Thrive Skills Limited

Further education and skills inspection report

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Enabling Development Opportunities Ltd Independent learning provider

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Overall effectiveness Requires improvement Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement Adult learning programmes Requires improvement Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

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Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Not previously inspected

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Summary of key findings

This is a provider that requires improvement

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Summary of key findings

 Staff do not clearly identify learners’ starting points in their knowledge, skills and behaviours; they are unable to measure their progress well enough.  Tutors focus on accrediting and verifying learners’ levels of skill and experience rather than challenging learners to develop their skills to their full potential.  The teaching of English and mathematics requires improvement; learners do not develop these skills sufficiently well for their future prospects.  Information, advice and guidance to learners are not sufficiently thorough; learners are not made fully aware of their study obligations and future career opportunities.  Managers do not evaluate their provision thoroughly enough. Consequently, the quality improvement plan does not identify key areas and challenging targets to have the greatest impact on improving learners’ progress.  Senior managers have been slow to seek effective external scrutiny, challenge and

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Summary of key findings

support to secure robust governance arrangements.  Tutors do not challenge learners to produce a sufficiently high standard of written work.

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Summary of key findings

The provider has the following strengths

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Summary of key findings

 The range of programmes and courses meets the needs of learners and employers well.  Highly effective links with employers in the health and social care sector have helped the provider to produce a much-needed skilled workforce.  Learners develop good practical skills and use these to improve their employment prospects.  Learners develop industry-standard technical skills in the fitness and beauty industry that prepare them well for self-employment.  The personal development and behaviour of learners in their workplaces are good.

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Information about the provider

 Enabling Development Opportunities Ltd (EDO), established in October 2007 as Skills Source Care Ltd, is based in Cannock in Staffordshire. It has training sites in Hednesford and Cannock town centre. The largest area of learning is health and social care with around 50% of the learners. Learners are employed by over a dozen care/nursing homes in the West Midlands. The second largest, and newly developed, areas for learning are personal training, make-up artistry and nail technology. Some 10% of learners are on a management programme.  Although the company had secured public funds for the provision of adult education and apprenticeships, during the inspection all 217 learners were funded through advanced learner loans. They were enrolled on levels 3, 4 and 5 programmes of adult learning. In previous years, the company offered a range of access courses in education and health and social work.

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

 Improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by: – planning and providing learning to ensure that learners receive challenge to deepen their knowledge and enhance their skills – ensuring that the assessment of starting points is used correctly to identify the levels of learners’ prior knowledge and skills – offering constructive feedback to learners on their written work that helps them to produce the highest possible standard of work.  Improve the quality of information, advice and guidance to ensure that: – initial advice and guidance are used to identify learners’ prior learning and experiences, barriers to learning, learning needs, future career aspirations – learners are made fully aware of the study commitments so that they complete their learning and prepare for their next steps in learning or employment.  Tutors should consolidate and extend learners’ skills in English and mathematics, so that

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

they produce a high standard of written work and prepare learners well for higher-level roles.  Leaders and managers should measure the impact that teaching, learning and assessment have on outcomes for learners and devise an effective quality improvement plan to help them improve learners’ experience.

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

 Leaders and managers have responded positively to the serious underperformance identified by the funding body on the access to higher education, social work and health courses. During this period of just over two years, they did not pay sufficient attention to improving the quality of teaching and learning in the remaining provision of health and social care, management, and the newly developed provision in personal training and beauty therapy. Leaders and managers failed to re-engage the learners who had left the programmes. Most of the learners who left were women; they did not receive sufficient guidance before enrolling about the demands of the two-year study programme. Leaders and managers did not make sufficient effort to give learners the credit for the work they had already done so that they could re-enrol later.  The arrangements to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment require

