Appeals Policy

1. What you can appeal

• a decision that a piece of evidence is not sufficient;
• a test or assessment result;
• a decision to void an attempt, including on invigilation grounds;
• a decision not to apply a reasonable adjustment or special consideration;
• a decision about malpractice or maladministration affecting you.

If your concern is about the service — how you were treated, facilities, administration — that is a complaint rather than an appeal. See our complaints procedure.

2. Grounds

An appeal needs a reason. Valid grounds include:

• the assessment was not carried out in line with the qualification requirements;
• the published procedure was not followed;
• evidence you submitted was not properly considered;
• an administrative or clerical error was made;
• the decision was not reasonable on the evidence available.

Simply disagreeing with an assessor’s professional judgement is not by itself a ground, unless you can point to something in the list above. We will tell you plainly if that is why an appeal cannot proceed, and we will explain what else you can do.

3. Stage 1: ask first

Within 10 working days of getting the decision, ask your assessor to explain it. Many appeals turn out to be a decision that was never explained clearly, and this is much faster than a formal appeal. Doing this does not use up your right to appeal formally.

4. Stage 2: formal appeal

Email hello@siteticket.co.uk with “Appeal” in the subject line, within 20 working days of the decision you are appealing. Tell us:

• your name and candidate or booking reference;
• which decision you are appealing, and its date;
• which of the grounds above applies, and why;
• anything you want considered that you think was missed.

If you miss the deadline for a good reason — illness, for instance — tell us what it was. We can accept a late appeal where the reason justifies it.

Your appeal is reviewed by someone independent of the original decision. The assessor who made it does not decide their own appeal.

• We acknowledge within 5 working days.
• We give a written outcome within 20 working days of that acknowledgement, or tell you why we need longer and give you a new date.
• The outcome explains what was reviewed and the reasoning, not just the result.

5. What an appeal can change

An upheld appeal can confirm the original decision, change it, or order the assessment to be carried out again by a different assessor. Where a problem looks like it could have affected other candidates, we are required to look at whether it did, and to put that right too — not only your own result.

There is no charge for appealing a decision made by this centre.

6. Stage 3: beyond the centre

If you disagree with our outcome, you can take the appeal to GQA Qualifications, the awarding organisation. GQA publishes its own appeals policy, deadline and any fee, so rather than quote figures that may be out of date we will send you GQA’s current policy and contact details with our outcome letter. Ask us for them at any time.

After the awarding organisation, the final stage is the qualification regulator — Ofqual in England, or the equivalent in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Regulators consider whether procedures were properly followed rather than re-marking your work.

7. Our records

We keep a record of every appeal, its outcome and any change we made as a result, and we make those records available to GQA and the regulator on request, as our centre approval requires. We also review them for patterns — repeated appeals on the same point usually mean something upstream needs fixing.

8. Who we are

This policy is operated by SiteTicket Ltd, trading as SiteTicket.