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Nationally Accredited Programme for registration officers (NAP)

Background

The Registrar General’s nationally accredited programme for registration officers was launched in April 2013 and has seen 7 cohorts join the programme. The qualification, which is accredited by City and Guilds, has been jointly developed by GRO and a sub group of the National Panel for Registration and sponsored by the Local Registration Services Association (LRSA).

To date, some 91 candidates have successfully qualified from the programme. Feedback suggests that both the candidates and their local authorities have found the process beneficial.

The qualification is an NVQ-style modular programme of learning, which candidates are expected to complete within two years of enrolling on the programme. An electronic portfolio system has been introduced for the latest cohort, which has enabled candidates and their assessors to communicate more efficiently as the programme has progressed, particularly where the candidates do not work in the same office as their Assessor.

Next cohort

The next cohort, cohort 8, will be launched in May 2019 and registration officers are now invited to submit applications to be part of this cohort. The closing date for applications is Thursday 28 February 2019.

Assessors and Internal Verifiers

During the qualification each candidate will need an Assessor, and an Internal Verifier (IV) who helps to ensure consistency of standards.

The programme is also now looking for new Assessors and Internal Verifiers to support candidates throughout the qualification.  An Assessor can work with more than one candidate, and whilst ideally would be from the same local authority as the candidate this is not essential: in many current instances candidates are assessed by officers from a different local authority. It is not necessary for an Assessor or IV to have previously been a candidate for the qualification – although since they will have access to “model” workbook answers it would not be appropriate for them to subsequently apply to be a candidate.

A training event for new Assessors and IVs, will take place on Tuesday 2 April 2019 at GRO, Southport. There is no fee for this training event; however travel and subsistence expenses should be met by the Local Authority.

Fees

The enrolment fee is £400 per candidate, if you already have an identified Assessor and Internal Verifier available to support them (if need be subject to training, as above).  LRSA will provide a subsidy of £100 for a single candidate from a member authority. The fee to undertake the qualification would not be required until May 2019.

Where a candidate is applying without an identified Assessor or Internal Verifier, the National Qualification support team will attempt to find and allocate an Assessor and / or Internal Verifier. This can usually be done, but cannot be guaranteed. In instances where an Assessor or IV cannot be found, a candidate would be unable to commence in the proposed cohort. However, where an Assessor or IV can be found from another local authority the National Panel for Registration has agreed that there should be a standard charge to cover the costs involved and which should be applied consistently across the country. These costs are:

Assessor:              £1,000
Internal Verifier:    £600

Please note that this is based on communications between the candidate and Assessor / IV being via the e-portfolio / email / Skype rather than face to face visit (although the candidate could visit the Assessor’s location if they wished).

This would mean that the financial cost to a local authority supporting a candidate through the qualification –  provided that this is completed within the usual 2-year timescale - would be

£400 where officers from within the same authority as the candidate can act as Assessor and IV.
£1,400 where the authority could supply an IV but needed an Assessor from another local authority;
£2,000 where the authority needed both an Assessor and and IV from another local authority.

The enrolment fee of £400 is due when the candidate begins the qualification. Any additional payment to another local authority for Assessor or Internal Verifier support would be likely to be due on a quarterly basis as the candidate progresses through the qualification.

Further information

Further details of the qualification, including information on the workload and role of the candidate, assessor and internal verifier, and how to apply for each of these, can be found on the LRSA website http://www.lrsa.org.uk/LearningLink.cfm  

If you have any further questions please email GROTrainingandBusinessImprovement@gro.gsi.gov.uk

Support for NAP Candidates from the Registration Academy - hosted by East Sussex County Council

The Registration Academy is now able to offer NAP Assessor and Internal Verifier services to NAP Candidates from other local  authorities.

Our cost recovery fee breaks down to £200 per quarter for the two years of the qualification, hence a total of £1600 for the two years. 

We are happy to accept this payment in advance either quarterly, annually or for the full two years. 

We will have capacity to take on 7 candidates from Cohort 7. 

For more information, click here - Training