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

improvement to be effective. Managers carry out observations of teaching, learning and assessment for every tutor at least once a year, but these do not evaluate all aspects of learners’ experience. The focus of their observations is on measuring the tutor’s input rather than on evaluating what the learners learn during the lessons. In the action points from the lesson observations, managers do not clearly identify what the tutors need to improve and how they should do this.  Performance management is insufficiently effective. Its focus is on compliance with the awarding bodies’ standards. In addition, managers hold tutors to account for learners’ enrolments, staying on programmes and completing their qualifications. This is not sufficient as they do not fully consider the quality of the teaching, learning and assessment the tutors provide.  Staff development is not clearly focused on improving tutors’ teaching, learning and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

assessment. Managers provide adequate support to tutors who do not achieve a good grade during the annual lesson observations to help improve their practice. However, managers do not routinely analyse the findings from observations to develop a programme of staff development to improve teaching and learning. Staff development focuses on meeting the statutory requirements such as safeguarding and the ‘Prevent’ duty, or implementing an online portal for storing learners’ work, learning resources, and uploading evidence to achieve qualifications.  The self-assessment report is too descriptive, and not evaluative enough to provide a solid foundation for improvement actions. It focuses on the actions of staff and managers, rather than on the impact of these actions on learners. It does not identify weaknesses sufficiently well. Leaders ensure that all staff are involved in the self-assessment process. However, they acknowledge that they need to focus on impact on learners and make

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

better use of employers’ and learners’ feedback to enable them to improve the quality of provision.  The quality improvement plans at organisation and at programme level require improvement to be fully effective. The plans do not include all the necessary areas for improvement. Managers do not identify clear milestones for actions or identify the expected impact on learners.  Leaders and managers’ strategy to enhance learners’ skills in English and mathematics is not working effectively. Not all tutors are skilled at providing this support across the provision. Managers rightly recognise that they do not have tutors with specialist skills in these subjects and have made plans to deal with this need. At the time of the inspection, the support for learners was not effective or systematic.  The current programmes meet the needs of adult learners well. The majority of learners undertake courses in health and social care, which reflects staff shortages locally and

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Requires improvement

nationally. Managers have firmly established and rapidly expanded the provision of beauty programmes to meet the demand for such courses after the closure of a local college in the region. Programmes in personal training also meet the local needs identified by the health authorities and the local enterprise council. Leaders and managers have a clear vision and ambitious targets for growing the provision and offering a balance of pathways that reflect their staff expertise.  Employers value the good communication and feedback they receive on their employees’ progress. Employers give good examples of the positive impact that learners make to their business. Employers’ businesses have also benefited from the many learners who have progressed within their companies and taken on management roles.

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The governance of the provider

 The scrutiny and challenge currently provided by those who exercise a governance function are not yet well established or sufficiently formalised. Leaders do not have a good understanding of how they compare to the best in the sector. They are not currently sharing good practice with other providers to help them improve their provision. Leaders are rightly aware of the need to address this and plan to improve the rigour of governance.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.  Managers have a good awareness of safeguarding and have developed a detailed safeguarding policy and related procedures, which they regularly update. They also have an effective ‘Prevent’ duty action plan. All staff have necessary awareness of safeguarding and the ‘Prevent’ duty, acquired by useful training. They provide up-to-date information to learners at induction and throughout their course on how to keep themselves safe.  Leaders carry out safe recruitment practices and appoint carefully vetted and suitable staff to work with learners. Managers deal with any safeguarding concerns and incidents promptly and keep clear records, so that they can learn lessons from them. Managers have established appropriate contacts with external agencies and the local ‘Prevent’ duty officer to make referrals if required.  EDO has a sound lone-worker policy to ensure the safety of staff working in isolated

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Safeguarding

contexts. Tutors also include information to learners on how to keep themselves safe if they aim to become self-employed after their programme.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

 Tutors do not accurately identify the starting points of learners’ skills, knowledge and behaviours when they start their learning. In the absence of this information, it is hard for learners and staff to identify precisely enough what new skills learners have developed or the overall progress they have made on the programme from their starting points. Learners start working through various units of qualifications and are not clear how much progress they have made overall and what they need to do to complete their studies. This results in many learners staying on the programme longer than they had planned.  The quality of teaching, learning and assessment on health and social care and management programmes requires improvement to be good. Many of the learners on health and social care and management programmes have significant experience of working in the sectors. In many cases, staff verify and accredit these skills without

