Herefordshire Council

Published date 20 July 2012 Inspection Number 399623 Unique reference number: 50221

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Name of lead inspector: Maria Barker HMI

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Address:

Community Learning & Employability Plough Lane PO Box 4 Hereford Herefordshire HR4 0XH Telephone number: 01432 260637

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Information about the provider

1. Herefordshire Council (the council) provides adult and community learning through the community learning and employability unit (the service) which sits within the places and communities directorate. The total budget of the service is £694,838, of which £584,418 is received from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) for adult safeguarded learning and formal first steps provision. The council, other sources of funding and fees from learners contribute the rest of the funding.

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Information about the provider

2. To date in 2011/12, the council has enrolled over 1,400 learners on courses primarily targeted at disadvantaged sectors of the community. All programmes are delivered through subcontracting arrangements with 22 provider partners. The service provides courses in six subject areas, the largest of which are information and communication technology (ICT) and preparation for life and work. These areas were inspected and graded. The service also provides courses in sport, leisure and recreation; arts, media and publishing; languages, literature and culture and education and training. The main inspection report includes comment on this provision.

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Information about the provider

3. Herefordshire is a rural county with low population density. About a third of the population lives in Hereford, about a fifth in smaller market towns and almost half in rural areas. The population of Herefordshire is 179,300, of whom 144,100 are aged 18 or over. The proportion of adults aged 55 or over is 37%, compared to 28% nationally. Levels of unemployment in the county are relatively low, at 2.7% in April 2012, compared with 3.7% for England. Approximately 28% of the population aged 16-64 have qualifications below intermediate level, compared to 24% across England.

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Information about the provider

4. The following organisations provide training on behalf of the provider:  Age Concern Hereford and Localities (ICT)  Aspire Living Ltd (preparation for life and work)  Bods (preparation for life and work)  Deaf Direct (preparation for life and work)  Echo, Leominster (arts, media and publishing; preparation for life and work)  Herefordshire Literacy Project (education and training; preparation for life and work)  Hereford Group Training Association (education and training; preparation for life and work)  Herefordshire College of Technology (preparation for life and work)  Herefordshire Council for Voluntary Youth Services (preparation for life and work)  Herefordshire Headway (arts, media and publishing; preparation for life and work)  Herefordshire Housing (preparation for life and work)  Hope Family Centre, Bromyard (ICT; languages, literature and culture; arts, media and publishing; education and training; preparation for life and work)

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Information about the provider

 John Kyrle High School, Community Learning Centre (ICT)  Kemble Housing (SHYPP) (preparation for life and work)  LEAP Education Service/Herefordshire Mind (ICT; preparation for life and work)  Marches Access Point, Kington (ICT; arts, media and publishing)  Project Link Community Services (sport, leisure and recreation; preparation for life and work)  Red Spark Learning, Leominster (preparation for life and work)  Relate Shropshire and Herefordshire (preparation for life and work)  The Cart Shed (preparation for life and work)  The Hereford Academy Community Learning Centre (ICT; arts media and publishing; preparation for life and work)  WRVS Riverside Community Learning Centre (ICT; arts, media and publishing; preparation for life and work)

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Provision for adult learners:

Learning for social and personal development 1,660 part-time learners

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Summary report

Grades: 1 is outstanding; 2 is good; 3 is satisfactory; 4 is inadequate

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Grade

Leadership and management 2 Safeguarding Equality and diversity

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Learning for social and personal development Grade

Information and communication technology 2

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Overall effectiveness

5. Learners enjoy their courses and develop good social and personal skills. They increase in confidence and many move on to volunteering or local community activities. Learners achieve good standards in their work. Many courses offer the opportunity to gain a qualification, but the service does not record the number of learners who take this option. The service provides good examples of learners who have progressed into other courses, community activities or employment. However, it does not collect this information systematically or provide clear information about opportunities available for progression.

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Overall effectiveness

6. The quality of teaching is good. Tutors plan lessons carefully to make them interesting and involve learners well. The vast majority of lessons observed by inspectors were graded good. On a few courses, learners do not agree clear and measurable individual learning goals and tutors do not fully record how well learners are progressing.

