Ofsted Workshop

Monday 31st March 2014

Paula Heaney, Senior HMI

Key points:

  • Key messages from the annual report
  • Key aspects that are looked at during inspection
  • Looking at what has been published since 2013
  • Update on improvement work

Chief inspectors key messages

  • Engage with employers (tapping into and knowing about skills shortages)
  • What are provider doing to support work experience and experience of work – with employers they don’t particularly know (not using realistic work environments)
  • Traineeships
  • Including English & Maths
  • Whether Apprenticeships are meeting the needs of business

Spotlight on the East of England

(insert link to the Ofsted 12/13 East of England Regional Report)

  • Signs of improvements
  • Increase if good/outstanding College
  • Issues in Independent Learning Providers (although this has improved since the report was issued, 64% of ILPs are good or better at August 2013)

Think about these messages

  • What are you doing to engage employers?
  • Support English & Maths?
  • Ensure high quality outcomes for Apprenticeships?
  • How can you work together with other providers to improve?
  • How does your Governance, Leadership & Management impact on learners?

Since September 2013 in the East of England

  • 9 inspections of Colleges to date with published reports (no grade 1s, but no grade 4s)
  • 11 inspections of ILPs to date with 7 published reports (no grade 1s, but no grade 4s)

East of England, areas for improvement

  • Use of learner information to plan effective learning
  • Teaching, learning & assessment strategies to meet individual needs (you know what the learner needs are and how to cater for them) to improve progress
  • Teaching of English & Maths
  • Monitoring of learners progress – do you know where they are at every stage? Do the leaders and managers know? Do the Governors and trustees?
  • Development of employability skills – teaching beyond the assessment / classroom. How are you ensuring that the experience your learners have is relevant and useful to employment.
  • Insufficiently self-critical self assessment. Some are too description heavy, need to be concise, sharp and focussed on what’s good and what isn’t
  • Manager’s action not having sufficient impact

There are three outstanding providers and 7 Colleges (new inspection regime) to date.
Suggest you look at their reports:

  • Hawk Management UK Ltd
  • QA Limited
  • Kirklees Council Adult & Community Learning

Update on data

  • BI-06- this stands for Before Inspection (BI)
  • In 2 parts, Section A and Section B
  • You are not graded on the provision of your BI-06 but it will inform the inspection team of the provision in the areas being inspected
  • It’s a list of the main courses, success/retention/achievement, current learner numbers etc.
  • Lead inspector will get each subject inspector to tell them what the QSR data says. If it’s not published yet then inspectors will use your data
  • QSR tables will be used, although this doesn’t show ‘high grade’ data (e.g. Btecs / GCSEs) so you will be asked to provide this
  • Apprenticeship tables show a summary table at Tier 1 level
  • Traineeships (10 or more on programme) will be graded
  • Subcontractors outcomes, for contracted out provision, will be looked at

What’s new?

  • A data dashboard for governors will be launched in the summer term 2014
  • It will show where you are nationally in quintiles (5ths) compared nationally

Question:Will ILPs who don’t yet have a governance structure in place have access to the dashboard?

  • There is new guidance (issued in Feb 2014) which complements the schools guidance about teaching, learning & assessment

Teaching, learning & assessment

  • Everything focuses on teaching, learning & assessment
  • How does technology support teaching & learning? Particularly for remote learners or those mainly learning on-the-job?
  • English & Maths is emerging as a theme. Providers need to think about how quickly learners can achieve a particular level, and how quickly are they able to move onto the next? Providers need to think about the structure of their programme
  • What training do you have in place for observers?
  • Is your lesson observation scheme intrinsically linked to appraisal and performance management?
  • Feedback from learners needs to be rigorous – not just a general survey
  • Development of technical skills alongside personal development e.g. communication / team work should go hand in hand
  • How are learners (particularly adult learners) being stretched and challenged beyond their framework?
  • Employers know how to support Apprentices
  • How rapidly can learners move forward in English & Maths?
  • How can you illustrate that you are supporting careers guidance?
  • What are you doing to collect data on the impact of what you’re doing? Where do your learners go? How do you bring them back in to inspire others?

Leadership & Management

  • Get the culture right – high expectations, high aspirations, no fear of innovation, no excuses or blame
  • Know what to measure and how to measure it
  • Triangulate up learner performance information with teaching, learning & assessment
  • Use data – a lot. If it’s complicated, make it simple
  • How regularly are people looking at the data?
  • Is there consistency across the organisation? Particularly an issue with sub-contractors. You cannot assume that everything is fine.
  • How are you interacting with various groups and LEPs to meet the needs of the local economy?
  • Making better use of the view of learners, employers & stakeholders
  • Promoting equality & diversity – what does this mean? What are you actually doing on the ground?

Question:You mentioned sub-contracting. Is there anything in particular?

