Anderson Stockley Accredited Training Ltd

Further Education and Skills inspection report Date published: 12 March 2015 Inspection Number: 452600 URN: 50410

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Anderson Stockley Accredited Training Ltd Independent learning provider

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Summary of key findings for learners

 assessors do not challenge apprentices sufficiently to ensure that they make good progress and complete their qualification as rapidly as they are able  apprentices who have already achieved the level of mathematics and English skills required by their qualification do not receive sufficient encouragement to develop these skills further so that they are well prepared for further studies or future career aspirations  the observation of training and assessment is not focused sufficiently on developing assessors’ skills in challenging apprentices so that they make good progress and learn in every session  measures to monitor and improve the quality of training and assessments are not fully effective; managers do not analyse or evaluate information on trends in apprentices’ progress and achievements well enough  assessors do not report sufficiently on safeguarding and health and safety practices seen during

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Summary of key findings for learners

assessments to ensure that all apprentices consistently demonstrate safe working practices in their work place.

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Summary of key findings for learners

 assessors support apprentices with specific learning difficulties very well so that they make the same progress as other learners  all assessors are very well qualified and experienced in dental nursing and understand well what apprentices need to do to achieve  mentors, who are licensed dental nurses or dentists, support apprentices in their dental practice very effectively  managers have well-maintained partnerships with dental practices and appropriate professional bodies and ensure that apprentices are developing skills and techniques that are up to date and are in line with current local and national dental nursing requirements.

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This inspection: Requires improvement-3

Previous inspection: Requires improvement-3 Outcomes for learners Requires improvement-3 Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement-3 Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement-3

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

 Improve the observation of training and assessment by focusing it on what apprentices are learning, how well this learning is checked and reinforced, how well they are being challenged to achieve their full potential and whether they are making good progress against their starting points.  Ensure that observation reports give all assessors a clear action plan to help them develop and improve their training and assessing skills; monitor the outcomes of this plan at the next observation. Share the good practice observed with other assessors.  Analyse and evaluate data, including information from initial assessments and apprentices’ progress and success through their qualifications, so that managers identify trends, and use the findings to monitor and evaluate the impact of strategies to improve progress and outcomes for apprentices.  Train assessors to write specific and time-bound targets that focus on the skills apprentices

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

need to develop in order to complete units and assignments to the highest standard of which they are capable. In particular, include targets to develop further their English and mathematical skills to prepare them well for further study at higher levels or the careers to which they aspire.  Ensure that assessors consistently monitor apprentices’ adherence to all health and safety and safeguarding good practice during assessments and observations by giving higher priority to the detailed recording of, and feedback on, health and safety and safeguarding issues at every assessment opportunity and visit.

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Inspection judgements

Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

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Inspection judgements

 The company has offered advanced apprenticeships within work places for learners aged 16 to 18 and adults since August 2010, but only began its direct contract with the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) for this provision in July 2013. All the advanced apprentices, who make up the vast majority of learners funded by the SFA, are in dental nursing, with a small number of apprentices on customer service and administration programmes. Government-funded training accounts for just over a third of the company’s work; the rest consists of commercial courses, mostly in health care.  Retention rates were low in 2013/14, but have risen during the current year following improved initial information, guidance and induction to prepare apprentices better for the demands of the qualification. Success rates within planned timescales at the time of inspection reflect national rates.  Most apprentices make the progress expected of them and learn relevant skills to support

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Inspection judgements

dentists in their surgeries to a good professional standard; for example, they are confident to mix amalgams for filling teeth. However, apprentices who have prior qualifications and experience in dentistry and perform well at work do not make the expected progress as the training and assessments are not sufficiently challenging.  Apprentices gain good personal and social skills, both through the good modelling of these skills by their assessors and mentors, and by researching and writing assignments in which they reflect on their professional practice and improve it.  Apprentices make insufficient progress in developing their functional mathematical skills, and the progress expected in developing English skills. In English, the majority of apprentices pass the tests at level 2, but in mathematics only a small minority pass. Managers have identified this, but it is too early to judge the impact of their strategies to improve pass rates in mathematics.

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Inspection judgements

 Assessors do not develop further mathematics and English skills sufficiently for those apprentices who are exempt from functional skills assessments and this does not enable them to benefit from more advanced English and mathematical skills for their future career choices. Most apprentices to learn the meaning and spelling of dental terminology such as gingivitis.  Apprentices benefit from well-designed work books, created by their managers and assessors. These workbooks support them in completing their assignments independently to a high standard by being explicit about how they should research topics, identify appropriate examples, select material to answer questions accurately and evaluate their findings.  The data show no discernible difference between outcomes or progress made between different groups of apprentices.

