Any established partner or any organisation who aspires to become a partner is eligible to make an enquiry or request advice on any aspect of our service at any time. We have an expert and helpful team in place, and we will acknowledge all enquiries within three working days of receipt. Where a technical response is needed, we follow up on the acknowledgement with a detailed response within ten working days. Please note that we are not obliged to disclose information if to do so would breach a duty of confidentiality or any other legal duty

We collaborate with industry-leading organisations to develop, deliver and award relevant education programmes and industry solutions in active leisure, learning and wellbeing. 

We work with established organisations with status such as leading training providers, influential employers, national governing bodies of sport, professional or membership bodies. We also initiate partnerships with emerging organisations in order to drive innovation through unique solutions to the benefit of our industry.

We adopt an excellence philosophy and abide by The Transcend Code of Ethical Practice at all times. We have the expectation that our partners adopt the same philosophy and commit to our code. We believe in mutual respect, integrity, transparency and shared industry vision. 

We guide our collaborations to secure the Golden Thread in the development and ongoing review of our products. We define this as securing the requirements of validity, reliability, comparability, manageability, minimising of bias and the optimum balance between these requirements across the breadth of our offer. 

We only enter into partnerships with those that are willing to support us in complying with our regulatory conditions. Similarly, we require that our partners strive to ensure industry standards are maintained. We expect our partners to promote and champion regulated provision whilst also engaging in the need to offer self-determined learning experiences and recognition schemes for the mutual benefit of learners and industry. 

We define our partners as best in class and collaborate to drive participation, performance and to promote the professionalisation of our industry.

Collaborating with us on the development and ongoing review of products offers a range of benefits: 

• Access to product royalties
• Access to regulated product support and solutions
• Access to eLearning product support and solutions
• Access to apprenticeship packages and solutions
• Access to recognition scheme support and solutions
• Ability to increase brand recognition
• Ability to influence and impact positively on industry
• Complimentary product development and review
• Complimentary education data and trends
• Complimentary benchmarking intel
• Complimentary market observations and trends
• Complimentary social research and results
• Complimentary quarterly product performance reports
• Complimentary quarterly product compliance reports
• Complimentary quarterly product risk reports

Proposals are defined as the submission of an idea for product development. We only develop products with leading industry organisations and where there is demand for the product.

Our product proposal process is fair, unbiased and systematic. To ensure all of our products are fit for purpose and accessible our process is the same for those who aspire to offer regulated or unregulated solutions.

The proposal is subject to assessment protocol and the product viability checks can take up to 12 weeks from start to finish. The timescale is dependent upon your ability to provide evidence in support of our product proposal criteria. The proposal may be declined at any point during the process and where this is the case, we will justify decisions. Where the proposal assessment is positive, we will collaborate to market analysis, social research and to establish the business case. All results are subject to approval by the Transcend Governing Body for independence purposes.

It is very important that you do not advertise the partnership and any associated products until we have formalised a legal and binding partnership agreement. Once an agreement is in place we collaborate to develop and continuously review the product for the duration of its lifecycle.

To ensure our products are fit for purpose and accessible our system is designed to enable us to secure the requirements of validity, reliability, manageability, comparability, minimising of bias. To secure these requirements we must ensure an optimum balance where there is a conflict between these requirements. We call this our Golden Thread.

Our process for the development and ongoing review of each product is systematic. All activities are undertaken in collaboration with the product partner and an equality expert. All products are then subject to wider industry consultation. This all supports validity and accessibility.

Our products are subject to continuous review to ensure they remain fit for purpose. We also believe partnership reviews are critical to our ongoing success. We therefore conduct an annual performance review of each partnership. This involves a 360 evaluation in which both parties and other relevant stakeholders are asked to contribute.

A review of the ethical position of the partnership and achievement of the work program is conducted. In conducting the review, we will solicit feedback from you on the burden of our arrangements and will reduce any such burden, where possible. The results of the performance review will determine the plans for the partnership for the next annual cycle.

Every product is subject to ongoing review and your feedback and that of your licensed workforce is critical to ensuring ongoing validity and accessibility. All positive indicators are collated for approval at the monthly Product Validation Committee. Any negative indicators will be subject to immediate intel validation, investigation and corrective action where required.

Our policy, processes, systems and service levels are subject to ongoing and annual review. Your satisfaction is critical to our success and we are grateful for your engagement. All positive indicators will be collated and published annually. Any negative indicators will be subject to immediate intel validation, investigation and corrective action where required.

A conflict of interest is a situation in which an organisation or individual has competing interests or loyalties. In the case of an individual, the conflict of interest could compromise or appear to compromise their decisions if it is not properly managed. A conflict of interest may be perceived or actual. A perceived conflict of interest is a situation which a reasonable person would consider is likely to compromise their objectivity. An actual conflict of interest occurs where a reasonable person would consider that a situation has occurred, and an individual’s objectivity has been compromised and gives risk to adverse effects. In both cases, the conflict must be identified to enable us to evaluate the scale of the threat and to be able to prevent, mitigate or manage the associated risks.