Answer:Monitoring. Do exactly what you would do with your own internal provision with the external subcontractors. You need to apply exactly the same level of quality to your subcontractors.

Regional improvement work and support

  • This is normally focussed on grade 3 / grade 4 providers
  • Even if you are graded good or better, you still might get some support from Ofsted to pre-empt an inspection or to try to pick up on things before a full inspection
  • English & Maths is a key focus – what’s emerging as good practice? What is emerging as the issues?
  • If you are graded as Requires Improvement, you will have a HMI allocated to your organisation. That HMI will not be part of the inspection team when you are next inspected. They are a critical friend.
  • If you are RI, your inspection will be between 12 – 18 months
  • If you are a grade 2, Ofsted will be looking at your outcomes and watching for any movement, particularly if things start to go down

Regional priorities

  • Apprenticeship provision
  • Provision for NEETs
  • Sharing of good practice in developing English & Maths
  • The use of work experience and work-related learning

Traineeships

  • Good quality provision, with a subcontractor that was well monitored
  • High % into work

Question:How would you tackle the development of English & Maths

Answer:Short development programmes and short packages that match their needs to help them to develop realistically within that time

  • Have you got the right specialists working with them on English & Maths?
  • Helping employers to articulate what they want

Simon Page, WS Training

Focus on:

  • Employer involvement
  • English & Maths
  • Hints and tips for inspection

Learning points:

  • Feedback to those who complete surveys to tell the ‘You said, we did’
  • 8 week cycle of progress reviews (& additional action plan visit between these)
  • Employer communication – involving them in the review, ensuring they know what is required of their learner, emailing follow up etc. not just in the meeting, but also via email / telephone etc. outside of the review
  • 5% file audits, including quality of review and action plan (was the employer involved in the review? No? the assessor loses a point)
  • Don’t be afraid to switch assessors if the learner isn’t making sufficient progress, or if the assessor hasn’t hit it off particularly well with the manager for example
  • If a survey is returned with a negative comment, there is a procedure that it goes to the manager, reported on and documented – so that if Ofsted ask how complaints are dealt with there is a trail – it also improves employer relationships
  • Triangulate your findings between the learner, employer and assessor
  • Let the employer be involved in the selection of units
  • Help the employer to articulate where they want the apprentice to be on completion
  • Range of effective screening and diagnostic assessment tools used
  • BKSB paper based
  • BKSB diagnostic assessment
  • Action plan & use workbooks
  • Issue sample test paper, mark & review
  • More study & sit test
  • If necessary bring in for specialist coaching
  • Developed own ‘in-house’ speaking & listening initial assessment (confident, fairly confident or not confident at all) so that you can see how they might cope with the speaking & listening – and identify gaps in skill or confidence levels
  • Comments made on the correction of spelling and grammar for submitted work (Assessor could correct it, ‘red-pen’ it with corrections, scan it and send it back to the learner) – this needs to be done even for learners who already have their GCSE English & Maths
  • Deliberate move to evidence English & Maths throughout everything
  • Use data to help to identify which staff need extra support themselves in order to help their learners more effectively
  • Get all the free help you can, gather as many resources and tools as you can lay your hands on
  • Identify Maths, English & ICT specialists to run coaching / teaching days for individuals sitting the test. Use the morning for revision, then use the afternoon to sit the tests
  • Front-load English & Maths into the first 3 months if you can. Run specialist days to get them through e.g. Speaking & listening

Top tips for inspection

  • Apply the same approach to all learners, even if they are exempt (marking their work)
  • Treat every week as an Ofsted week
  • Use your last inspection report to write your action plan – they will want to know what you’ve done to address any issues identified
  • Don’t wait to do things, just get started. Try it – if it doesn’t work then change it. E.g. bringing in e-portfolio
  • Get help – use consultants where you are not sure or unskilled in a particular area
  • Look outside your own organisation, you can look across the region, you can even look nationally

Question:When you say front-load the functional skills, how do you move them onto the next level?

Answer:We offer all learners the option to progress to the next level on the ILP. From 14/15 it is a requirement that they must work to the next level, this is not optional.

Question:You mentioned you’ve been inspected as a sub-contractor as well as being a lead inspector. What’s the difference?

Answer:It was more about how the lead provider was monitoring, managing and influencing our contract rather than what we were actually delivering.

Question:What have you done to raise your vocational assessor’s skills in the delivery of functional skills?

Answer:Across the board, every member of staff must reach level 2. They also have to look at a couple of questions as part of their team meeting each month. Sharing experience and helping them not to be afraid

Question:Is there a reason you do both paper based and on-line screening?

Answer:The person carrying out the sign up may not be the specialist so it gets the process started and helps to build a picture. Also, it shows a robustness to the screening process as you can’t carry out the full diagnostics without the on-line screening.

Question:As nominee, what advice would you give to other nominees?

