The Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) has decided not to pursue a judicial review over the introduction of T levels.

The news comes two weeks after Tes revealed that the FAB had formally written a pre-action protocol letter - the first stage of a legal challenge - to the Department for Education and the Institute for Apprenticeships.

The FAB outlined concerns over the timetable for the first wave of the procurement process, the decision to adopt a single awarding body for each qualification and other aspects of T-level implementation. It called into question whether the government has acted lawfully in its plans for introducing T levels.

T levels: ‘significant concessions’

But, following a meeting of the FAB board yesterday, the federation has decided not to claim for judicial review, in the light of “significant concessions” in the draft invitation to tender documentation.

Education secretary Damian Hinds said awarding bodies will be key to upholding the quality of our reforms to technical qualifications.

He added: “I welcome this decision and commitment from the FAB to support T levels and work with the government on their development.

“With a rapidly changing world and a big productivity challenge, we have a pressing need to raise our game on technical education. I’ve been clear that it needs to be a shared endeavour across the world of education, government and business, and we will continue to have constructive discussions with the awarding body sector to make technical education better for the sake of the next generation.”

‘Specific concerns’ remain

Chair of the FAB board Paul Eeles said: “On balance, while the legal grounds for judicial review were strong and the government would have had a very tough case to argue, the FAB board does not believe that issuing a claim in the High Court at this time is the most optimal way of settling our key concerns, with government, about this flagship policy.”

Mr Eeles added: “We have decided to take up the Department for Education’s offer to sit down with officials and, in due course, reset the relationship between government ministers and the awarding industry.

“There are a number of specific concerns we will be continuing to work through on AOs’ behalf; including, how we minimise any potentially detrimental impact on learners of a new technical qualification that is rushed. Similarly, we need to work through the issue of consortia arrangements as this is one obvious way to mitigate the risks of a single provider model/single point of failure model in the longer term.” 

In response to FAB’s moves towards legal action, education secretary Damian Hinds had said he was “deeply disappointed” over the “unnecessary” move. Days later, apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton told Tes she was “a bit disappointed”.