Partner conflicts of interest can cause your organisation or your workforce to act out of interests that are divergent from those of our awarding organisation and our stakeholders. Partners and their workforce should avoid any behaviour or choices that could potentially represent a conflict of interest. Our senior officers have identified the following acts as potential partner organisation or workforce conflicts of interest which could have an adverse effect. You and your workforce should not:

• engage in activities with a competitor or that will bring direct or indirect profit to a competing awarding organisation without prior agreement
• engage in activities that lead to the acquisition of competitor awarding organisation or stock share
• engage in activities that use their partnership or connections obtained through the awarding organisation to their organisational or personal advantage
• engage in product development or delivery activities which give rise to advantage for a family member or close relative
• engage in product development or delivery decisions where objectivity or confidentiality is compromised
• influence product development or delivery decisions for personal or organisational gain or gratification
• influence product development or delivery decisions that compromise our legality (taking bribes or bribing others)
• influence product development or delivery decisions that compromise our regulated status and compliance with the Ofqual General Conditions of Recognition

The above list is not exhaustive and serves as an indicator only. It is your responsibility and that of your workforce to ensure that you are familiar with our policy and the requirement to disclose any activity that has the potential to represent a conflict of interest. As a trusted partner we expect that you disclose any conflicts associated with your organisation and your workforce:

• prior to the signing of the partner agreement
• at any point in the annual cycle where circumstances change which might impact on your integrity
• on an annual basis at our request to proactively remind you of your obligations

Our expert team is on hand to help you to identify conflicts of interest, put controls in place and to maintain and monitor our register.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and vulnerable people. We operate in accordance with Working Together to Safeguard Children (DfES, 2017), the Children Act (2004) and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (2006) and expect the same from our partners. Safeguarding is considered paramount and serves to protect the wider society. We adopt a child and vulnerable person centred and coordinated approach to safeguarding. This is underpinned by two key principles which are considered in every aspect of the development, delivery and awarding of our products due to the nature of our industry:

• safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility: for services to be effective each professional and organisation should play their full part
• a child and vulnerable person-centred approach: for services to be effective they should be based on a clear understanding of the needs and views of children and vulnerable groups

Our partners are champions for these safeguarding principles and actively work with us to ensure safeguards are embedded within our processes, products and services. If you identify a safeguarding concern in the development, delivery or awarding of any of our products please report this to us immediately. We will validate the intel, investigate the situation and engage with the relevant authorities as appropriate. It is critical that this is done in a confidential manner to protect all those involved. We will acknowledge reports within one day of receipt, confirming timescales for investigation and communications with relevant authorities.

We are committed to ethical practice and comply with all relevant legislation and regulation. Failure to abide with law, regulation and our policy is considered as non-compliance; categorised as malpractice or maladministration dependent upon the circumstances. Our partners are required to operate in accordance with formal, written and signed partnership agreements. These agreements clearly set out the terms of their role and responsibilities in the development and ongoing review of products. The term partner also refers to the staff and licenced workforce that some of our partners deploy in the development, and delivery of our products.

Partner violations of our protocol is unacceptable. Any reports of non-compliance will result in investigation and/or risk assessment which serves to identify whether malpractice or maladministration has occurred and will enable corrective action to be taken.

We also expect that all partners and any other third party disclose any suspicions of malpractice and maladministration to us as soon as this is detected. We expect that the partner will work with us to collect evidence and to enable us to make appropriate decisions and take action proportionate to the offence.

Reports of malpractice against our partners and their licenced workforce must be reported. Any related evidence should be sent via email. The matter will then be referred to the Transcend Strategic Management Committee to manage the investigation in accordance with the Transcend Investigations Policy. All those involved will be informed of the situation within five working days of receipt of any allegation with timescales for investigations. Updates or outcomes will be reported every 25 working days. We will collate all outcomes and the final investigation report will be checked and challenged by the Transcend Strategic Management Committee. Recommendations will made to the Transcend Governing Body for final decision making and corrective action to be confirmed where necessary.

In all cases, we will take action proportionate to the offence and notify relevant authorities as appropriate.

We partner with leading industry organisations in the development and review of our products. We expect the highest levels of integrity and ethical practice. Confirmed malpractice or maladministration on the part of our partners will lead to penalties proportionate to the offence. Partners are required to comply with their legal agreement and all legislation and regulation. We utilise our penalties matrix with the view to preventing, mitigating or managing any adverse effects. Our matrix provides an indication as to the level of penalty that will be applied in association with the gravity of the situation and demonstrates a stepping stone approach. However, we will not hesitate to take action proportionate to the offence and associated adverse effects at any level of penalty where we are required to do so to protect our learners and our integrity.

The Matrix can be accessed in the Transcend Penalties and Sanctions Policy