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Inspection judgements

The quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

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Inspection judgements

 Teaching, learning and assessment require improvement, as reflected in outcomes for apprentices. Assessors are all highly qualified and experienced dental nurses. They do not yet use their skills and expertise to encourage and motivate more able apprentices to make the progress of which they are capable. They do not plan each session to be sufficiently challenging to support more rapid progress.  Assessors provide good pastoral care and support through frequent contact with apprentices in the workplace and by telephone. Apprentices develop effective clinical skills; they understand the theory of their role supporting the dentists they work for and as a result become effective team members in the workplace.  Apprentices are promptly and thoroughly assessed and diagnosed for their skills in mathematics and English at the beginning of the programme, to ensure that they have the appropriate level of support to achieve the functional skills components of their apprenticeship. The recruitment

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Inspection judgements

team are skilled at gaining plentiful information about apprentices’ aspirations and qualifications. However, assessors do not use this sufficiently to plan learning that closely matches apprentices’ abilities in English and mathematics and experience of working within dental nursing. Apprentices with high prior attainment receive insufficient challenge to extend their learning or make rapid progress.  Assessment practice requires improvement. Apprentices experience delays in their progress because assessors schedule some assessment visits for specific time periods that do not take place at the earliest opportunity where evidence occurs naturally. Assessors place great emphasis on apprentices completing written assignments to demonstrate knowledge. The majority of assessors use questions well to check understanding. However, their expectations of more able apprentices are too low and assessors do not challenge these learners sufficiently.

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Inspection judgements

 Assessors set insufficiently challenging and specific targets in learning reviews and give too little focus to health and safety; for example, checking whether apprentices consistently have access to personal protective equipment or follow procedures to keep themselves safe in the clinical environment. However, in conjunction with employers, they regularly capture the progress made at each visit and apprentices add comments and agree the content.  Support for apprentices to develop their English and mathematics skills requires improvement. The majority of assessors do not routinely integrate mathematics in their planning and delivery despite many opportunities to do so when discussing aspects of dental nursing such as working out ratios of saliva or plaque. However, two specialist functional skills assessors offer good individual support to apprentices who require functional skills qualifications to complete the

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Inspection judgements

framework. One assessor supported an apprentice very well to develop a research project to study volumes of non-attending patients at particular periods within the year so that the practice could monitor and plan around these events.  Assessors promote the use and understanding of vocational language well and apprentices write well in their assignments. However, assessors do not challenge them sufficiently to reference their work or to complete bibliographies in order to master these skills for possible further higher level studies. Assessors pay too little attention to identifying grammar, spelling and paragraphing in these assignments, and do not help to improve these aspects of their writing in preparation for further study.  Apprentices, most of whom are located in small dental surgeries across the South East and the Midlands, do not yet have sufficient access to learning through technology to enhance their

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Inspection judgements

independent learning between assessor visits. Managers recognise this, and staff have begun to develop a helpful series of short on-line training videos on topics that are best shown through moving images, such as hand washing and basic life support. However, this initiative is quite new and it is not yet possible to judge the impact on apprentices’ progress and independent learning opportunities. Apprentices who are already competent in the use of technology use it well to improve the presentation of their work and to research areas relating to dental nurse practice and developments in the field on the General Dental Council and awarding body websites.  Both equality and diversity are well understood by apprentices and promoted well by assessors. Apprentices, assessors and employers benefit from the culture of respect; they all work well together to support the training needs of apprentices and care of patients.

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Inspection judgements

The effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

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Inspection judgements

 Leadership and management require improvement because quality improvement arrangements and performance management to ensure that all apprentices make the progress of which they are capable are not yet sufficiently rigorous. However, managers respond very rapidly when they identify improvements that can benefit apprentices, but it is too early to judge the impact of this in ensuring that all apprentices receive sufficient challenge to achieve their full potential.  Leaders and managers are committed to developing high quality training for apprentices that enables them to gain their qualifications and enjoy learning. They are keen to make learning experiences relevant and motivating to young people, and to this end develop and use training materials for apprentices to access through social media. For example, they use on-line videos to explain the effective use of protective personal equipment, but it is too early to judge

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Inspection judgements

whether apprentices are using this material to improve their practice.  Managers carefully recruit assessors with good vocational experience to support apprentices well in their jobs. All have regular professional updating relevant to dental nursing in order to maintain their licence as dental nurses. They are either completing or about to enrol on an introductory teaching qualification, and all take part in regular standardisation meetings where they share good practice and discuss the best ways of supporting apprentices through their qualification.  The observation of training and assessment are not fully effective. Observers use a checklist that records assessor activities but does enable them to focus on what apprentices are learning, their progress in both dental nursing and developing English and mathematics, and whether they are challenged sufficiently. This is especially important for apprentices’ experience of

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Inspection judgements

learning, as most assessors are new to the role, and keen to improve their understanding of teaching and learning strategies. General matters arising from observations are discussed at regular standardisation meetings but managers have not put formal arrangements in place to ensure that assessors benefit from individual staff development opportunities arising from their observation feedback.  Quality improvement measures require improvement because managers do not use data and other evidence regularly to monitor and evaluate the success of proposed changes in terms of apprentices’ progress, progression and outcomes. They do not use national quality benchmarks to inform their judgements and this limits the extent to which they can ensure that their apprentices are getting a similar experience to others on the same programme.  Regular and frequent quality meetings result in quantifiable improvements that benefit

