Access and participation plan variation requests

A variation of an access and participation plan will be subject to the same assessment, approval and review process as a whole plan and can take up to 12 weeks to complete.

1. Once a provider has submitted a variation request, we'll check that we have all the required information to be able to carry out an assessment.
2. An OfS assessor will undertake an assessment of the variation request and may contact the provider with queries throughout this process.
3. Following the assessment, the OfS assessor will make a recommendation to the OfS's Director for Fair Access and Participation who will consider the variation and make an approval decision.
4. The provider will be notified of the decision.
5. If the variation is approved, we will share the approved plan with the provider which must then publish this version alongside a plan summary on its website. The revised full plan will also be published on the OfS website.
6. If the variation is not approved, the provider can make representations and request a review of the decision. The process for this is set out in Regulatory notice 1.