About self-review and attestation
Self-review
Self-review is an ongoing process to examine an organisation’s performance. It identifies strengths and weaknesses so the education provider can make actual, worthwhile improvements to their practice.
It is a flexible, scalable, fit-for-purpose process. What self-review looks like in practice will depend on the education provider, its learners, and its overarching education purposes.
Self-review is a core component of quality assurance policies and criteria across all types of education provider.
Attestation
Attestation is an annual declaration that providers make to NZQA. Providers attest that self-review of learner wellbeing and safety practices under the Code is taking place.
The attestation is made by completing an online attestation form signed by or authorised by the CEO, Principal, or Chair of the Governing Board.
On this page
Who is it for?
Under the Code, tertiary education providers and school signatories must complete self-reviews and provide annual self-review attestations to NZQA.
What you need to do
Self review
Your organisation will need to evaluate its performance by:
- gathering data about its learner wellbeing and safety practices, for example, its processes, learner support, and input from diverse learners or other stakeholders
- reflecting on the data to identify gaps, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities
- coming to conclusions about how effective it is
- using the reflections to make ongoing improvements to pastoral care of learners.
All education providers need to keep a record of their self-review, including the evidence. You should do this for your own quality assurance purposes, as well as for external evaluation and review (EER).
About external evaluation and review
For tertiary providers, your self-review report must be readily available, in an accessible format, to learners, staff and the general public including on your website.
Self-review attestation
Providers will be emailed a link to complete the online attestation form ahead of the due date.
Useful tools, resources and videos
Self-review guidelines
Guidance for tertiary education providers and school signatories on how to self-review
Go to the guidelines [PDF, 570KB]
Self-review tools
NZQA has developed Code self-review tools for tertiary education providers and school signatories
Find the tools
2023 Sample attestation form (opens in a new window)
This document is a sample of the questions included in the 2023 Code self-review attestation form
Download the form
Video transcript
Thank you for viewing this recording on preparing for the 2023 code self-review and attestation process for tertiary providers.
We hope that through this session you can better understand the self-review and attestation process and that you feel confident or at least prepared to undertake a thorough and meaningful self review.
So what is self-review and attestation?
Self-review is an ongoing process to examine an organisation's performance. It identifies strengths and areas for improvement so a provider can make actual, worthwhile improvements to practice.
It is a core component of quality assurance policies and criteria across all types of education providers.
Self-review is a flexible, scalable, fit for purpose process.
What self-review looks like in practice will depend on the provider, its learners and its overarching education purposes.
The product of your self-review will be a self-review report. A version of this report must be published in a format that is accessible to key stakeholders, including learners, on your website.
Attestation is an annual declaration that providers make to NZQA. Providers attest that a self-review of learner wellbeing and safety practices under the code has taken place.
The attestation is made by completing an online attestation form signed by or authorised by the CEO, principal or chair of the governing board or their delegate.
So how do we conduct a self review?
There's no prescribed format for self-review or self-review reporting. This will look different for different types of providers.
However, that does not mean anything goes. Organisation must determine the best, most relevant way to conduct a self review.
By the end of your review you should be able to answer a key question: How effectively are we doing what we need to be doing?
Using the following core components of an effective self review can help you in doing this. The core components of an effective self review are:
Prepare
Plan your self-review process.W hat will you be looking at? Will you go outcome by outcome, process by process? Will your review be guided by a gap analysis against the code and then a deeper dive into a particular outcome of the code such as learner voice or your whole of provider approach to learner, well-being and safety? Who do you need to engage with and at what level of engagement will be needed? What will your internal and public end products be?
Gather
Systemically collect relevant information from a diverse range of sources. Gathering data about practices, processes, learner support systems, and input from learners and other stakeholders would be helpful for this component. This component of self-review can often be the most challenging or demanding. When you are starting off, look at how you can capture and record this data more regularly for the next review cycle.
Next is makes sense.
Look closely at the information you have gathered to see what it tells you about your current practices. Critically, reflect on the data to identify strengths, gaps, and practices and areas for improvement. If you find no gaps or areas for improvement, then look at how you can replicate this across your organisation.
Last, decide.
Decide where you will focus energy and resources for ongoing improvement, developing an action plan to address any identified gaps or areas for further improvement. NZQA will be monitoring a sample of self review reports to see if these core components of an effective self-review are present and have been utilised.
You can also find more information about these core components in our developed toolkits and resources on the NZQA website for more information.
So why conduct self review and attestations?
Under the code, tertiary providers must complete an annual self-review and attestation. Aside from this obligation, performing regular for meaningful self-reviews allows providers to reflects on their performance and to engage with learners, stakeholders and whānau to ensure that their learner well-being and safety practices are effective, relevant and fit for purpose. Self review is about continuous improvement.
How do we conduct a self-review?
