Customer Charter Report 2014/15

Customer Charter Report 2014/15

We developed our Customer Charter in consultation with you, our customers, to help us to set standards and provide a service that meets your needs. To ensure that we meet these standards, we monitor our performance and report to you on our achievements each year. Our Customer Charter is made up of our Corporate Standards and Service and Performance levels. There are 54 in total consisting of 28 Corporate Standards and 26 Service and Performance levels. Set out in this report are our performance results for the 2014/15 year.

3 Our Corporate standards (28) Accessibility To be accessible to you we will: make our services available to those who wish to use them in Northern Ireland and beyond, where appropriate. Over the last five years, our share of the General Qualification market in Northern Ireland grew from 65.2% in 2010 to 72.3% in 2014 for GCSE and 72.2% to 74.4% for GCE. GCSE GCE 2010 65.2% 72.3% in 2014 2010 72.2% 74.4% in 2014 try to make our publications as easy and straightforward to understand as we can, and try to avoid unnecessary jargon. endeavour to provide our products and services in a variety of ways to meet the needs and preferences of customers. We have produced specific resources tailored to local needs such as: Irish-Medium reading comprehension package Taisce Tuisceana; Supporting resources on Teaching Controversial Issues; A Window on Special; and A dedicated website and video resource about the Giro d Italia cycle race. All these resources can be accessed at www.ccea.org.uk The Multimedia team review all resources before publishing them to make sure they follow plain English guidelines, such as: using language appropriate to the audience and having a clear layout and design. In 2014/15 these publications included new subject specifications, learning and teaching resources, marketing materials, online reports and student guides. www.ccea.org.uk

4 consider all requests for the provision of information, materials and publications in alternative formats, for the purposes of accessibility for all our customers. During 2014/15 we provided a variety of different options of access arrangements for general and vocational qualifications to support our learners. We received and fulfilled 517 requests to modify papers for visually impaired candidates and 275 requests to modify papers for hearing impaired candidates or those candidates with significant comprehension difficulties. enable web content accessibility for anyone with reading difficulties or who is visually impaired. dispatch all orders for publications within 14 working days of receipt. All customer orders and requests were fulfilled within dispatch target. ensure easy access to the CCEA main building for people with a disability. We continue to be aware of and review access arrangements to the CCEA main building for people with a disability. Over the past few years we have made a number of improvements such as a low reception desk for wheelchair users and moved pass swipes to a height suitable for all users. To make our websites accessible to all, we provide Browse Aloud* and alternative text or transcripts for images, video and other multimedia. Our web content aims to meet the World Wide Web Consortium s web content accessibility guidelines, and the World Wide Web Consortium standards. Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment Accessibility Our website is designed to maximise ease of use by everyone, including people with disabilities. We aim for a consistently high level of usability for our entire audience across all of our websites and microsites, following best-practice accessibility guidelines where possible. www.ccea.org.uk * Software that adds speech and reading support tools to online content to extend the reach of websites to users that require reading support.

5 Communication Communication with our customers is very important to us. When you need to contact us, we are here to help. We rely on consulting with you to help improve our products and services. To ensure effective communication we will: consider carefully all and any views and opinions you give to us. Our Research and Statistics team completed 43 research projects, met with 1,102 individuals face to face, and processed the views contained in 6,647 questionnaire responses. regularly consult on the products and services we provide. During 2014/15 we consulted with a range of stakeholders to develop new Entry Level Qualification (ELQ) specifications. These specifications have been developed to meet the needs of learners in Northern Ireland who want to build on the knowledge they gained at Key Stage 3. Telephone Our main switchboard is manned from 8.30 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Thursday, and 8.30am to 4.35pm on Friday (excluding Public and Bank Holidays). Our staff: Identify themselves by name and department on the telephone. Answer direct-dial numbers within four rings. Take a message or let you leave a mailbox message, if the person you want to speak to is not available. Are courteous and polite. As a result of customer comments music has been added as an additional feature to the telephone system when a caller is on hold. keep you informed about our work through our website www.ccea.org.uk, news releases and a range of print materials that support our products and services. The CCEA website, which over the last year achieved 4.5 million visits, has been redesigned with the user in mind and to be more compatible with mobiles and tablet devices. Correspondence We aim to make at least an initial response within five working days and a substantive response within one month. We also identify ourselves by name and try to be clear and concise. We monitor written responses to complaints, Freedom of Information (FoI) and letters to Directors and Chief Executive (CE) for 100% compliance. We have Best Practice guidelines in place and these are available for staff to access on our intranet site. Visiting When you travel to our offices we provide you with directions and maps, these are also easily accessible from our website www.ccea.org.uk When you visit us we will meet you within five minutes of arrival if you have an appointment, and within 15 minutes without an appointment. We monitor this through comment cards available at reception. We also provide additional parking for visitors during the busy examination period.