Answer:Listen to what is being said and don’t jump in. Note it all down and do not be afraid to question what they have said. If they’re spotted something that looks good, leave it. Accept it and move on. If there are emerging weaknesses, your job as nominee is to reduce the strength of the weakness. For example ‘All learners are x, y and z’ then as the nominee you need to say ‘ok, I don’t agree with that. This afternoon or tomorrow morning, please can I show you some others’. If you can get it reduced from ‘all’ to ‘some’ or ‘few’. This also works if they’ve got a positive you could build on.

Question:Are you assessor caseloads the same across all SSAs?

Answer:If their main role is assessor with no additional tasks, a full time case load would be 45-50. If they are a subject expert, IV, Team Leader etc. then you reduce their caseload accordingly. It depends how much they are doing and what they are IVing.

Question:How often do you see your learners?

Answer:A minimum of 8 weekly reviews and we require some contact from the assessor to show that they are ‘in learning’ each month, whether this is a visit, email exchange that shows proper constructive learning, something in their ILP, attending training etc. It has to be a learning activity. By moving to e-portfolio the idea was to reduce the number of visits.

Question:Because it was e-portfolio, did the assessors have to attend all visits with the inspector?

Answer:Yes and no. We set up a log in for inspectors so that they could log in and have a look. Under this new inspection, you don’t need to organise things for them to see. If there is enough in terms of planned activity then you won’t need to think of new things to add in. Later in the week they may request visits to more particular areas. They might also pick from sector subject areas that they’re not inspecting to see if it’s consistent.

Mark Pike, Develop

Helpful tips

  • If you are a Requires Improvement (RI) provider, and you don’t get on with your improvement inspector, you can ask that they are changes
  • Have a look at the BI-06 form and ensure that your data is in a state that is ready to populate the form. You need to show that you’re on top of your data so being able to fill this in quickly and accurately will show great strength of Leadership & Management.
  • Look at how your data can be used to demonstrate KPIs for staff and learners. Don’t just have one target across the board – differentiate the key performance indicators for your sub-contractors too. The reason is to reflect the client group being served by that provision.
  • Make sure you’ve read the current Ofsted handbook and that your nominee is familiar with this. Also ensure that you have a substitute nominee. Your nominee needs to be suitably skills and confident to challenge the inspection team.
  • Be prepared that they might extract English & Maths as stand-alone subject areas
  • Make sure you make use of Learner Views. Use the Ofsted Learner Views system and you could do this on a quarterly basis. Know your feedback and be prepared to demonstrate where you have made improvements. You need to have this by subcontractor level too.
  • Make sure staff are aware of changes in inspection – this includes stakeholders and subcontractors
  • Be honest with inspectors and know your weaknesses but most importantly, show them what you’re trying to do about it. For example are you part of special local, regional or national groups to support improvements in Teaching & learning?
  • Can you identify trends over time? Do you have stretch targets and have you looked ahead to the future for the next 3 years?
  • Have all of your KPIs and know how that links to different groups. E.g. Male/female, non-disadvantaged / disadvantaged background, ethnic minorities etc.
  • Have the data available to show the previous 3 years
  • Know how you’ve improved in the past 2 years for example
  • Study Programme funding means that you now have more learners on longer qualifications and outcomes might be end-loaded. You need to be able to show that learners are on-track in terms of reviewing and monitoring progress with your own internal systems.
  • As the lead, you need to be clear with sub-contractors about the targets and expectations, the desired impact for the learner, and the requirements from providers. The aspiration is that it needs to make a positive difference. Subcontractors need to have the same expectation as the lead, for example punctuality, attendance %s and why you expect this.
  • For example, the Federation of Small Businesses have a report that identifies the attributes and skills that businesses are looking for
  • External work experience is really important and showing that this is managed properly
  • Have clear staff performance management systems in place. If someone has left because they weren’t performing correctly and improvement techniques didn’t work, tell the inspectors this.
  • Learner reflective journals were popular with inspectors. They must reflect on what is working / what isn’t and the journal will be used with the providers to work through with the learners and to help them improve. It does take a bit of time to get the learners used to completing it and using language in a way that is useful to you e.g. not just saying ‘it was great’
  • Reflective journals needed to not be a barrier to learning. If there were spelling mistakes, we didn’t necessarily correct it in the journal as it was not a marked piece of work, but a way to gather feedback.
  • Regular communication needs to be in place with all learners knowing where they are and how long they’ve got left
  • All attendance levels are monitored and if it drops below a certain level, the provider is required to put intervention in place. This is in place with sub-contractors too.
  • All reviews need to reflect their progression e.g. ‘Attendance needs to be improved, because this is what would be expected in the work place’
  • This is for you, not for Ofsted – you’re doing it to have a positive impact on the young person and if you can achieve this, the inspection team will be impressed

Feedback on training needs around the improvement of teaching, learning & assessment: