Hair and Beauty Industry Training Limited (Trading as TESDA)

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs P Sinclair Managing Director Hair and Beauty Industry Training Limited (trading as TESDA) Avenue One Chilton Industrial Estate Ferryhill County Durham DL17 0SG

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TESDA)

Following the short inspection on 25 and 26 October 2017, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The inspection was the first short inspection carried out since the provider was judged to be good in October 2013.

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TESDA)

You and your senior management team continue to provide a safe learning environment that supports apprentices’ progress and achievement very effectively. Senior managers accurately identified the reasons for a decline in outcomes for apprentices on a minority of programmes in 2015/16, and put effective strategies in place to drive up achievement. The achievement rates on the majority of apprenticeship programmes have improved and recovered to their previously high levels. Achievement rates on engineering apprenticeship courses have been consistently high.

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TESDA)

Functional skills first-time pass rates in English and mathematics have improved significantly and are now high for the learners and apprentices who require these qualifications. Training staff increasingly relate the development of English and mathematics skills to daily tasks in the apprentices’ workplaces.

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TESDA)

You respond well to the needs of employers. The range of training programmes that you offer is closely linked to the needs of local businesses. A high proportion of apprentices progress to further and higher levels of training as well as taking on more responsibilities in their workplace.

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TESDA)

Since the previous inspection, leaders and managers have improved the monitoring of all aspects of training in order to drive improvements. Effective implementation of quality improvement arrangements ensures that the quality of teaching and learning remains high in the majority of the provision.

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TESDA)

Robust performance management has enabled you to manage and effectively support underperforming staff to improve or leave the business. Consequently, teaching, learning and assessment continue to be effective in helping apprentices and adult learners to progress and achieve.

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TESDA)

Leaders and managers have maintained and further improved the effective safeguarding arrangements noted at the previous inspection. Senior managers have ensured that a supportive culture is in place and that all staff fully understand their responsibilities.

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TESDA)

An appropriate range of relevant policies and procedures effectively promote the protection and safety of all apprentices. All staff have completed relevant safeguarding update training. Staff, workplaces and training centres are subject to thorough vetting, which contributes to apprentices feeling safe.

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TESDA)

Apprentices demonstrate a good understanding of how safeguarding applies to them at work and in training centres. They are confident that training staff will listen to them, take their concerns seriously and deal with them quickly.

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TESDA)

Managers have implemented their obligations under the ‘Prevent’ duty, with regularly updated staff training. Tutors and assessors integrate themes promoting the ‘Prevent’ duty, British values, and equality and diversity routinely during off-the- job learning sessions and reviews. The majority of learners and apprentices can articulate their understanding of these issues and values. Most learners can explain the risks of radicalisation and know how to keep themselves safe from the dangers of extremism. All are aware of how to stay safe when using the internet or social media.

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Inspection findings

 Leaders and managers receive relevant and accurate information about the provision, staff and delivery partners. This has enabled them to maintain the good quality of teaching, learning and assessment since the previous inspection. However, senior managers produce few summaries of the performance of individual delivery partners to monitor trends in performance over time and to gain an oversight of all of the provision across all partners.  Performance management arrangements are effective. Managers monitor and review staff performance well and provide an extensive range of training and development to improve performance.  Regular observations of teaching, learning and assessment identify many areas for improvement in each delivery partner’s provision. However, the recently revised observation process is not yet sufficiently robust to identify accurately all aspects of provision that need to improve.

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Inspection findings

 Managers have continued to design apprenticeship programmes carefully to ensure that they meet the requirements of employers. Leaders and managers have responded well to the needs of small to medium-sized employers. Most employers are involved well in planning programmes that meet their business needs and apprentices’ interests.  Apprentices develop good work-related skills and become more confident in their job role. They clearly explain how their studies relate to their work. Employers and apprentices feel well supported and benefit from a highly flexible approach by assessors. For example, assessors support health and social care apprentices in a wide variety of locations and settings and by fitting in with their shift patterns.  Managers have recently introduced a new ‘cause for concern’ procedure alongside regular audits of apprentices’ progress review records. As a result, they identify much earlier apprentices who are at risk of leaving their programme

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Inspection findings

before completing, and take effective action to support them. This includes providing extra workplace assessments and individual support sessions for English and mathematics. The support is particularly effective in enabling apprentices for whom English is an additional language to succeed.  Employers provide high levels of support for apprentices, which often includes a range of good-quality in-house training, such as in the use of commercial sanitisers for tools and equipment in hairdressing salons. Apprentices appreciate the good support they receive from their workplace supervisors. As a result, the large majority make good progress with their learning.  The quality of apprentices’ completed work and portfolios is of a good standard, and apprentices develop a wide range of useful work-related skills. For example, engineering apprentices demonstrate a very clear understanding of the importance of safe working practices in high-risk work environments.

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Inspection findings

 Apprentices develop their English and mathematics skills well, and use their new skills successfully in the workplace. Engineering apprentices receive additional mathematics training in order for them to understand the elements of trigonometry essential for their job role. However, hairdressing assessors do not consistently correct spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, or provide suggestions about how apprentices can improve the quality of their written work.  The majority of training staff use the results of the assessment of apprentices’ prior knowledge and skills well to plan support for apprentices to develop their skills in English and mathematics. However, in a few instances, training staff do not take account of apprentices’ prior attainment of personal and work-related skills when selecting qualification units and identifying individual learning targets. As a result, a small number of apprentices do not make the progress of which

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Inspection findings

they are capable.  Since the previous inspection, managers have maintained high achievement rates for apprentices on health and social care programmes as well as for the small number of engineering apprentices. However, achievement rates for the minority of apprentices on intermediate-level apprenticeships in childcare and hairdressing programmes fell in 2015/16 and remained low in 2016/17. Overall achievement rates for all apprenticeship programmes in the first three months of the current academic year are high. A higher proportion of apprentices now achieve within the planned time, but this proportion is still not high enough. Achievement rates for the small number of adult apprentices with advanced loans remain very high.  The very large majority of apprentices are retained by their employers on completion of their training and many gain promotion or take on additional responsibilities in their workplace.

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Inspection findings

 The large majority of apprentices are enthusiastic and keen to progress in order to support their career aspirations. The proportion of apprentices who go on to higher levels of apprenticeships or higher education is high.

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Next steps for the provider

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the provider

 teaching, learning and assessment in all programmes improve further by the accurate identification and sharing of good practice through robust evaluation of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment  all training staff use the results of assessments at the start of the programme to plan effective support that helps apprentices and learners make swift progress in developing their skills  assessors on the hairdressing programme provide good support to help apprentices improve their written skills  tutors and assessors help all apprentices to develop their understanding of the dangers of radicalisation and extremism and their ability to protect themselves and their colleagues  senior managers analyse performance data closely and create useful summaries to provide those with governance and leadership responsibilities with an accurate oversight of all aspects of the provision.

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Next steps for the provider

I am copying this letter to the Education and Skills Funding Agency. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

During the short inspection, the managing director, as nominee, assisted inspectors. Inspectors met with senior leaders, managers, staff, employers and apprentices, using both face-to-face and telephone interviews. Key documents, including those related to self-assessment, performance and safeguarding, were reviewed. Inspectors visited training centres and workplaces to discuss with learners their experience of the training they receive, assess their progress and scrutinise the quality of their completed work. In addition, inspectors observed teaching, learning and assessment.

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