FOI release

FOI2021/00229: Assessment Policies

This request was refused in part, so we didn't provide some of the information the requester asked for. This may include information where we can neither confirm nor deny that we hold it.

Case reference FOI2021/00229

Published 7 July 2021

Request

Response Received: 28 April 2021

Please could you provide the following information with regards to assessment policies and standards for the recent loan competitions, specifically the Innovation Continuity Loans: Strand 1, 2, and 3 November 2020.

1.Strand 1 - Continuation of a live project

2.Strand 2 - Follow on from a recently completed Innovate UK project

3.Strand 3 - Continuation, completion or follow on of a project not supported by Innovate UK

Part 1 - Guidance and Marking Scheme

Can you please provide:

- What guidance assessors were provided with to assess applicants and/or IUK's expectations how feedback should be provided to applicants.

- The scoring criteria assessors (marking scheme or its equivalent) used to gauge how assessor's scored questions.

Part 2 - Assessment Policies and Standards

Specifically, would you please confirm the current policy on how Innovate UK prepares assessors, and the process, for new competitions, and how assessor standards are assessed continuously to ensure accurate and quality assessments for applicants? My particular concern is not about opinions that assessors form that are different from one another, but situations where factual and numerical information, in particular, is missed by one or more assessors, where the other assessors have clearly read the same information, thus hindering the applicant's scores. Observing numerical information, when stated, is imperative as these items are typically required by the guidance Innovate UK publishes on competitions for applicants to provide/adhere to.

To support the public interest in understanding Assessment Policies and Standards, could you please provide additional information from the below:

- What was the average number of applications an individual assessor was likely to receive from the Innovation Continuity Loans Strands 1, 2, and 3 competitions?

- How many assessors were used for Strand 1, Strand 2, and Strand 3?

- What was the average time Innovate UK allocated/allowed per application assessment in the context of the Innovate Continuity Loans for Part A?

- What was the average time assessors took to complete the individual applicant assessment process? Does this vary greatly compared to the minimum and maximum?

- In what way do Innovate UK track the performance of their allocated assessors to ensure quality assessing is carried out? Is this held to any standard in retrospect, i.e., where assessors peer-review an unknown peer to ensure all criteria are captured, or additionally, can you please provide a policy on standards of assessing? For example, are there feedback mechanisms to improve IUK processes from assessor points of view and mechanisms for IUK to provide feedback to assessors on standards/quality of assessment compared to the marking scheme, guidance, or where information has clearly been missed by the assessor?

- Is training provided, or other reference material provided, in how to assess applications?

- What was the average period (in working days) between when assessors received applications to assess, and when were assessments required to be completed? Were there particular calendar dates for assessors to adhere to?

- If competitions are oversubscribed how does Innovate UK manage the additional load, whilst ensuring assessors are not overburdened? Is there a maximum number of applicants any one assessor is allocated by Innovate UK?

- Is there any feedback from assessors where concerns have been raised about not having enough time to assess applicants? What proportion of the assessors is this, and what proportion of applicants is this compared to the total submitted (which are being assessed)?

- Finally, what are the monitoring procedures taken to ensure compliance and accurate assessments within these standards/policies?

In all information requested it would be much appreciated if you could, alongside your answers, direct me to the specific area of text where such policy is mentioned in any handbook or policy document (complete with issue date, and any possible plans for change/past changes to the document or policy within the next/last 12 months).

Response

Response Sent: 27 May 2021

Full details of this response are provided in the attached documents.

Documents

• FOI2021_00229 Case study results for Assessor Induction Redacted.pdf (420.0 KB)
• FOI2021_00229 IFS Assessor Briefing Loans strand 3 Jan2021 v2 Redacted.pdf (4.4 MB)
• FOI2021_00229 IFS Assessor Induction March 2021 Redacted.pdf (3.3 MB)
• FOI2021_00229 Introduction to Innovate UK and UKRI.pdf (4.7 MB)
• FOI2021_00229 The Innovate UK Assessment Process - for assessors.pdf (107.8 KB)
• FOI_Response_Letter_FOI2021_00229_Redacted.pdf (348.8 KB)

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