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

challenging learners sufficiently to demonstrate how the knowledge gained on programme has helped them to perform at higher levels. For example, health and social care programmes have several units of qualifications that are common at levels 2, 3 or 4, such as communicating with others, equality and diversity and providing person-centred care. Tutors do not identify clearly how these skills and knowledge are distinct at different levels. Consequently, learners are not clear about the expected standards, particularly in their written work.  Tutors do not reinforce English and mathematics skills of learners systematically. They do not stress the importance of English and mathematical skills to learners for their current and future roles. For example, a few tutors encourage learners to identify situations where they might use English and mathematics in their workplace but fail to check that learners have done what was required of them. They do not give learners sufficient help

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

with improving their spelling. Too many learners make the same errors repeatedly.  Tutors do not meet the individual needs of learners who have limited prior knowledge and experience of working in the beauty therapy sector. Tutors have not clearly identified the entry criteria for each programme, including prior knowledge and skills required to undertake different vocational qualifications. For example, learners on a level 3 programme in nail technology and make-up artistry are not required to have any prior knowledge, aptitude or background. Those with limited or no previous knowledge of the sector struggle to gain the necessary knowledge and acquire advanced skills to become self-employed in the sector.  The standard of learners’ written work is mediocre. Tutors accept it to be good enough for passing the qualification. For example, on level 3 programme, tutors accept simple answers to questions in topics such as risk assessment. This does not allow or challenge

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

learners to demonstrate a full understanding of the topic and their ability to apply the knowledge to their workplace. While setting the assignment briefs for learners, tutors do not set clear enough expectations, such as requiring learners to expand on their answers by giving examples from their workplaces. Learners, therefore, are not clear of what is expected of them.  Staff do not have sufficiently high-level teaching skills, expertise and qualifications to challenge learners to develop a deeper understanding of the topics discussed. Staff have placed most of the learning materials on the electronic learning portal, which learners are encouraged to access to enhance their knowledge. Learners are not fully proficient at navigating through the portal. Tutors do not check if learners have accessed the materials. They do not question learners closely enough to check that their knowledge and skills are consolidated, and that they are able to apply this learning to their

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

workplaces.  Feedback on learners’ written work too often consists of noting their completion of units and not on the development of their skills, knowledge and competence. This meets the minimum standards of achieving a qualification but does not give learners the challenge to excel at their work.  Learners on personal training programmes benefit from a detailed critique from their tutors outlining what they did well and how to improve further. As a result, these learners enjoy their learning greatly and take delight in excelling at their work. Learners are keen to progress and make good use of verbal feedback to do so.  Tutors use their extensive industrial knowledge and experience to raise learners’ aspirations. They teach learners up-to-date skills and pass on their first-hand knowledge of the sector, such as make-up artistry, to learners who produce an excellent standard of work.  Staff know their learners well and have good rapport with them. Tutors provide good

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

support to learners, particularly those on beauty courses, to help them to develop strategies to cope with personal difficulties. This enables learners to stay on their programme, learn new skills and gain valuable qualifications.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

 Learners develop their confidence and self-esteem well during their learning programmes. They are proud of their achievements and excited about the prospects of using their newly developed skills to secure higher-level employment or self-employment.  Learners enjoy their learning. They are keen to achieve their qualifications and want to develop their knowledge and skills. Employers in the social care sector and clients of personal trainers value their technical knowledge and communication skills.  The standard of learners’ practical work is high. Practical caring skills and communication with residents and their families are good. Learners treat residents of care homes with dignity and make their stay enjoyable. The standard of learners’ practical work on nail technicians and make-up artists courses is very good.  Learners develop their communication and interpersonal skills to high levels. This results

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

in highly effective working relationships in their workplaces. They become productive team members and enhance their employers’ reputation as high-quality care providers. Learners undertaking personal training and beauty courses understand the value of good customer service and establish excellent relationships with their clients. A few of the learners, who have set up their own businesses, are delighted with their achievements. For example, one of the learners on the make-up artistry course is giving her expertise voluntarily in a hospital, helping patients with their make-up after injuries, in preparation for launching her career.  Learners display excellent behaviour in their workplaces. They have a keen awareness of the importance of treating clients and colleagues with respect. They learn the value of freedom of opinion, faith and religious practice. They recognise the diversity in society and learn to value people who have different views from their own.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Good