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Overall effectiveness

7. The service offers a wide range of courses in local community venues. It has outstanding partnerships with voluntary and community groups to identify targeted groups and provide courses to meet their needs. Tutors, support workers and volunteers provide good individualised support for learners. 8. The council has a very strong commitment to making sure that priority groups are given good opportunities to improve their lives. It has good arrangements to make sure that learners are safe and that they understand safeguarding matters. Tutors improve learners’ understanding of equality and diversity well through good classroom activities. The service works very well with its partners. It works hard to maintain high standards. It meets regularly with each partner to review the quality of their provision at course level. However, it does not use information sufficiently to fully monitor the quality of provision as a whole.

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Main findings

 Learners gain good improvements in confidence and self-esteem. Many learners with few or no qualifications develop an enthusiasm for learning. They develop skills which improve their social and economic well-being and many make valuable contributions to their local communities.  Although many learners progress from one course to another, the service does not systematically monitor this progression. It provides good examples of case studies of learners’ outcomes, but does not monitor overall progression rates into other learning, employment or outcomes such as volunteering or community activity.  Teaching and learning are good. Tutors plan lessons well to include a good range of activities and to meet individual learners’ needs. Most learners participate enthusiastically in lessons. However, in preparation for life and work, tutors use information learning technology (ILT) insufficiently to add variety to

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Main findings

activities in sessions and develop learners’ skills in the use of information technology.  Most learners agree appropriate personalised learning goals in addition to course goals. However, a few do not have sufficiently challenging and personalised learning goals recorded in their individual learning plans. A few tutors do not systematically monitor and record the progress made by learners in achieving their learning goals.  The service has outstanding partnership arrangements to meet the needs of targeted groups. The vast majority of provision is subcontracted to voluntary or local community groups, some family learning provision is subcontracted to the local college. Carefully planned and clear tendering processes ensure that the service provides responsive programmes to meet the needs of targeted priority groups and local communities.  Learners receive good individualised support. Tutors provide good personal

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Main findings

support, particularly to learners with poor prior experiences of learning. Additional learning needs are identified at the start of courses and partners arrange good individualised support through support workers and volunteers. Where appropriate, partners provide relevant specialist support. The service provides insufficient information to learners about progression opportunities.  The council has good strategic vision and direction to meet its priorities of supporting targeted learners and community groups. The service monitors the activities of individual partners effectively. It provides overarching leadership on the quality of teaching by ensuring that tutors are suitably qualified. It implements a comprehensive programme of professional development that includes mandatory training on safeguarding and equality and diversity matters.  The council has good safeguarding arrangements that it implements effectively.

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Main findings

The service carries out risk assessments systematically. It maintains records of all accidents and incidents reported and takes effective actions to keep learners safe. Learners have a good understanding of safeguarding matters and know how to report any concerns.  Good classroom practice routinely promotes equality and diversity effectively to learners. The council demonstrates good commitment to equality through the implementation of the Herefordshire equality and human rights charter. The service collects information on achievement gaps of different groups of learners and generally takes appropriate actions to rectify gaps identified.  The service uses data collection and analysis insufficiently as a management tool. It has yet to familiarise itself fully with its management information, and currently uses a limited range of reports to monitor its provision. The service acknowledges the need for a more comprehensive overview of the provision to

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Main findings

inform quality improvement activities.  The service focuses insufficiently on improving the quality of teaching and learning through its observation process. It uses action planning for improvement insufficiently to raise standards of teaching and learning further. Tutors have few opportunities to share good practice, for example, through a shared electronic resource base.

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What does Herefordshire Council need to do to improve further?

 Improve progression for learners by giving them comprehensive information about further learning opportunities and more thoroughly monitor progression trends into learning, employment and other outcomes, such as volunteering.  Ensure that learners’ progress is monitored effectively by the agreement of personalised learning goals which are recorded in individual learning plans and carefully reviewed throughout the course.  Improve the management of key aspects of provision at partner and service level by extending the collection, analysis and use of data.  Ensure that teaching and learning are improved further through using observations of teaching and learning to focus on action-planning for improvement and extending opportunities for tutors to share good practice through developing a shared electronic resource base.