In addition to following the core components of conducting a meaningful self-review previously shared NZQA also expects the following requirements to be met:
Additional requirements that providers must meet when conducting their self reviews are:
Document
Record your completed review and and any supporting evidence that might be relevant or used by the organisation.
Publish
Providers must publish a version of their self-review report in an accessible format to learners and the public. This published version can be a summary of your larger internal self-review report, but it should still reflect the overall findings and themes of your internal self-review report and attestation.
You will submit an online self-review attestation form to NZQA by the deadline, confirming that your self-review against the code has been completed and that the requirements for self-review have been met.
It's important to note here that NZQA has no view on whether self-review should be a stand-alone or integrated process, only that this process takes place and meets the requirements noted.
This decision is one for your organisation to make what needs to be in a self-review report.
As has been stated throughout, your self-review should be conducted in a way that is meaningful to your organisation so long as it follows the principles of effective self-review.
Your self-review should allow you to understand how effective your learner well-being and safety practices are playing out and where, if any, improvements might be needed.
In saying this, there is some key information that is required in your self review report.
This includes:
- your organisation's definition of a complaint and aggregated complaints data for 2022
- your organisation's definition of a critical incident and aggregated critical incident data for 2022
- input from diverse learner populations
- and an action plan to address any identified gaps.
If you would like more information about what NZQA will be looking for with regards to your complaints and critical incidents data, please feel free to view our Complaints and Critical Incidents data reporting on the NZQA website.
Your published self-review report can be a summary of these findings, but it should be just as informative and reflective of what you found.
Review
You should consult with learners and other stakeholders to determine what would be best or the best way to prevent your findings.
What is NZQA looking for?
Self-review is a tool for your organisation to make meaning of the overall effectiveness of your learner, well-being, and safety system. This review should be of benefit to you and your organisation rather than to appease a quality assurance agency your self-review report should be an accurate reflection of key findings of your self-review.
It should show that a thorough outcomes based review has taken place and in line with a component of effective self review. This is one thing NZQA will be looking for.
NZQA may request a copy of your internal full self-review report, if different from your published report, for monitoring performance under the code, highlighting best practice across the sector and identifying areas for capability building within the sector, we hope to see providers taking a meaningful approach to self-review rather than just a standard tick-box compliant exercise.
How to submit a self-review attestation
Providers will submit a self-review and attestation via an online form by the attestation due date. The form takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete. These are additional resources for you all to help guide you in your self-review and attestation process.
The 1st is a self-review and attestation webpage which takes you to the main NZQA site and guides you to different resources and tools that could be helpful for your organisation.
The next is our guidelines for self review and this is where you can find the core components for effective self review and some examples of how these could play out. We also have self review tools that providers may choose to use. They consist of a gap analysis matrix, key evaluative questions against the code, and an action plan template.
Again, these are optional resources to help support you in approaching yourself review and not a requirement to use for your own self review report.
And last, we have a complaints and critical incidence guidance and as noted, this has information and best practice examples of collecting, reviewing and reporting on complaints and critical incidence data that your organisation has gathered throughout the year.
If you have any questions or need additional support, please feel free to contact NZQA's code team at code.enquiries@nzqa.govt.nz
We hope this information session was helpful and if you need more guidance or more support, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Ngā mihi.
Code self-review and attestation for tertiary providers
Helpful information about completing self-review for tertiary providers.
Video transcript
Slide 1: Talking points- Opening slide
Kia ora and thank you for viewing this 2023 Code self-review and attestation information session for school signatories.
We hope that through this session you can better understand the self-review and attestation process and that you feel confident, or at least prepared, to undertake a thorough, meaningful self-review.
Slide 2: Talking points- Self-review and attestation
So what is self-review and attestation?
Self-review is an ongoing process to examine an organisations performance. It identifies strengths and areas for improvement so a provider can make actual, worthwhile improvements to practice. It is a core component of quality assurance policies and criteria across all types of education providers.
Self-review is a flexible, scalable, fit for purpose process. What self-review looks like in practice will depend on the school, its learners, and its overarching education purposes.
The product of your self-review will be a self-review report. A version of this report must be retained by a school signatory in the event NZQA requests a copy of it. This could also be requested by other quality assurance agencies such as ERO.
Attestation is an annual declaration that schools make to NZQA. Schools attest that a self-review of learner wellbeing and safety practices under the Code has taken place.
The attestation is made by completing an online attestation form signed by or authorised by the principal or their delegate.
Slide 3: Talking points- Why conduct self-review and attestations?
Under the Code, school signatories must complete an annual self-review and attestation.
Aside from this obligation, performing regular, meaningful self-reviews allows schools to reflect on their performance, and to engage with learners, stakeholders and whanau, to ensure that their learner wellbeing and safety practices are effective, relevant and fit-for-purpose.
