Yes, it’s that time of year again! Time to crack out the tinsel, fire up ‘Love Actually’ on Netflix and – oh, go on then – indulge in just one more mince pie.

But before Santa gets Rudolph and Co ready, we wanted to drop you a line to let you know about our Christmas and New Year operating hours, so you can get everything boxed off well ahead of the festivities.

Please be sure to carefully review the below information and if you have any questions, get in touch with your account manager, who’ll be happy to provide further guidance.

Christmas Closure

We’ll be closing for Christmas at the end of the day (5pm) on Wednesday 23rd December 2020, and re-opening again at 8.30am on Monday 4th January 2021. No staff will be working between these dates.

End-Point Assessment

With these dates in mind, the EPA team will not be available to access their emails during this period, and Gateways and Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Exams will not be approved or booked.

All SLA’s referring to ‘working days’ will therefore pause at 5pm on Wednesday 23rd December 2020 and resume at 8.30am on Monday 4th January 2021. This will affect the following SLA’s:

  • Assessor Allocations – All Apprentices that wish to be allocated an Assessor before the Christmas break must be submitted and approved through Gateway by no later than Monday 21st December.
  • EPA Results – Any assessments completed after Wednesday 9th December may not receive results until January. For example, an assessment completed after Wednesday 9th December 2020 may not receive their results until the tenth working day, which would be Monday 4th January 2021.

If you have any questions in regards to any of the above please get in touch with the EPA team by emailing epa@tquk.org or calling 03333 583 344.

Assessment Bookings

Please note the below deadline dates for Assessment bookings:

  • The last day to book a paper-based Healthcare Assistant Practitioner exam to guarantee results before Christmas is Wednesday 9th December.
  • The last day to book an online exam to guarantee results before Christmas is Monday 14th December.
  • The last day that a paper-based Healthcare Assistant Practitioner exam can be sat to guarantee results before Christmas is Wednesday 16th December.
  • The last day that an online exam can be sat to guarantee results before Christmas is Monday 21st December.
  • Invigilation documents and declarations need to be submitted on the same day as the exam to ensure that there are no delays.
  • Regulated exams will be available to sit until Tuesday 22nd December 2020 and will start again on Monday 4th January 2021.
  • While the office is closed, we will be unable to support with any booked exams.

Exams will be available to sit until Tuesday 22nd December 2020. They will start again on Tuesday 5th January 2021, with the first exams being sent out on Monday 4th January 2021.

Quality Assurance

We’ll be requesting sampling up until 5pm on Friday 18th December. The final sampling for allocation before we shut for Christmas must be received by Monday 21st December.

The days between Wednesday 23rd December 2020 and Monday 4th January 2021 will not be included in timescales for completing the following:

  • Sampling
  • Complaints
  • Centre recognition
  • Qualification approval
  • Direct Claims Status transfers
  • Reasonable Adjustments/Special Considerations requests

If you have any questions in regards to any of the above please get in touch with the Quality team by emailing quality@tquk.org or calling 03333 583 344.

Appeals

When calculating the completion time for an appeal, Thursday 24th December and the days between Tuesday 29th December and Thursday 31st December (inclusive) do not count as working days.

If you have any questions in regards to any of the above dates and times please get in touch with the Compliance team by emailing compliance@tquk.org or calling 03333 583 344.

Certifications

Our final day for releasing certificates is Wednesday 23rd December 2020. Normal service resumes on Monday 4th January 2021.

If you have any questions in regards to the above dates and times please get in touch with the Operations Team by emailing account.managers@tquk.org or calling 03333 583 344.

Manuals and Assessment Records

The final day to guarantee shipping of Manuals or Assessment Records before Christmas is Thursday 17th December 2020. Orders made on this date will be shipped on Friday 18th December 2020.

Normal shipping will resume the week commencing Monday 4th January 2021.

We wish you all a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

If you have any questions about any of these dates, please drop your account manager a line and they’ll be able to help out.