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What learners like:

 the non-threatening, relaxing environment  the availability of courses in local centres  the opportunity to get a certificate  getting out of the house to meet people and make friends  becoming absorbed in learning  the tutors’ patient attitude in supporting learners  learning with other people from the community  making a difference in the community.

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What learners would like to see improved:

 longer courses  more courses onto which they can progress  a simplified system for registering on courses  more time for one-to-one discussion with the tutor at the end of the session.

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What provider/partners like:

 the highly approachable and accessible service  very effective partnership working that has positive impact on local people  the improvements made to local communities  the impact of partnership working, such as reduced crime rates  the good impact on children’s attendance and attainment noted by schools  the systematic collection of data at course level.

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What provider/partners would like to see improved:

 longer courses  the integration of paperwork with less duplication  the speed of the course tendering process  more meetings between the service and its partners to share good practice.

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Capacity to make and sustain improvement Grade 3

9. The service demonstrates satisfactory capacity to improve. It has maintained good provision for learners since the previous inspection. The service has developed outstanding partnership working, both with its provider partners and with other agencies to ensure that the provision meets the needs of priority groups well. The service has a strong focus on ensuring that tutors are appropriately qualified. It offers a comprehensive programme of tutor development activities, including mandatory training for tutors on safeguarding, and equality and diversity matters. Teaching and learning are good. The vast majority of sessions observed by inspectors were graded as good. However, the service does not use its process of observations of teaching and learning sufficiently to plan further improvements to make teaching and learning outstanding. The service does not ensure that good practice developed by many tutors is shared effectively across the provision.

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Capacity to make and sustain improvement Grade 3

10. The service has resolved some areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection. For example, it now has good arrangements for provider partners to contribute to the self-assessment process. However, actions taken to overcome other areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection have yet to have sufficient impact. For example, the service has not yet ensured the effective use of individual learning plans across the provision or systematic monitoring of learners’ progression.

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Capacity to make and sustain improvement Grade 3

11. The service has developed an inclusive and self-critical self-assessment process. Managers use feedback from learners and partners well to inform its judgements. However, the current self-assessment report includes little evidence to justify the grade awarded for outcomes for learners. Inspectors judged the self-assessment report to be broadly accurate. The service reviews progress in implementing its quality improvement plan effectively at monthly meetings.

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Capacity to make and sustain improvement Grade 3

12. The service has good leadership and management, especially at a strategic level. However, it uses data insufficiently to monitor its provision fully. It collects comprehensive and systematic information at course level. It does not collate this information effectively to analyse the provision as a whole. It recognises that it has yet to access the full range of reports required to analyse the effectiveness of its provision fully. For example, it does not yet have a clear overview of retention and achievement by course length.

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Outcomes for learners Grade 2

13. Outcomes for learners are good. Feedback from learners demonstrates high rates of satisfaction with the provision. Learners enjoy their courses and gain in confidence and self-esteem. They develop good social and personal skills which they use in their everyday lives. Many isolated and vulnerable adults benefit from engaging with others in a safe and welcoming environment. Learners increase their skills in collaborative working. They also develop good independent working skills.

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Outcomes for learners Grade 2

14. Learners taking qualifications demonstrate good standards of work in their portfolios. Many courses provide an opportunity for learners to gain a qualification, especially at foundation level. The service does not monitor the proportion of learners who gain qualifications. At inspection, the service provided evidence of high success rates in literacy and numeracy at foundation and intermediate levels in family learning programmes and of high success rates in qualifications in ITC. However, it was unable to provide information on learners’ success rates in other provision.

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Outcomes for learners Grade 2

15. Although learners progress between courses, the service does not monitor this sufficiently. The service collects case studies of learners’ progression into further learning, employment or other positive outcomes. However, it does not collate and analyse progression rates of learners into different destinations. Learners do not receive sufficient information about progression pathways to inform their decisions on completion of their courses.

