Impact College

Further education and skills inspection report

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Impact College Independent learning provider

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Overall effectiveness Inadequate Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate Adult learning programmes Inadequate

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

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Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Requires improvement

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Summary of key findings

 Safeguarding is ineffective. Managers do not pay sufficient attention to safeguarding risks, including ensuring that they complete relevant checks when recruiting staff and learners.  Leaders and managers lack an understanding of their obligations for delivering courses funded directly by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).  Leaders and managers have not implemented effective quality improvement strategies. The vast majority of weaknesses identified at the last inspection remain and the strengths have become weaknesses.  Leaders have been unable to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and these are now inadequate. Leaders do not monitor teaching practices sufficiently.  Teaching staff lack sufficient experience and the necessary qualifications across the curriculum to help learners make at least the expected progress in their learning.  Staff do not assess learners’ starting points

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Summary of key findings

effectively and do not take account of learners’ prior knowledge and skills to inform learning needs. The assessment of learners’ starting points in English and mathematics is unreliable.  In too much of their assignment work, learners do not use their own words.  Leaders do not record and monitor the destinations of learners effectively. As a result, they do not know whether their provision meets its mission or learners’ aspirations.

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Summary of key findings

The provider has the following strengths

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Summary of key findings

 Learners enjoy their learning and grow in confidence.  Attendance and punctuality have improved significantly since the previous inspection.

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Information about the provider

 Impact College is the trading name of Awaaz Enterprises Limited. It is an independent learning provider that was established in 2004. Its aim is ‘to inspire and enable learners to embrace opportunities and realise their potential by improving their skills and increasing their employability’. Most learners live within a five-mile radius of the college. This area is exceptionally culturally and socio-economically diverse, with approximately 33 languages spoken in the community. Since its previous inspection, the college has reduced its provision and learner numbers significantly. At the time of this inspection, 24 learners were studying for a diploma in health and social care at level 3.  Awaaz Enterprises Limited has an additional centre, Awaaz Learning Centre, and a sister company, Awaaz Manchester, which is a charitable organisation. The company offers other types of courses, not funded through the ESFA, through these organisations. It

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Information about the provider

works with another training company, Manchester First, to provide supplementary courses such as in English and mathematics.

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

 Implement urgently, effective and comprehensive safeguarding arrangements, including appropriate record keeping, that meet statutory requirements, and ensure that managers confirm staff’s and learners’ identities and suitability before they join the organisation.  Provide a relevant curriculum that meets the needs of the community that it serves and that offers qualifications at appropriate levels to meet individual needs and starting points.  Implement rigorous quality assurance and quality improvement arrangements to eradicate the weaknesses rapidly.  Improve teaching, learning and assessment significantly by ensuring that: – a senior manager has oversight of teaching, learning and assessment – staff and tutors gather accurate information about learners’ starting points so that they plan learning effectively to meet individual needs, abilities and prior experiences – tutors set targets that are challenging, realistic and based on learners’ starting points

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What does the provider need to do to improve further?

and ambitions, so that they develop their knowledge, skills and understanding swiftly – learners write their assignment work in their own words and that tutors, managers and governors no longer tolerate plagiarism as acceptable – tutors use an appropriate range of resources to enhance learners’ understanding and experiences – tutors use assessment practices to identify and correct spelling and grammatical errors and inaccurate information and ensure that the work that learners submit is at the appropriate level.  Ensure that leaders and managers understand their obligations for delivering courses funded directly by the ESFA.  Ensure that tutors have suitable qualifications and a sufficient range of expertise in the subjects that they teach to enable learners to make at least the progress expected of them and for the level they are studying.  Monitor accurately the destinations of learners to ensure that the provision achieves its

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

 Leaders and managers have not taken sufficient action to ensure that they eradicate the weaknesses identified in the last inspection. Strengths identified at the previous inspection are now weaknesses. In December 2017, leaders reduced the extent of the provision, so that they could concentrate on improving standards, but the quality of the provision has declined.  Leaders and managers lack an effective understanding of their obligations in delivering courses funded directly by the ESFA. In addition to holding a prime contract, the company was previously a subcontractor of a national provider of further education and skills qualifications. This contract ended in July 2018. The national provider supported the college by ensuring that processes and procedures were in place for its needs and requirements. Leaders are correct to accept that they do not understand fully what they should do when they run their own ESFA contract. They rely too much on external

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

support, including their use of consultants, to help them monitor the effectiveness of teaching and learning, and quality improvement.  Leaders, managers and governors do not have a sufficiently developed strategic overview of the provision. While leaders say that they are passionate about providing local residents with opportunities to improve their life chances, they do not ensure that the provision meets fully the needs, starting points and aspirations of all learners. Initial advice and guidance records are sparse and do not provide a sufficient or accurate overview of learners’ starting points and eligibility for the programmes. Where learners have achieved higher level programmes in other subject areas, including degrees in their own countries, staff do not consider these or check their validity sufficiently, when providing initial advice and guidance.  Leaders and managers have not implemented appropriate quality assurance

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

arrangements to ensure that they provide learners with a comprehensive and high-quality training programme. Self-assessment processes remain weak. While the self-assessment report provided for the inspection is in a draft format, the last report and improvement plan highlighted clearly areas of weakness that leaders have not actioned.  Leaders and managers do not ensure that tutors provide learners with a high standard of teaching that helps them to learn and make the progress of which they are capable. They do not monitor teaching practices sufficiently. Observation records are descriptive and do not help tutors to improve their teaching practices. During the inspection, college observers were unable to identify accurately the strengths and weaknesses in lessons.  Assessment practices are weak. Too many learners continue to use and submit information that is not their own work, despite managers and governors being aware of

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Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

this. Learners copy much of their work from internet sites. The awarding body also identified this concern during its sampling of learners’ work.  Leaders do not ensure that staff hold sufficient vocational qualifications or have the specialist knowledge to deliver and verify courses.