6 Freedom of Information (Fol) This is a law that came into force on 1 January 2005. It affects all public sector organisations. It gives you the right to access corporate or organisational information held by public organisations. The Act allows the public to find out more about what we do and how we make decisions. If you make a Freedom of Information (FoI) request we will: send an acknowledgement letter to you within five days of receipt and let you know when you might expect a full response. From 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015 318 FoI requests were received. All requests were either acknowledged or answered within five working days. respond to your request within the 20 working day deadline and if this deadline cannot be met notify you that there is likely to be a delay. notify you if the information requested is not held by CCEA and assist you in pursuing your request with another authority. advise you how to make an internal review if you are unhappy with the way CCEA has handled your request. All requesters are advised on how to request an internal review and contact details of who to contact. Complaints If you make a complaint to us we will: make, at least, an initial response to your complaint within five working days of receipt. make a substantive response to a complaint within one month of receipt. If this is not possible an explanation will be given for the delay. We have recently changed our response time target from 1 month to 20 working days. try to learn from your complaint to improve our service. Where appropriate recommendations for change are put in place as a result of complaints received.

7 Service and Performance Levels (26) The Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Business Unit is responsible for supporting schools, including the Irish Medium (IM) and Special Educational Needs (SEN) sectors. It gives teachers in Northern Ireland guidance, support, resources and training to help them implement the Curriculum and its assessment and reporting arrangements. Curriculum We will: through advice to Government, ensure that the curriculum enables young people to achieve their full potential to develop as individuals and as contributors to society, the economy and the environment. We submitted advice to DENI about assessment and reporting arrangements to support the Northern Ireland Curriculum. We also provided advice to DENI and the Education Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly in response to queries about issues such as STEM, Coding through Using ICT, The World Around Us, Environmental Education and Citizenship related issues. provide teachers with appropriate guidance to assist in the implementation of the curriculum. We continued to work closely with all sector stakeholders to identify priorities and to develop support accordingly. evaluate our curriculum products to ensure relevancy to pupils and teachers. ensure that teachers and pupils have equality of access to the Northern Ireland Curriculum. We continued our programme of IM and SEN support. We enhanced accessibility for pupils with SEN by providing an SEN entry point for assessment and also a special entry point for Hearing Impaired Pupils for NILA. We have provided support events on the use of the SEN framework for Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities and for embedding the use of Q Skills in schools. The IM support programme provided a range of resources, including textbooks and interactive resources, at both primary and post-primary levels. We have worked to ensure that all curriculum and assessment support materials are suitably provided in Irish and that tailored training is provided for IM teachers. We continued to work closely with all sector stakeholders to identify priorities and to develop support accordingly, focusing particularly on interactive and bespoke resources. We continued to involve IM teachers in both the development and quality assurance of these resources. We continued to evaluate our training events and hard copy/web-based materials.

