FEDERATION OF AWARDING BODIES DECIDES NOT TO ISSUE A CLAIM FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW OF T-LEVELS

The FAB board met yesterday 1 August 2018 to review the proposed legal challenge of the government’s T-Level implementation and procurement plans. After careful consideration, and the fact significant concessions have already been made regarding the draft ITT documentation as a result of this challenge, FAB has decided not to issue a claim for Judicial Review. 

Commenting on the decision, Chair of the Board, Paul Eeles said:

“In going forward, the fine judgement that the FAB Board has had to make, on behalf of the Membership, is to weigh up the continued value of pursuing a legal challenge.

“On balance, while the legal grounds for Judicial Review were strong and the government would have had a very tough case to argue; the FAB Board does not believe that issuing a claim in the High Court at this time is the most optimal way of settling our key concerns, with government, about this flagship policy.

“Instead, we have decided to take up the Department for Education’s offer to sit down with officials and, in due course, re-set the relationship between government ministers and the awarding industry.

“There are a number of specific concerns we will be continuing to work through on AO’s behalf; including, how we minimise any potentially detrimental impact on learners of a new technical qualification that is rushed.

“Similarly, we need to work through the issue of consortia arrangements as this is one obvious way to mitigate the risks of a single provider model/ single point of failure model in the longer term.”