in internal school tests and mock examinations as a consequence of a long term medical condition or long term social, mental or emotional needs.
• The candidate is at a substantial disadvantage when compared with other non-disabled candidates undertaking the assessment and it would be reasonable in all the circumstances to provide the arrangement. The JCQ document also clearly defines 'disabled' and the terms ‘substantial’ and ‘long term’.

The following are two examples where candidates would be eligible for separate invigilation:

• A candidate with depression or anxiety who is being supported by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) .
• A candidate with an established medical condition or a formally recognised social, emotional or behavioural difficulty.

Where a candidate simply panics on the day of an examination or becomes anxious, then he/she should not be offered separate invigilation but be seated more appropriately within a main examination room.

Working with the SENDCO, and the EO who may highlight issues such as room availability and the need for additional invigilators, a centre-based decision is made on the need for separate invigilation.

The above is adapted from a guide produced for EOs by their industry body, The Exams Office.

As far as the actual experience of home educators and private candidates generally is concerned, practice varies considerably.

Some centres will charge large amounts of money for separate rooms for anyone who asks, ignoring the rules that it must only be for those with a recognised disability or health condition because it would otherwise be an unfair advantage over other candidates. (This does put them at risk of failing their JCQ inspection.)

Many centres are now so overwhelmed by requests for separate rooms, due to the mental health challenges among their own students, that they are restricting this AA. Centres only have so many rooms and can't build more!

Some candidates find it very off-putting being in a room alone with one invigilator. It has been known for some to even complain that the invigilator was 'looking at me all the time' (That's their job). Some anxious candidates may find this intolerable.

Some centres have a 'smaller' room where they put their slightly anxious candidates and/or those with readers, scribes or laptops, so they don't have to go into the main hall. This does NOT require huge amounts of evidence or an illness or disability. But do be aware that it could be a little bit noisier than the main hall.

Lastly, if your child is the ONLY candidate sitting that exam at the centre and there are no other exams being taken that day by their own students, you may find your child has a room of their own by default. Sometimes parents then report that, 'Getting our own room was easy.' However, it isn't always as easy as that!

FareGos Exam Centre for home educated students

The Home Educators' Exam Centre at Fareham (the Faregos Centre) provides low-cost access arrangements in Fareham, Hampshire, and some home educators travel from Birmingham and further afield to go to them.  It runs screening sessions for students who might be entitled to access arrangements.  Generally you would need to get in touch by September at the latest in order to make special arrangements for the following summer's exams, but it is still worth getting in touch at a later date.  See FAREGOS exam centre 2015 message about access arrangements

This centre will be revising its procedures and adding more steps to its evidence-gathering procedures in future. So, if you plan on using FareGos in the future and your child is likely to need AAs, then get in touch about a year before the exam if possible, so it can start the process of evidence-gathering. Its current process is in the Access Arrangements Flowchart above.

Links on Access Arrangements and Home Education

Dorothy Murphy - blog on Access Arrangements

Faregos Exam Centre

Don't really want to home educate? If your child is too unwell for school, or is refusing to attend school, and you don't really want to home educate but don't see an alternative, read about EOTAS provision from local authorities before you deregister.