Direct claim status (DCS) or centre managed assessment (CMA) status allow your centre to receive certification for a completed internally-assessed qualification once your own IQA has taken place.
Prior to being awarded either status, once you have requested certificates for your learners, a member of our EQS team will review the completed learner portfolios. They will do so either remotely or at your premises. An EQS officer will then recommend certification upon completion of a successful review of these portfolios.
Each status is normally awarded to a centre once several compliant reviews have been completed. We use the terms ‘DCS’ and ‘CMA’ within Highfield to denote processes relating to certain qualifications or assessment types, but ultimately, these affect your centre in the same way:
- after being awarded, your centre may receive certification for learners without an EQS engagement taking place first. However, EQS engagements will continue to be scheduled for your centre once you have achieved either status, so it’s important that you do hold onto learner portfolios until after these have happened.
- maintaining your centre’s status will be dependent on your centre maintaining the same standards for delivery, assessment and internal quality assurance, and being able to evidence this during review. Additionally, your centre’s status will only be maintained if you continue to claim for certification within a 12-month period.