Maladministration & Malpractice Policy

Warwickshire First Aid Training is a progressive training organisation providing mandatory training to various organisations. We provide a range of First Aid, health and safety, food safety, education, and training, assessing qualifications through the Qualifications Network.

At Warwickshire First Aid Training, we are committed to providing high-quality training and qualifications and ensuring that equality of opportunity underpins all aspects of our work.

This policy relates to maladministration and malpractice and covers all of our staff and students; this document sets out our formal procedure for dealing with such incidents.

Warwickshire First Aid Training will strive to ensure that all work carried out by our staff, training centres and contractors is of the highest quality.

Warwickshire First Aid Training Management and Staff aim to provide a high standard of service to all learners so that they have the opportunity to develop to the fullest of their potential. Quality is at the heart of everything we do, it is vital that all of our learners receive the highest standard of training, and that our examinations are both valid and held up as an example of good practice within the wider training sector, our policies must be both rigorous and thorough.

We have policies, procedures, protocols, work systems and instructions in place to ensure that all of our work is of the highest standard at all times, therefore any allegations of Maladministration within the business side or the examinations and assessment side will be treated with the respect and urgency they deserve.

Definition of Maladministration

Maladministration is essentially any activity or practice which results in non-compliance with administrative regulations and requirements and includes the application of persistent mistakes or poor administration within a centre (eg inappropriate learner records).

Definition of Malpractice

Malpractice is essentially any activity or practice which deliberately contravenes regulations and compromises the integrity of the development, delivery, internal or external assessment process and/or the award of any of the qualifications we offer.

Malpractice could involve centre staff, learners, external verifiers and awarding organisation staff or contractors.

For this policy, the terms maladministration and malpractice also cover misconduct and forms of unnecessary discrimination or bias towards learner(s).

Warwickshire First Aid Training has policies and procedures in place to minimise the possibility of malpractice or maladministration occurring within the centre. In particular, qualifications have to be delivered according to a specified process, all staff and contractors’ work is subject to quality assurance, and both paper-based and IT administration are carried out according to specified procedures.

The categories listed below are examples of centre and learner malpractice. Please note that these examples are not exhaustive and are only intended as guidance on our definition of malpractice:

• Contravention of our centre and any qualification approval conditions
• Denial of access to resources (premises, records, information, learners and staff) when requested by any authorised awarding body representative and/or the regulators.
• Failure to carry out delivery, internal assessment, internal moderation or internal verification in accordance with awarding body requirements
• Deliberate failure to adhere to our learner registration and certification procedures
• Deliberate or persistent failure to adhere to our centre recognition
• Deliberate failure to maintain appropriate auditable records, eg certification claims, starter, leaver and evaluation records
• Persistent instances of maladministration within the centre, by staff, trainers, assessors, internal verifiers or contractors
• Fraudulent claim for certificates
• The unauthorised use of inappropriate materials/equipment in assessment settings (eg: mobile phones)
• Staff intentionally withholding information from Warwickshire First Aid Training
• Management which is critical to maintaining the rigour of quality assurance and standards both the centre and of the qualifications we deliver.
• Deliberate misuse of logo and trademarks or misrepresentation of a training centre relationship with Warwickshire First Aid Training
• Forgery of evidence.
• Collusion or permitting collusion in exams.
• Trainers allowing learners to still be working towards qualification after certification claims have been made.
• Contravention by our training centres, trainers, assessors, Internal Verifiers and learners of the assessment arrangements we specify for our qualifications.
• Insecure storage of assessment materials and exam papers issued by any awarding body.
• Plagiarism of any nature by learners.
• An unauthorised amendment, copying or distribution of exam papers issued by any awarding body.
• Inappropriate assistance to learners by centre staff (eg unfairly helping them to pass a unit or qualification).
• Submission of false information to gain a qualification or unit.
• Deliberate failure to adhere to the requirements of our policies.
• Conduct during assessment

Warwickshire First Aid Training will treat all allegations of Maladministration and Malpractice as a serious incident and will launch a full investigation and where appropriate suspend staff, trainers, assessors, internal verifiers or students, as detailed in our Disciplinary and Grievance Policy.

All awarding bodies that we are registered with will be informed of the allegations and the outcome of our investigation.

We will comply with any external investigations that are required by the examining organisations or any regulatory authorities, including Police investigations as appropriate.

In the event of serious Maladministration or Malpractice, such as fraudulent activity, theft, dishonesty, corruption and abuse, the issue will be referred to the police for a full criminal investigation.

In such incidents, the following contact details should be used:

Telephone: 101

All staff and students will be able to appeal any sanctions imposed using either the assessment appeals procedure or the employee grievance procedure.

Confidentiality and whistleblowing

Whistleblowing is a term used to refer to an individual who discloses information relating to actual malpractice or maladministration and/or the covering up of such practices.

The malpractice or maladministration is often committed by the individual’s employer, although this is not necessarily the case. Whistleblowers have protection in law under the Public Interest Disclosure Act in certain circumstances.

Ofqual has published guidance on this which can be found at

http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/2011-10-31-ofqual-whistleblowing-policy.pdf

In this guidance, Ofqual states that centre staff who wish to make a whistleblowing disclosure to someone outside their organisation should normally do so to the relevant awarding organisation.

If the issue is about the awarding organisation itself, the disclosure should be directed to Ofqual.

Ofqual contact details:

Warwickshire First Aid Training will always endeavour to keep a whistleblower’s identity confidential when asked to do so. However, we cannot guarantee this and we may need to disclose your identity to the police or other law enforcement agencies, the courts or another person to whom we are required by law to disclose your identity. A whistleblower should also recognise that he or she may be identifiable by others due to the nature or circumstances of the disclosure.

While we will consider investigating issues that are reported to us anonymously, we shall always try to confirm an allegation by means of a separate investigation before taking up the matter with those to whom the allegation relates. It is not always possible to investigate or substantiate anonymous disclosures.

Warwickshire First Aid Training will make every effort to ensure that all of our staff, including management, administrators, trainers, assessors, internal verifiers and all learners follow all the requirements of our training centre and the awarding bodies.

All staff will be required to read this policy and sign to say that they have read and understood the policy. These signatures will be kept in the staff member’s personnel file.