SBP End-Point Assessment Level 4

Best Practice Network is an Ofqual regulated, independent End Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) for the assessment of the School Business Professional Level 4 Apprenticeship.

Best Practice Network were one of the first two organisations to become an EPAO for the School Business Professional (SBP) Level 4 Standard in early 2019 and works with training providers, employers and apprentices on a national basis.

"We all feel you have made what could have been a very stressful process, almost (nobody likes tests) anxiety-free, through good organisation and communication. "
Training Provider

As an Ofqual regulated EPAO, Best Practice Network is approved to deliver end-point assessments (EPA) for the School Business Professional Level 4 apprenticeship. While we specialise as an independent, separate body to apprenticeship training providers, we have considerable experience and knowledge of the sector as a provider of the Diploma for School Business Managers qualifications at levels 4 and 5.

What is end-point assessment (EPA)?

End-point assessment (EPA) is a vital part of any apprenticeship.

The DfE is developing standards to raise the quality of apprenticeships by responding to the needs of employers, who know what they want from their employees. EPA is the assessment process for the new apprenticeship standards in England.

The focus is now on the outcome of an apprenticeship and apprentices have to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and behaviours that employers have identified they need.

The purpose of the EPA is to test that an apprentice is fully capable of doing their job before they receive their apprenticeship certificate. It also helps to demonstrate that what an apprentice has learned can be applied in the real world.

Government legislation states that EPA must be delivered by a separate body to the employer and training provider.

Employers should choose an appropriate End-point Assessment Organisation and agree on the price of EPA at the beginning of the apprenticeship journey.

The SBP Apprenticeship Assessment Offer

For the School Business Professional Apprenticeship, we offer a national, fully independent and dedicated assessment service; we are not involved in any way in the training of SBP professionals and as such can guarantee a service fully independent of the training provider.

Our guidance to employers and training providers with full contact details can be found here.

We invite apprentices, employers and training organisations to contact us for more details and to receive regular updates of what we can offer, where and when.

 

If you would like to discuss any aspect of our end-point assessment services, our team will be happy to help and can be contacted via:

Tel: 0117 920 9200

Email: epa@bestpracticenet.co.uk

Our team

The role of an end-point assessor is to provide independent, fair, reliable, and consistent assessment services. Our assessors are required to use assessment experience with robust industry knowledge to form judgements and grading decisions.

Our credibility as an organisation is driven by our robust recruitment of highly credible personnel for School Business Professional related programmes, qualifications and apprenticeships, to ensure they have the appropriate qualifications, years of industry experience in the appropriate roles and membership of professional bodies. 

Our core team includes:

 Val Andrew, Programme Manager - fellow of ISBL, former ASCL Business Leadership Specialist, highly experienced assessor, moderator of  SBM qualifications and recipient of the 2018 ISBL CEO award for exceptional contributions to the profession






 Dean Boyce, Director of CPD and Accreditation – tutor, assessor and moderator of CSBM/DSBM since 2008

Why choose us?

Best Practice Network is the first company to become an End-Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) for the School Business Professional (SBP) Level 4 Standard.  

Hundreds of SBP apprentices have already signed up with us - the end-point assessment of over 100 candidates for SBP Level 4 is underway, with five fully assessed candidates having achieved the SBP Level 4 standard in early 2020.

As a registered EPAO, Best Practice Network is approved to deliver end-point assessments (EPA) for the School Business Professional Level 4 apprenticeship. While we specialise as an independent, separate body to apprenticeship training providers, we have considerable experience and knowledge of the sector as a provider of the Diploma for School Business Leaders qualification at levels 4 and 5.

Best Practice Network, supporting Outstanding Leaders Partnership, recently received the award for ‘Education Company of the Year’ at the 2020 Bett Awards. The judges said, “The external DfE Quality review demonstrates clearly that (Best Practice Network) is providing high-quality programmes to schools and their online and face-to-face training combination is impressive”.

‘Education Company of the Year’ 

About us

Best Practice Network is one of the UK’s largest providers of training, development, and support for education professionals with 97% of our candidates recommending us to a colleague.

We work in close partnership with practising education professionals to develop and deliver high-quality CPD,  qualifications and assessments that help school leaders, early years practitioners, business managers, support staff and SENCOs be the best they can be and transform the lives of children and young people. Learn more about the programmes we offer.

End-point Assessment Policies

To support employer, apprentice and training provider understanding of how we intend to operate our end-point assessment service, we are publishing our interim EPAO policies as shown below. All policies will be reviewed and updated, if necessary, prior to the delivery of our full assessment service.

EPAO Appeals Policy

EPAO Complaints Handling Policy

EPAO Conflict of Interest Policy

EPAO Equality and Diversity Policy

EPAO Fair Access Policy

EPAO Malpractice and Maladministration Policy

EPAO Reasonable Adjustments Policy