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Outcomes for learners Grade 2

16. Learners gain good skills to improve their employability and their contribution to the community. Many learners go on to volunteer at their local learning centres. Others make good contributions to their local community by taking on roles such as parent advisors or trustees. Some learners have progressed to becoming tutors.

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The quality of provision Grade 2

17. Teaching and learning are good. Inspectors graded the vast majority of sessions they observed as good. Tutors generally plan sessions very well to meet learners’ individual needs. They plan sessions which include a good range of activities and are well paced. Most sessions are lively and interactive with high levels of learner participation. In the few less effective sessions, tutors do not plan for individualised learning sufficiently.

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The quality of provision Grade 2

18. Tutors manage assessment well on courses leading to accreditation and fulfil the requirements of awarding bodies. Tutors do not always use individual learning plans effectively to plan and monitor learning. Most tutors record and monitor the progress of learners very thoroughly. However, in a few cases, learners do not agree clear and measurable learning goals. In such cases, tutors do not effectively monitor and record the progress made by learners. A new and improved format for individual learning plans for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities has yet to be adopted by all providers.

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The quality of provision Grade 2

19. The service meets the needs of learners and communities well through clearly targeted and responsive provision. It has a clear focus on developing communities and reaching learners in isolated rural areas. It provides courses to meet the needs of priority groups, such as learners without intermediate qualifications or who are unemployed. Some courses are negotiated with local groups to respond directly to their specific individual and community needs. For example, learners in rural areas develop computer skills to use government websites to manage their finances.

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The quality of provision Grade 2

20. The service has developed outstanding partnership working. It has very strong and purposeful partnerships with voluntary and local community groups that meet the needs of targeted groups, including those in rural communities and areas of deprivation. The service engages with new partners to meet specific needs. Partnerships with council teams such as the library service, and with health agencies, primary schools and children’s centres significantly improve the engagement of targeted groups.

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The quality of provision Grade 2

21. The service provides good pastoral and learning support. Many learners come from vulnerable and hard to reach groups, tutors provide very good support and encouragement to engage them effectively in their learning. Additional learning needs are identified at the start of courses. Volunteers and support workers provide effective individualised support. Some partners provide specialist support, such as, counselling. Learners with mental health issues or physical disabilities receive very well structured support to enable independent learning. However, the service does not monitor the overall impact or effectiveness of the support provided. Learners do not receive sufficient information and guidance on the progression pathways available to them, either within the service or externally.

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Leadership and management Grade 2

22. The strategic leadership of provision is good. The council has a strong commitment to social inclusion. It has a clear vision for the service to meet the needs of targeted groups. These groups are clearly identified, and include rural communities, those with qualifications below intermediate level and unemployed people. Good partnership working with other council services and relevant organisations supports the council’s strategic vision for adult and community learning well. The service implements this vision through a well established model of subcontracting the vast majority of provision to voluntary and local community organisations that are best placed to reach and recruit learners from targeted groups. The service manages subcontracting arrangements very effectively through a well designed tendering process to meet the needs of priority groups. The service provides overarching tutor development activities, some of which are mandatory, and ensures that tutors

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Leadership and management Grade 2

are appropriately qualified. It holds effective regular meetings with each partner to monitor their provision at course level.

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Leadership and management Grade 2

23. The service has good safeguarding arrangements. It takes responsibility for ensuring that all staff and tutors have enhanced CRB checks and maintains an updated central record of these checks and of attendance at mandatory adult safeguarding training. It requires tutors on family learning programmes to attend training on child protection. All learners receive a copy of the council’s leaflet on adult safeguarding, with an easy read version distributed as appropriate. Tutors discuss the leaflet with learners at induction and ensure that learners understand safeguarding matters and know how to report concerns. The service ensures regular risk assessment of venues and collates records of reported accidents and incidents. The designated senior manager is a member of the local adult safeguarding board and has received enhanced training on adult safeguarding.

