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ESB granted permission for Judicial Review

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14 February 2011

ESB's application for Judicial review: At a Permission hearing 10 February 2011, the judge gave permission for the Judicial Review to go ahead, within 6 weeks. This concerns changes made last April to the rules for naturalisation and Indefinite Leave to Remain, such that private provider centres must be accredited by one of the four Tier 4 Accreditation Bodies for ESOL qualifications taken at these centres to be valid. This affects a considerable number of centres all over the country, 50+ for ESB alone, with thousands of individuals affected. Privately funded centres are now even more important since financial cuts have dramatically reduced ESOL provision in publicly funded colleges. Tier 4 inspection criteria are manifestly unsuitable for community ESOL provision; the Accreditation Bodies were unaware that they had been allocated the new responsibility and have not been given guidance or criteria to operate in this new environment or to inspect in any different way. As a result only 11 centres over the intervening 10 months have managed to gain the required accreditation. ESB remains keen to work with UKBA and the Accreditation bodies to ensure effective quality monitoring security in this area, while enabling fair access to the necessary qualifications for people who wish to integrate fully in our society through citizenship. Link to more details http://www.natecla.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=497

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