Self-review is more than a compliance tick box, its about continuous improvement!
Slide 4: Talking Points- How do we conduct a self-review?
There is no prescribed format for self-review or self-review reporting. This will look different for different schools. However, that does not mean ‘anything goes.’
Your organisation must determine the best, most relevant way to conduct a self-review. School signatories will focus on reviewing practices against outcomes 13-22 of the Code as they relate to school learners.
By the end of your review, you should be able to answer a key question: “how effectively are we doing what we need to be doing?” Using and following the core components of an effective self-review can help you in doing this.
The core components of an effective self-review are:
• Prepare: plan your self-review process. What will you be looking at? Will you go outcome by outcome, process by process? Will your review be guided by a gap analysis against the Code and then a deeper dive into a particular aspect of the Code such as homestays or monitoring education agents? Who do you need to engage with and what level of engagement will be needed?;
• Gather: systemically collect relevant info from a diverse range of sources. Gathering data about practices, processes, learner support, and input from learners and other stakeholders, such as families and agents. would be helpful for this component. This component of self-review can often be the most challenging or demanding when you are starting off. Look at how you can capture and record this data more regularly for the next review cycle;
• Make sense: look closely at the info you have gathered to see what it tells you about your current practices. Critically reflect on the data to identify strengths, gaps in practices, and areas for improvement. If you find no gaps or areas for improvement, then look at how can you replicate this across your organisation?;
• Decide: decide where you will focus energy and resources for ongoing improvement. Develop an action plan to address any identified gaps or areas of improvement.
Note: NZQA will be monitoring a sample of self-review reports, including from schools, to see if these core components of an effective self-review are present and have been utilised.
Slide 5: Talking points- What is NZQA looking for?
Self-review is a tool for your school to make meaning of the overall effectiveness of your learner wellbeing and safety system. This review should be of benefit to you/your school rather than to appease a quality assurance agency.
Your self-review report should be an accurate reflection of key findings of your self-review. It should show that a thorough, outcomes-based review has taken place and in line with the components of effective self-review. This is one thing NZQA will be looking for.
NZQA may request a copy of your internal self-review report for monitoring performance under the Code, highlighting best practice across the sector, and identifying areas for capability building within the sector.
Note: We hope to see providers taking a meaningful approach to self-review, rather than just a standard tick box compliance exercise.
Slide 6: Talking points- How to submit a self-review attestation?
Providers will submit a self-review attestation via an online form by the attestation due date. The form takes appx. 10-15 minutes to complete.
The link to the self-review attestation form will be sent to the principal of the school or their delegate. If the authority has been delegated to another staff member, please inform NZQA as soon as possible by emailing code.enquiries@nzqa.govt.nz. Please be sure to check your spam inbox for the link! Note that these links cannot be forwarded.
For 2023, the self-review attestation due date for school signatories is 1 December 2023.
Slide 7: Talking points- What happens if we don’t complete a self-review?
Completion of an annual self-review and submission of a self-review attestation are requirements of the Code.
As you are a Code signatory, you must conduct a self-review and attestation to maintain signatory status and continue to enrol international learners. If you have not enrolled international learners, but intend to in the future, you still need to conduct a self-review and attestation.
NZQA may follow-up with a provider in a range of ways if there are issues or missing information in your self-review attestation.
Note: if there are any issues, or there is a part of the self-review that you are unsure of, please connect with us as soon as you can. We can work to clarify requirements or support you in trying to undertake a self-review that is applicable and relevant to your school.
Slide 8: Talking Points- Self-review resources
Here are several resources to support you in guiding your self-review. You can scan the QR code with your phone or mobile device’s camera to access the links.
First, we have a link to the NZQA self-review and attestation website. Here you can find information specific to school signatories on the self-review attestation process.
Next is the Code self-review guidelines document. You can find information on conducting your Code self-review and more details on the core components of effective self-review.
Last is a link to the Code self review toolkits for school signatories. The toolkit consists of a gap analysis matrix, key evaluative questions, and an action plan template. Schools many elect to use these resources and templates to support them in conducting their own self-review.
Slide 9: Talking Points- Closing slide
Thank you for taking the time to view this recording.
If you have any questions or need support, please contact the Code team by emailing code.enquiries@govt.nz.
Thank you.
Code self-review and attestation for school signatories
Helpful information about completing self-review for school signatories.
The Code attestation due dates
We have taken a tailored approach for Code attestation due dates for each sub-sector, based on feedback. The upcoming Code attestation due dates are as follows:
| Sub-sector | Attestation due date |
|---|---|
| Wānanga | 1 November 2023 |
| Private Training Establishments | 1 November 2023 |
| Code Signatory Schools | 1 December 2023 |
| Te Pūkenga | 31 May 2023 |
| Universities | Managed through a delegation to Universities New Zealand |
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