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Leadership and management Grade 2

24. The service adopts good measures to promote equality and diversity through meeting the needs of priority groups. It implements the Herefordshire equality and human rights charter effectively. It provides regular mandatory training on equality and diversity through an external expert. The most recent training on promoting equality and diversity through classroom activities has had a significant impact on tutors’ practice. Learners generally have a good understanding of equality and diversity, which is promoted well at induction and followed up in classroom activities and materials. The service systematically collects data on the gender, ethnicity and learning difficulties and/or disabilities of learners. In the majority of cases it has taken appropriate action to narrow identified achievement gaps.

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Leadership and management Grade 2

25. The service has satisfactory quality improvement arrangements. It routinely gathers learners' views during their courses and acts on feedback to amend the course content and activities. It uses regular unannounced class monitoring visits alongside its process of observations of teaching and learning to review and improve provision. However, the observation process focuses on grading current practice accurately rather than on identifying actions to improve the quality of teaching and learning further. The service does not systematically monitor the impact of actions taken by individual tutors to improve their practice. It does not ensure that good practice developed by individual tutors is shared effectively through service-wide meetings or the use of an electronic resource bank.

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Leadership and management Grade 2

26. The self-assessment process is inclusive and involves partners well. The service monitors progress in implementing the resulting quality improvement plan at monthly meetings. However, the current self-assessment report lacks sufficient detail to explain the grades and areas for improvement. The service uses management information insufficiently to monitor provision and identify areas for improvement. It recognises the need to improve the collection, analysis and use of data, but has yet to identify the information it needs to gather to manage the provision more effectively.

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Learning for social and personal development

Other social and personal development learning provision considered as part of the main findings but not separately graded: sport, leisure and recreation; arts, media and publishing; education and training; languages, literature and culture.

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Context

27. At inspection, 178 learners were enrolled on 15 courses in ICT. The majority of courses are non-accredited and are taught over 10 hours. The service’s partners offer courses in a range of community learning venues across the county, such as, community halls and shop-front locations.

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Key findings

 Learners develop increased confidence and self-esteem. They use their newly acquired skills in both their personal and wider community lives. Many previous learners volunteer at learning centres or support their local community, for example, by developing materials to publicise activities available to visitors.  Success rates on accredited courses are high. Most learners do not enrol on courses leading to qualifications. A high proportion of learners complete their courses and achieve their learning goals. Retention rates are generally high. In many cases withdrawal from courses is due to illness or learners obtaining employment.  Learners feel safe. Routine risk assessments ensure safe learning environments in accessible local venues. Tutors regularly remind learners to adopt safe practices, such as good posture and adapting their workstations. Learners on digital photography courses seek permission to take pictures of others. Tutors

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Key findings

reinforce copyright legislation and promote e-safety guidelines effectively.  Teaching and learning are good. The vast majority of sessions observed during inspection were good. Tutors use industry standard hardware and software as well as good additional resources. Most tutors pace sessions to meet the needs of learners well. In the few less effective sessions, tutors do not sufficiently plan learning activities to meet individual learners’ needs. Tutors have few opportunities to share resources and good practice across the provision.  Most learners have appropriate individual learning plans which tutors monitor effectively. A few tutors do not use individual learning plans effectively to plan, monitor and record individualised learning goals. These tutors do not agree measurable personal learning goals with learners and do not always monitor learners’ progress sufficiently to identify slow progress or to set further targets

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Key findings

to extend learning.  The service meets the needs and interests of learners well, especially through the use of venues in rural locations that are relatively isolated. Broadband reception is very poor in some of these areas. The service provides tutors with laptops, projectors and digital cameras to enable isolated learners with few local resources to develop basic computer skills.  The provision offers satisfactory care, guidance and support. Tutors identify individual learning support needs at the beginning of the course and plan sessions to meet identified needs. Initial assessment is insufficiently customised for each programme. Learners self-assess their existing skills and knowledge through a standard checklist which also requests self-disclosure of literacy and numeracy needs.  The service does not provide sufficient information to support learners’ progression on completion of their courses. It does not provide clear

