Catalogue description Records of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications and Successors

The National Council for Vocational Qualifications was set up in 1986 as a charitable trust and company. It did not appear to have formal terms of reference but produced a 'mission statement' - to develop the system of vocational qualifications in the United Kingdom. The Council acted as the accreditation body for vocational qualifications; a sub-committee of the main Council advised on particular cases. The Council was also advised by the Chairman's Liaison Group, which was the point of contact with outside organisations and government departments.

The National Council for Vocational Qualifications was abolished in October 1997 and its functions merged with those of the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority to form the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

The QCA was established under the Education Act 1997 which granted additional powers and duties including the right to regulate all external qualifications in England. From April 2004 to December 2008, the National Assessment Agency (NAA) was created as a subsidiary unit of the QCA to take over the role of delivery and administration of National Curriculum assessments.

In September 2007 the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families announced that the QCA regulatory functions would become statutorily independent (as Ofqual), and that the remaining functions of the QCA would be established as the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) as an executive non-departmental public body of the DCSF, operated by the legal entity QCA. In November 2009 the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill passed successfully through Parliament and received Royal Assent; this legislation became an Act of Parliament on 12 November 2009, and legally established the QCDA to carry out its new role as a modern and collaborative development agency to develop the curriculum, improve and deliver assessments, and review and reform qualifications, as well as creating Ofqual as an independent regulatory organisation.

In May 2010 the Government announced its intention to close the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) as part of its wider education reforms. The agency closed in March 2012 and has been replaced in function by the new Standards and Testing Agency.