Wiltshire Council

The Wiltshire Council Re-inspection monitoring visit report

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Name of lead inspector: Steven Tucker HMI

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Address:

County Hall Bythesea Road Trowbridge BA14 8JQ Monitoring visit: The Wiltshire Council, 19 June 2017

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Context and focus of visit

This is the second re-inspection monitoring visit following publication of the inspection report on 1 December 2016 which found the provider to be inadequate overall.

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Context and focus of visit

At the inspection in October 2016 inspectors judged overall effectiveness; the effectiveness of leadership and management; teaching, learning and assessment; outcomes for learners; adult learning programmes and apprenticeships to be inadequate. Personal development, behaviour and welfare were judged to require improvement.

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Context and focus of visit

During the monitoring visit, the inspector focused on themes and priorities for improvement identified at the first monitoring visit on 12 and 13 January 2017.

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Reasonable progress

As part of the strategic review of provision, following the inspection in October 2016, council leaders decided to stop delivering apprenticeships. They undertook to cooperate with the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and other providers to ensure their apprentices completed their apprenticeships or were able to continue with another provider. Approximately a quarter of the 130 apprentices enrolled at the time of the inspection completed their apprenticeship before this provision was withdrawn. Council staff worked well with other providers to secure appropriate training for two thirds of the remaining apprentices and enabled them to continue their apprenticeships. This included a successful tendering process which secured a provider to continue delivering apprenticeships to the council’s own employees. As a result, the council’s strong commitment to employing apprentices continues.

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Insufficient progress

Council leaders have agreed a new strategy for the small amount of adult funding that the council receives from the ESFA. This is now allocated to a family learning service which aims to provide education and training that benefits families in the most disadvantaged communities of Wiltshire. However, agreeing and implementing this strategy has taken too long. Only a small number of learners have benefited Monitoring visit: The Wiltshire Council, 19 June 2017 from the revised strategy since only a small number of courses have started in 2016/17. Managers have consulted well with successful providers of family learning in order to inform the new strategy. However, they have not identified with sufficient precision the specific needs of families in Wiltshire. Nor have they referred to the data and information available to them about these communities when developing the strategy. Council leaders have appointed a new board of governors to oversee the service,

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Insufficient progress

although this board has not been in place long enough to have any significant impact on improving the quality of provision. The terms of reference for the board clearly show how the governors will advise managers and monitor the provision, but do not explain with sufficient clarity how the governors will influence or challenge the council’s decisions about the service. Managers have identified an appropriate range of performance indicators to measure the quality of the service. However, the targets they have set are based on those used by other providers rather than on the needs of the local communities served by the family learning service. Council leaders have given responsibility for the new family learning programmes to the council’s commissioning, performance and school effectiveness team. This team is having a positive impact on the provision by providing insightful guidance and support to the newly appointed manager of the family learning service and improving

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Insufficient progress

collaboration with council departments. For example, senior leaders have ensured that the commissioning of children’s centres now includes a requirement to promote family learning.

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Reasonable progress

Managers have produced a comprehensive action plan that clearly and rationally identifies how they will tackle the weaknesses identified by inspectors. Leaders and managers monitor closely their progress on completing the actions. However, they have not set dates for the completion of every action and a minority of actions lack clear measures of success. Managers have taken effective steps to begin rectifying the weaknesses in teaching, learning and assessment. They have recently appointed new teachers and provided training that current teachers have found very useful. Observers provide useful feedback to teachers on the quality of their teaching and each observation results in a well-considered action plan. Managers now have a clear understanding of how learners can progress from one stage of learning to the next and how each course they have planned will improve the lives of families. Managers are aware of the need to inform potential learners

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Reasonable progress

about the benefits of taking a course but have not yet created the necessary website or information leaflets. Monitoring visit: The Wiltshire Council, 19 June 2017 Teachers understand the revised purpose of the family learning provision and have planned courses that focus on the skills which disadvantaged learners need to develop. The small number of courses which the council has run since the implementation of the new strategy have successfully attracted learners. However, not enough of these learners are from the disadvantaged communities that are targeted in the revised strategy. Managers recognise that they need to take more effective steps to target future courses at learners who are most in need of them.

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The impact of leaders’ and managers’

consultations with learners and stakeholders.

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Reasonable progress

Since the previous inspection leaders and managers have run only a small number of courses; therefore, feedback from learners on their experiences has been limited. However, as part of their development of the new strategy for family learning, leaders and managers have sought the views of learners and stakeholders.

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Reasonable progress

Council leaders have successfully recruited a headteacher, the manager of a children’s centre and two learners to the newly constituted governing board. They have worked well to build on the strong relationships with children’s centres and schools which existed at the time of the previous inspection, to identify how the service can best support families.

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Reasonable progress

Managers have implemented a new agreement for schools and children’s centres that includes a requirement for the family learning team to capture feedback from schools and children’s centres to help improve the service.

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Reasonable progress

Managers have carried out a survey of learners to inform their decisions about future provision. At the time of the monitoring visit it was too early to evaluate the impact of learners’ views since they were still responding to the survey and managers had yet to analyse the results. Monitoring visit: The Wiltshire Council, 19 June 2017 the guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/publications/complaints-about-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 . Learner View 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. To find out more go to www.learnerview.ofsted.gov.uk .

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Reasonable progress

Employer View Employer View is a 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. To find out more go to www.employerview.ofsted.gov.uk .

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regulates and inspects to 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, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, 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 reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to

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the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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

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