In order to offer OCN accredited courses a provider will need to become a Recognised Centre. A recognised centre is one that guarantees their quality assurance processes support and maintain the integrity of the award of credit.
Having read the documentation, your centre may wish to proceed to apply for Centre Recognition. You will need to discuss your application with a Curriculum Development Manger from theOCN. At this stage you will be given advice about what the requirements will be for recognition, and from that your CDM may advise what you will need to do in order to prepare for the application, but they may also advise that your organisation is not yet ready to submit an application. This may be for a variety of reasons; commonly it is because organisations do not have the resources or organisational structure to meet the requirements for centre recognition. In some instances the CDM may be able to refer the organisation to a larger organisation that may be able to offer assistance in the form of franchise or consortium arrangements.
If the CDM thinks it is appropriate for you to proceed then you will be asked to complete a Centre Recognition Application. This asks for specific information about the centre and its organisation. The application asks for named contacts for specific areas of responsibility including, finance, Administration and Quality. It asks the centre to confirm its ability to comply with a list of requirements along with an affirmation that it has in place certain listed policies and procedures.
The application needs to be signed by a senior member of the organisation who has the authority to commit the promised resources needed for compliance and acknowledges that this is an agreement and undertaking to comply with the statements contained within the application.
The CDM will, during their discussions, identify areas where they feel there are weaknesses in the ability to comply. They will also highlight areas of good practice. This information is fed back to a Quality Reviewer who will visit the centre to assess the centre’s ability to comply. They will then prepare a risk assessment report that will be considered alongside the Centre Recognition application.
The outcome of the Centre Recognition application will depend on the centre’s ability to comply with the requirements and the OCN’s estimation of the risk to the security of the award of credit. As a new provider with no experience of credit based accreditation the likelihood is that a high risk factor is determined and some conditions of the recognition will be made. Sometimes depending on the seriousness they may need to be met before the centre is able to deliver accredited provision or they will need to make changes as part of a continuous improvement plan, that all providers will be given.
As part of the discussions with CDM the centre will consider what their curriculum offer is likely to be. An outline of the curriculum areas and the likely offer needs to be documented at the same time as the Centre Recognition application, as this forms part of the process of deciding the ability of the centre to support the provision. This is called a curriculum plan it does not have to detail individual units that the centre is intending on providing at this stage. However, before learner registrations can be made, individual courses need to be devised, approved by the centre’s own course approval process as agreed at centre recognition, and then submitted toOCNfor approval. A course is a programme of study made up of a collection of units designed for a particular purpose or group of learners. It can contain any combination of local units, qualification units, and full qualifications.
In preparation for Centre Recognition it is recommended that centres collate an OCN folder that contains information and documentation relating to their compliance to the requirements both for audit purposes and for their own reference. This information will be useful to the Quality Reviewer who will visit to make the risk assessment. After successful Centre Recognition, the Quality Reviewer’s role is to ensure continued compliance and continuous improvement in standards, this folder is an excellent focus for them to begin that process.
After a successful Centre Recognition application, the centre will receive notification and details of any conditions that need to be fulfilled. The centre will also receive guidance on registration processes etc.
