Conflict of Interest declarations for staff at schools and colleges

Monday 18 Feb 2019

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) has issued guidance to clarify the expectations of how schools and colleges need to manage potential conflicts of interest. The guidance sets out what JCQ considers as a conflict of interest, the members of staff that this may apply to, and the information to record within your school.

The guidance also sets out the information you need to tell us. Please inform us of any members of staff:

1. Sitting AQA exams or assessments at your school. Please note that you would need to request permission prior to making the entry.
2. With access to your school’s secure storage facility who have related people sitting AQA exams, whether that is at your school/college or elsewhere.
3. Who are involved in making assessment decisions for centre marked and externally moderated AQA components for related people at your school.

Related people

Related people include immediate family, close friends, relatives and members of the household where there is regular contact and where privileged information might be shared. For example, a step-relative, cousin or niece/nephew would come under related people if contact with that person was close and frequent.

For points one and two above, please email us at COIcentredeclarations@aqa.org.uk providing details of your school, the staff members’ name, the post they hold and which of the categories they fall into.

For those members of staff who are involved in making assessment decisions for centre marked and externally moderated AQA components for related people at your school, please continue with the current process of telling us about the candidates affected at the point when centre assessed marks are submitted.