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Key findings

information about courses available to learners either within the service or externally. The service does not collect or analyse progression data sufficiently to identify learners’ destinations on completion of their course.  The service has good arrangements to manage the provision. It employs good processes to manage and assure the quality of its partners’ provision. Termly meetings review performance at course level effectively. They also review performance against recruitment targets, enabling responsive reallocation of funds.  The service promotes equality and diversity satisfactorily. Staff and learners have an appropriate understanding of equality and diversity matters. Tutors ensure that learning materials do not include stereotypical images and are available in a range of formats that meet learners’ needs. The service takes appropriate actions to close identified achievement gaps between groups of

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Key findings

learners.  The self-assessment process involves partners effectively in reviewing the provision. Inspectors judged that the self-assessment of this provision was broadly accurate. However, the service uses data insufficiently to evaluate its performance fully. It does not analyse trends sufficiently to identify key areas for improvement.

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What does Herefordshire Council need to do to improve further?

 Develop the use of individual learning plans to support the identification of appropriate and measurable learning goals so that progress is monitored effectively.  Improve the effectiveness of initial assessment by making sure that it is specific to the course and effectively informs the planning of teaching and learning activities.  Improve progression opportunities for learners by providing a centralised guide to proposed courses and by supporting more effective referral between providers.  Support the sharing of good practice between tutors by developing a centralised electronic resource base available to tutors across the provision.

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Context

28. The service provides courses in preparation for life and work through 19 provider partners. Most courses offer optional accreditation, including functional skills in literacy and numeracy at foundation and intermediate levels. At the time of inspection, 340 learners were enrolled on 35 courses offered through 10 provider partners. Of these, 65 were on Skills for Life courses and 79 were on family learning provision.

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Key findings

 Learners build confidence and self-esteem through good collaborative and independent learning activities relevant to their lives. They gain significant economic benefits from improving their understanding of topics such as money management and healthy home cooking. Isolated and vulnerable learners attain very good skills leading to improved social and economic well-being.  The provision has satisfactory retention and sucess rates. The service responds very quickly to significant decreases in retention rates and takes appropriate action. However, it does not always identify why learners leave courses, in particular why learners with learning difficulties and/or disablities leave family learning provision.  The service analyses and uses progression data insufficiently. It gathers much anecdotal evidence through learner and provider feedback. It collates some data relating to progression into volunteering and teaching. However, it does

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Key findings

not collate or analyse data to provide an overview of the progression of learners.  Learners support community development very well. Some learners develop specific skills in management and team working, such as bid writing, in order to set up groups for community action. Former learners often return to classes as volunteer support workers or actively recruit others into learning. Family learning programmes develop good skills for parents and carers to support children’s learning effectively.  Teaching and learning are good. Tutors use a good range of activities to engage the interest of inexperienced learners. They link course objectives closely to targeted individual skills development relating to personal well-being and employability. All learners engage actively throughout the sessions. Very good peer support leads to learners routinely sharing knowledge and experience in a relaxed, and often humorous, manner.

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Key findings

 Most learners have a clear sense of their group and individual targets and can talk about how they are progressing. However, a few tutors do not routinely identify personalised learning goals in individual learning plans. These tutors do not always provide clear written evidence of progress and achievement of learning goals on individual learning plans.  Tutors use ILT insufficiently. Although appropriate equipment is available in most venues and the service provides staff with appropriate training, disadvantaged learners still have limited opportunity to develop the technological skills necessary for improved employability or effective social inclusion. Neither tutors nor learners have access to shared resources through the use of ILT.  The service has developed outstanding partnerships to meet the needs of hard to reach learners. The service supports its partners to reach vulnerable groups, such as Travellers, troubled families, and those with mental health difficulties,

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Key findings

in appropriate and effective learning activities. It links with other council departments and external agencies to extend learning in areas such as healthy lifestyles.  Support for learners is good. Tutors know their learners well. Good initial assessment leads to personalised learning targets which are agreed with learners and used effectively by tutors to develop learners’ skills and confidence. Very effective one-to-one support from support workers and volunteers meets individual learners’ needs well, but the service does not measure the effectiveness of this support.  Management arrangements are satisfactory. The service has very good frequent communication with individual partners and monitors their progress in implementing quality improvements effectively. However, it does not collate data across the provision sufficiently to enable it to make timely interventions on specific issues or to monitor progress in implementing service-wide