 Learners feel safe and are aware of how to report any concerns. They are taught in safe venues with due regard to health and safety. They understand and deploy safe working practices in their workplaces.  Learners are well aware of British values and know how to apply these in their work roles. For example, care learners encourage residents of their homes to participate in local council elections. Learners have a basic understanding of the concept of radicalisation and how people become radicalised. They know how to spot the signs of potential radicalisation and to whom to report issues. Tutors reinforce such issues later in course sessions. This promotes the importance of the topic and its value to a democratic society.  Most of the current cohort of learners receive clear information about course contents and what they need to be successful. However, they are not all aware of future career options

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Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

 The number of learners staying in learning and completing their qualifications was low in 2015/16 and 2016/17. Almost half of the learners who started learning on access to higher education and health and social work programmes left their courses without completing their qualifications. Many left either at the early stages of their learning or after having completed a significant amount of learning. Managers’ response to credit learners with the work they had done was not sufficient. Learners were not made aware of a clear alternative career pathway. Over the years, some 20% of the learners on health and social care programmes did not complete their learning. Overall, a much higher percentage of learners, compared to the 2015/16 and 2016/17 years, are now staying on their programme. Almost all learners on the newly introduced programmes stay on their courses and achieve their qualifications.  With imprecise starting points, the full extent to which learners make progress in their

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Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

development of skills, knowledge and behaviours is not clear enough to learners and managers alike. This is particularly noticeable for learners on health and social care and management programmes as they have worked in their jobs for several years and have gained a range of skills.  Learners who stay on the programmes achieve their qualifications. Learners enrolled on the newly launched programmes in make-up, nail technology and personal training achieve their qualifications. Learners on personal training courses develop high-level skills at level 2 and progress seamlessly to a level 3 programme. They become proficient at working with clients to design individual exercise programmes to meet their objectives to help improve their health. The range of exercise and diet regimes include improving flexibility, balance, cardiovascular health and weight loss or gain. These learners plan to work as freelance tutors and fitness instructors. Learners on make-up artistry

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Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

programmes produce work of a high standard, often exceeding their expectations.  Learners are prepared appropriately to progress to the next stages of their learning and employment. Most of the newly developed programmes are targeted at learners entering self-employment as make-up artists, nail technicians or personal trainers. Learners gain useful insights into setting up their own businesses, but it is too soon to evaluate the impact of their training on their lives. The majority of learners on social care programmes either secure promotion or pay rises, although leaders and managers do not have complete data on learners’ progression.  Historically, female learners have achieved less well than male learners at the provider. This was primarily due to many female learners leaving the access courses in the previous two years. The numbers of minority ethnic learners and those with learning difficulties

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Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

and/or disabilities are too low to make any meaningful comparison with the performance of their peers.  The standard of learners’ written work in most programmes is too low for the levels of programme. The standard of practical work is of the accepted level or higher for most learners in all vocational areas.

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Provider details

Type of provider Independent learning provider

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Provider details

Approximate number of all learners over the previous full contract year Principal/CEO Ian Shephard and Andrew Jacques

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

Main course or learning programme level Level 1 or below Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 or above Total number of learners (excluding apprenticeships) 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

- - - - - 177 - 40 Number of apprentices by apprenticeship level and age Intermediate Advanced Higher

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ - - - - - - Number of traineeships 16–19 19+ Total - - - Number of learners aged 14 to -

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

Number of learners for which the provider receives high- needs funding -

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Provider information at the time of the inspection

At the time of inspection, the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors: -

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Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the quality manager, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans. Inspectors used group and individual interviews, telephone calls and online questionnaires to gather the views of learners and employers; these views are reflected within the report. They observed learning sessions, assessments and progress reviews. The inspection took into account all relevant provision at the provider.

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Inspection team

Harmesh Manghra, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

William Baidoe-Ansah Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Jaswant Mann Ofsted Inspector guidance ‘Raising concerns and making a complaint about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website. 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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Inspection team

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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Inspection team

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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Inspection team

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.

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Inspection team

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 .

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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

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