8 Assessment and Reporting We will: support schools in making accurate and consistent assessments at Key Stages 1 to 3 through exemplar materials, agreement trials and school visits. We supported schools to make accurate and consistent assessments at Key Stages 1 to 3 by providing exemplar materials, a range of support events and school visits. Throughout 2014/15 we have given teachers training and materials (face-to-face and online) to help prepare for new statutory assessment arrangements for Using ICT. We responded to verbal and written queries on assessment and curriculum matters from teachers and the wider public. We continued to provide detailed curriculum and assessment information on the CCEA website. provide to schools, on an annual basis, support materials and information that will enable them to record and report on a broad range of pupil achievement, including the annual report. We provided a range of online, print and helpdesk support to schools for recording and reporting pupil achievement. We offered training in the new Progress File content to KS3, KS4 and post-16 teachers ahead of the launch in autumn 2015. In addition, the Progress File manuals were posted online for ease of access. We regularly update the Annual Report information, which is available on the CCEA website. review the assessment standards of all schools undertaking Key Stages 1 to 3 assessment through moderation. We moderated 151 primary and 78 post-primary school portfolios which were submitted to CCEA for the cross-curricular skills. We provided written feedback to all participating schools and gave face-to-face feedback where required. 151 78 We moderated 151 primary and 78 post-primary school portfolios which were submitted to CCEA for the cross-curricular skills.

9 support primary schools in delivering computer based assessment. We provided a wide range of comprehensive face-to-face, online, print and helpdesk support to schools, including IM and SEN schools and units using the Computer-Based Assessments (CBA) during Autumn 2014. We offered face-to-face training and awareness sessions to all principals and assessment co-ordinators. We offered an online training course, which was available throughout the autumn term. We regularly refreshed and updated the CBA area of the CCEA website with resources such as pupil demos, which teachers used to prepare their pupils for completing the assessments. We delivered two copies of Information for Schools booklets to schools, one for NILA and one for NINA. provide support to schools as they report the outcomes of the computer based assessments for Year 4-7 pupils to parents during the autumn term. In autumn 2014, in response to feedback received from schools during 2013, we reduced the number of techniques required to use CBA, revised and enhanced the NINA pupil practice area, introduced a Skills Focus report and an assessment progress indicator for NILA. Further improvements to NILA included a streamlined process for selecting reports and setting special entry points. issue assessment results to centres on the published dates. Our dedicated CBA Helpdesk provided support to schools.

10 Qualifications We continue to play our part in delivering qualifications that are relevant, have portability and are of the highest quality. In summer 2014 CCEA marked 150,000 scripts online. This allows better tracking and quality control of marked scripts, and provides the granular data to produce our new CCEA Analytics tool. Currently available for English and Mathematics, CCEA Analytics allows schools to look at their pupils performance question by question to inform future learning. Once again we welcomed award winners, teachers, proud parents and families to our three award ceremonies; GCSE and GCE Celebrating Excellence, and Celebrating Achievement. These continue to be great opportunities to meet with learners and their families. Social media has now become an integral part of CCEA s communications programme with customers and wider stakeholders. During the last year via Twitter and Facebook the organisation generated more than 850,000 impressions leading to almost 35,000 engagements. CCEA s Moving Image Arts showcase events are now a regular part of the school calendar. This year we celebrated the success of over 20 budding film makers with students seeing their GCSE, AS and A Level work celebrated on the big screen at the Brunswick Cinema, Derry~Londonderry, and Queen s Film Theatre, Belfast, with an audience of over 400 people. Winning films were chosen for their strong production values, individuality and audience appeal. The only qualification of its kind in the UK, CCEA Moving Image Arts has grown in popularity with over 1800 students taking the course annually across both A Level and GCSE. CCEA s annual art exhibition, True Colours, puts on show the creativity of local pupils through work produced for the organisation s GCSE and GCE examinations. This year we were able to continue our partnership with the Ulster Museum. Close to 7,000 teachers and pupils booked in to see the work on exhibition, with museum figures showing an overall footfall of 50,000 visitors over the five-week run of True Colours. We will: issue Essential Skills certificates to all adult centres in Literacy and Numeracy within the four week turnaround period (Direct Claim centres only). Essential Skills certificates were issued in literacy and numeracy to the majority of centres within a four-week turnaround period. 1% of certificates were not issued within this timeframe due to essential system maintenance. provide a free Invigilation Service for any centre within Northern Ireland taking CCEA examinations for a range of subjects. We gave advice as appropriate and for many subjects provided a free invigilation service for any centre in Northern Ireland taking our examinations. In 2014/15 we employed over 2,000 invigilators.