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Key findings

improvements, for example, in the use of individual learning plans.  The service provides excellent capacity building for its partners through an extensive programme of staff development that includes initial teacher training and the availability of many learning resources. However, the service does not enable tutors to share resources through the use of ILT or to share good practice in meetings that involve tutors from across the provision.  The service promotes equality and diversity very well. It has a strong focus on reaching the most disadvantaged groups. In family learning, parents discuss equality and diversity matters with their children in relation to stories they read together. The service promotes inclusive learning throughout the provision through appropriate adaptations and support for those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.  The observation of teaching and learning process generally identifies grades,

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Key findings

main strengths and areas for improvement in line with inspection findings. However, the process focuses on compliance rather than on evaluating the quality of the learning. Action planning and target setting for tutors is insufficiently specific and time-bound to lead to clear improvements in learning.

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What does Herefordshire Council need to do to improve further?

 Improve retention by analysing the reasons for learner withdrawal from courses and taking appropriate action.  Identify learners’ progression by systematically collecting and analysing learner destination data.  Improve the quality of individual learning plans by extending the sharing of good practice across the provision and by systematically monitoring the effective implementation of individual learning plans across the provision.  Increase learners’ use of information technology by ensuring that tutors use information learning technology more frequently in sessions.

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Information about the inspection

29. Two of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) and two additional inspectors, assisted by the provider’s community learning and employability manager, as nominee, carried out the inspection. Inspectors also took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans, the previous inspection report and data on learners and their achievement over the period since the previous inspection.

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Information about the inspection

30. Inspectors used group, individual interviews and emails to gather the views of learners. They looked at questionnaires learners and employers had completed on behalf of the provider. They also visited learning sessions. Inspectors collected evidence from programmes in each of the subjects the provider offers. Record of Main Findings (RMF)

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Herefordshire Council

Learning types: 14-16: Young apprenticeships; Diplomas; 16-18 Learner responsive: FE full- and part-time courses, Foundation learning tier, including Entry to Employment; 19+ responsive: FE full- and part-time courses; Employer responsive: Train to Gain, apprenticeships. Social and personal development: all adult safeguarded provision

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Herefordshire Council

Outcomes for learners 2 2 How well do learners achieve and enjoy their learning? 3 How well do learners attain their learning goals? How well do learners progress? How well do learners improve their economic and social well- being through learning and development? Do learners feel safe? 2 Are learners able to make informed choices about their own health and well being?* How well do learners make a positive contribution to the community?* Quality of provision 2 2 How effectively do teaching, training and assessment support learning and development? How effectively does the provision meet the needs and interests of users? How well do partnerships with schools, employers, community groups and others lead to benefits for learners? How effective are the care, guidance and support learners receive in helping them to achieve? Leadership and management 2 2 How effectively do leaders and managers raise expectations and

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Herefordshire Council

promote ambition throughout the organisation? How effectively do governors and supervisory bodies provide leadership, direction and challenge?* How effectively does the provider promote the safeguarding of learners? How effectively does the provider actively promote equality and diversity, tackle discrimination and narrow the achievement gap? How effectively does the provider engage with users to support and promote improvement? How effectively does self-assessment improve the quality of the provision and outcomes for learners? How efficiently and effectively does the provider use its available resources to secure value for money? *where applicable to the type of provision Grades using the 4 point scale 1: Outstanding; 2: Good; 3: Satisfactory; 4: Inadequate Overall Social and personal development

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Herefordshire Council

Approximate number of enrolled learners Full-time learners Part-time learners Overall effectiveness 2 2 Capacity to improve 3 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231 or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you

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Herefordshire Council

give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way. To receive regular email alerts about new publications, including survey reports and school inspection reports, please visit our website and go to ‘Subscribe’. Ofsted

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Herefordshire Council

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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