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Inspection judgements

apprentices. For example, as a result of these meetings, managers have improved initial guidance and advice that has led to improved in-year retention, and improved workbooks that give apprentices advice on producing analytical and evaluative writing that improves noticeably the quality of their work.  Assessors and managers act promptly if any apprentice falls behind their planned timescale for completion of their qualification. They regularly track the progress of all apprentices through all the elements of their qualification by means of a colour-coded grid that identifies effectively those at risk of falling behind so that they can receive support. For example, assessors moved one apprentice to another surgery and this apprentice now enjoys the work and produces assignments of a high quality.  Managers work very closely with the General Dental Council, dentists and the national apprenticeship service to ensure that the training and assessments match current industry

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Inspection judgements

practices. The company’s own marketing team recruit almost all the apprentices aged 16 to 18 in dental nursing and successfully match them with dental surgeries that need more staff. They also enable adults already working in dental surgeries to gain their qualification entirely within the workplace which minimises disruption for surgery staff and patients.  All apprentices have a mentor in their workplace who is a licensed dental nurse or dentist. Mentors support apprentices in their dental practice very effectively, and managers and assessors give them detailed information about qualification requirements.  Arrangements to promote equality and diversity are good. Staff throughout the organisation promote a strong sense of respect for one another, for apprentices and for others with whom they work. Assessors and apprentices understand that treating people equally does not mean treating them the same, but adapting behaviour and materials to enable them to have the same

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Inspection judgements

quality of experience. This good practice is modelled well by all staff in their adaptations of training and materials to support apprentices with specific learning needs.  Safeguarding requires improvement. Apprentices and staff have disclosure and barring service checks; apprentices complete a staying safe work book and all employers’ premises are risk assessed before apprentices start their programme. Managers carry out spot checks on premises and as a result arrange for immediate improvements in creating a safe environment for apprentices. However, in a very few cases assessors do not always reinforce best practice guidance for safe working practices during assessments. During inspection, staff and managers took immediate action to rectify this through rapidly putting update training in place for assessors.

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Anderson Stockley Accredited Training Ltd

Inspection grades are based on a provider’s performance:

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Anderson Stockley Accredited Training Ltd

1: Outstanding 2: Good 3: Requires improvement 4: Inadequate Overall 14-16 part-time provision 14-16 full-time provision 16-19 study programmes Traineeships 19+ learning programmes Apprenticeships Employability Community learning

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Anderson Stockley Accredited Training Ltd

The quality of teaching, learning and assessment 3 3

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Anderson Stockley Accredited Training Ltd

The effectiveness of leadership and management 3 3

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Provider details

Type of provider Independent learning provider

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full contract year

Principal/CEO Ms Janice Fitch Date of previous inspection October 2008 Website address www.asatraining.co.uk

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programme level

Level 1 or below Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 and above

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Apprenticeship level and age

Intermediate Advanced Higher 16-18 19+ 16-18 19+ 16-18 19+ 3 1 64 38 0 0 Number of traineeships 16-19 19+ Total N/A N/A N/A Number of learners aged 14-16 N/A Full-time N/A Part-time N/A Number of community learners N/A Number of employability learners N/A Funding received from Skills Funding Agency (SFA)

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Contextual information

Anderson Stockley Accredited Training Limited (ASAT) was established in early 2000 as an additional division of Anderson Stockley Telemarketing Associates, which has been trading since 1993 as a commercial training, telemarketing and recruitment organisation. It became a limited company in 2007. It has had a contract with the Skills Funding Agency since July 2013 to offer apprenticeships, nearly all of which are advanced apprenticeships in dental nursing. The company’s head office is in Northampton, but learners are all based in work places across the country, with the majority being in the South East and Midlands.

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Information about this inspection

Two additional inspectors, assisted by the Training Development Manager as nominee, carried out the inspection with short notice. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self- assessment and development plans, and the previous inspection report. Inspectors also used data on learners’ achievements over the previous year to help them make judgements. Inspectors used group and individual interviews, telephone calls and online questionnaires to gather the views of learners and employers; these views are reflected throughout the report. They observed learning sessions, assessments and progress reviews. The inspection took into account all relevant provision at the provider. Inspectors looked at the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across all of the provision and graded the sector subject area listed in the report above.

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Grade Judgement

Detailed grade characteristics can be viewed in the Handbook for the inspection of further education and skills 2012, Part 2:

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Grade Judgement

www.gov.uk/government/publications/handbook-for-the-inspection-of-further-education-and-skills- from-september-2012

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Grade Judgement

guidance ‘Raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 , or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Grade Judgement

Learner View is a website where learners can tell Ofsted what they think about their college or provider. They can also see what other learners think about them too.

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Grade Judgement

To find out more go to www.learnerview.ofsted.gov.uk

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Grade Judgement

Employer View is a new website where employers can tell Ofsted what they think about their employees’ college or provider. They can also see what other employers think about them too.

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Grade Judgement

To find out more go to www.employerview.ofsted.gov.uk 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 and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, 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.

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Grade Judgement

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you 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 provider inspection reports, please visit https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/user.

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Grade Judgement

T: 0300 123 4234 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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