11 provide Access Arrangements for candidates with particular needs, for example, examinations papers in large print format or in Braille. Annually we provide: Modified Language (ML); Modified Visual (18 point on A4) (MV18); Modified Enlarged Print (24 point on A3) (MEP); Braille; and Non Interactive Electronic Formats (material provided on a CD as a PDF). This year we provided bespoke materials for individuals such as: Music Score (36+ point on A2); Geography maps on A1; Enlarged map Key; 10 different types of enlarged graph paper; and Answer Books modified to A4 (MV18 point). provide a dedicated examinations helpline for a 10 day period following the issue of the Spring and Summer GCE AS/A2, GCSE and Vocational Qualification results to assist centres, students and parents with a wide variety of queries. We exceeded our target and provided a dedicated examinations helpline for 12 working days (beginning at 7am on the issue of results dates) after the issue of summer 2014 GCE AS/A2 and GCSE results to help centres, students and parents with a wide variety of queries. In summer 2014 there were 935 calls: 406 from centres; 283 from parents and 246 from candidates. In summer 2014 there were 246 calls from candidates provide support for all our qualifications through, for example, school visits, support materials, organised events and telephone advice as appropriate. Between September 2014 and April 2015 we facilitated a total of 133 support events with a total of 2,702 delegates attending to help us deliver our qualifications. acknowledge all applications for Enquiry About Results and Access to Scripts within seven working days of receipt. notify centres of the outcome of an examinations results enquiry (clerical check) within 20 calendar days of the request being received. notify centres of the outcome of an examinations result enquiry (re-mark) within 30 calendar days of the request being received. at GCE level, through the accelerated service, notify centres of the outcome of an examinations results enquiry within 18 calendar days of the request being received. at GCE level, a Priority Access to Scripts request will be issued in accordance with Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) deadlines. 935 calls 406 centres calls from We met the JCQ deadline for reporting outcomes under the priority GCE EAR service. We also met the earlier UCAS deadline which we are not required by JCQ to do. The UCAS deadline is at the end of August each year. 283 calls from parents

12 at GCSE and GCE levels when a request is received for an enquiry along with a request for access to the script, dispatch the photocopy of the script within 10 working days after the dispatch of the result of the enquiry. notify centres of the outcome of an appeal against examinations results within 50 working days of the appeal being lodged (any working days falling between 25 December and 1 January inclusive will be excluded from the allowed 50 working days). publish by the 1 September each year the CCEA Qualifications Admin Handbook on our website. publish charges information for a range of services for all qualifications at the beginning of each academic year. issue accurate examinations results to centres on the published dates. issue examinations certificates to centres for the summer series by the 2nd week in November. We issued examinations certificates for the summer series to all centres by the 1st week in November 2014. During the last year CCEA has marked over half a million scripts and awarded 248,954 results to more than 60,000 candidates. During 2014/15 we have met 53 of our 54 targets. Our Customer Charter helps us focus on meeting your needs and expectations. Throughout the coming year we will aim to continue to improve. To do this we will listen to you our customers, and focus on providing an even better service for you.

If you have any suggestions for improvement, queries about our Customer Charter or our performance, please contact: Heather Clarke Business Assurance Manager Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment 29 Clarendon Road Clarendon Dock Belfast BT1 3BG Telephone: (028) 9026 1244 Fax: (028) 9026 1233 Email: hclarke@ccea.org.uk Web: www.ccea.org.uk