Direct Claim Status (DCS)

Direct Claim Status (DCS) is our reward system to encourage best practice. You can claim learning certificates without authorisation from your External Quality Assurer (EQA) once you’ve achieved DCS.

DCS is awarded for individual qualifications. We decide whether to award a DCS based on judgements your EQA makes after your external quality assurance visits.

DCS awarding criteria 

How DCS is awarded depends on your centre’s performance and the number of visits by an EQA. Here we’ll explain both ways to receive DCS.  

After one visit  

To gain DCS after one visit by an EQA, you must have had a visit report with: 

• Exclusively grade 1s
• No outstanding actions from previous EQA visit report
• A minimum of three learner portfolios sampled on the visit, with at least two completed portfolios sampled and marked as ‘final’; the other learner sampled can have ‘new’ or ‘mid’ status
• ‘A’ grade reliability of assessment
• For Reformed Functional Skills only: the square root of submitted learners sitting a controlled assessment must be sampled, or a minimum of five (if there are fewer than five, a minimum of three learners must be sampled and marked as final).

After two visits

To gain DCS after two visits, you must have had two visit reports with:

• Exclusively grade 1s, 2s and 3s
• A gap of at least one month between the two visits
• No outstanding actions from the previous EQA visit report
• A minimum of three learner portfolios sampled on each visit, with at least three completed portfolios sampled over the two visits; other learners sampled can have ‘new’ or ‘mid’ status
• ‘A’ and ‘B’ grade reliability of assessment
• For Reformed Functional Skills only: the square root of submitted learners sitting a controlled assessment must be sampled, or a minimum of five (if there are fewer than five, a minimum of three learners must be sampled and marked as final).

How DCS is awarded

We’ll automatically award you DCS when you meet the quality criteria. A member of our team will contact the Programme Contact at your centre to let them know you’ve been awarded DCS. And that’s it!

What does a DCS award mean?After you’ve been awarded DCS, keep up the good work. Deliver qualifications to your learners, assess their work, and internally quality assure it. Then, instead of waiting for an EQA visit, simply submit your claims to us. We'll process them and produce your certificates.

Maintaining DCS

After achieving DCS, keep on operating and delivering qualifications to the same high standard.

You’ll have to maintain the following criteria within one year to retain your DCS:

• Exclusively grade 1s, 2s and 3s
• No outstanding actions from previous EQA visit report
• A minimum of one completed learner portfolio sampled and marked as ‘final’; other learners sampled can have ‘new’ or ‘mid’ status
• ‘A’ or ‘B’ grade reliability of assessment
• For Reformed Functional Skills only: the square root of submitted learners sitting a controlled assessment must be sampled, or a minimum of five (if there are fewer than five, a minimum of three learners must be sampled and marked as final).

An EQA will visit within one year of your DCS achievement to check you’re still meeting these criteria.

Retain a sample of completed learner portfolios to present to your EQA so you can retain DCS. You’ll discuss the range and size of this sample with your EQA before their visit. DCS will be withheld if less than one completed portfolio is sampled.

DCS status automatically lapses if an EQA doesn’t visit within one year after your DCS achievement. However, we’ll remind you three months and one month in advance of the lapse date so you’re aware. If your DCS does lapse, you’ll have to meet the DCS criteria again to regain it.

We’ll only remove approval for DCS if:

• You fail to maintain the DCS criteria during your external quality assurance visit
• In exceptional circumstances. For example, if a range of external sources raises concerns, complaints, or there are suspensions or investigations that may lead us to review your DCS approval. One of our Quality Assurance Officers would contact you to highlight the issues and discuss the concerns if this occurs.

DCS transfer from another Awarding Organisation

If you’ve achieved DCS with another Awarding Organisation (AO) for a qualification that we also offer, we may be able to honour this. 

To request a DCS transfer, complete the request form to transfer DCS, include the appropriate evidence, and submit. Of the three examples of appropriate evidence, only submit one.

We’ll let you know within five working days whether we can transfer your DCS or if we need additional evidence. In some cases, it‘s not possible for us to transfer your DCS, but we’ll explain why when we respond.