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The governance of the provider

 Governance arrangements have improved since the previous inspection and governors, who have personal experience of the further education and skills sector, are now in place. However, leaders and governors do not utilise governors’ skills to help leaders and managers to make the necessary improvements to the provision.  Governors are right to recognise that weaknesses still remain in the provision and that they should do more to challenge leaders to make swifter improvements.  Information provided for governors has improved but is not yet sufficient. Governors are not yet confident that the information they receive is accurate.

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Safeguarding

 The arrangements for safeguarding are ineffective.  Managers do not conduct safe recruitment practices to ensure that they complete relevant checks when recruiting staff. Managers are unable to provide evidence to show that they record staff’s suitability or previous history accurately or in sufficient detail. Records are haphazard and show a lack of attention to safeguarding risks.  The designated safeguarding lead does not hold appropriate safeguarding qualifications for the role. Those responsible for safeguarding, including governors, are unaware of the potential risks in the local area.  Managers have produced a ‘Prevent’ duty action plan which identifies how managers will ensure that they meet their legal obligations. However, the document and completed actions have no dates, and there is no indication when managers will review the plan. Significant actions are not due for completion until December 2018. These include

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Safeguarding

information-sharing protocols with ‘Prevent’ duty partners, incident management plans, including critical incidents, and staff’s and learners’ awareness of local tensions.  Leaders and managers do not check the eligibility or suitability of learners before they start their courses. Only one third of learners have undertaken Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks.  Governors are unaware of the poor standard of identity checks on staff and learners. Not all governors have received safeguarding training.

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

 Teaching, learning and assessment are inadequate. Leaders do not have a sufficient oversight of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.  Tutors plan lessons poorly. They do not link learning in lessons effectively to the knowledge, skills and understanding that learners need to achieve their qualification or to progress to the next stage of learning or employment. Tutors’ questioning skills do not check learners’ understanding sufficiently. They confirm that responses are accurate when they are incorrect. For example, learners gave four different answers about the infant mortality rate in 1984, but tutors marked them all as correct.  Tutors do not track learners’ progress sufficiently to ensure that they achieve at the required level for their course. Tutors could not provide assessed work for current learners, despite their being on the course for two months.  Tutors do not use an appropriate range of resources. The majority of lessons take place

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

in a generic classroom with no subject-specific resources, such as textbooks or research opportunities. This does not help learners develop the study skills that they will need for university. Referencing is poor, often out of date and inappropriate.  Tutors do not develop learners’ wider knowledge, skills and understanding sufficiently to meet learners’ ambitions. The standard of learners’ work is below the level of their course. Learners’ work does not show their ability to analyse and evaluate information, or to apply it independently to the qualification criteria. As a result, most learners do not develop the range of knowledge, skills and understanding that will help them attain the higher level skills needed by employers, or the goals promised to them when they enrolled.  Learners do not improve their English skills sufficiently. Tutors do not correct English spelling and grammatical errors in learners’ work routinely, including when learners use

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Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Inadequate

abbreviations that are common in text messages such as ‘y this’ and ‘y that’.  Too often, learners’ written work does not contain their own words. Inspectors noted this in the last inspection report. The concern has also been identified by the provider’s plagiarism software, and in internal and external verification reports. Even where this is identified, learners have gained higher grades, contrary to the explicit requirements of internal and external quality processes.  The assessment of learners’ initial English and mathematical skills is inaccurate. All current learners work at level 2. The majority of learners speak English as an additional language, and the initial assessment does not correlate with the standard of English and mathematical skills evidenced during the inspection.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

 Standards of learners’ work are low and below the level at which they study. Tutors do not plan sufficiently to meet the wide range of individual learners’ needs and abilities. As a result, learners make slow progress.  Learners make slow progress in developing their English and mathematical skills. Tutors do not correct errors in learners’ written work routinely to help them to improve their English skills. Teaching resources contain errors in spellings and terminology, for example ‘The medication is labelled in litter,’ and ‘How many mills are there in a litter?’  Learners have an insufficient understanding of the risks posed by radicalisation and extremism. Radicalisation and extremism matters are not in the learners’ handbook. In a lesson that referred to gang culture and guns, the tutor did not help learners to explore how people become involved in gangs and how learners can recognise signs of

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

involvement.  The number of enrichment opportunities available to learners has decreased significantly since the last inspection and is limited. Activities do not have sufficient breadth to develop learners’ wider skills, such as personal and social skills. During the inspection, learners enjoyed a visit from a care agency that hoped to recruit learners as ‘bank’ staff.  The majority of learners do not benefit from purposeful work experience. On health and social care courses, learners often work in care-related job roles on the days that they do not attend college. However, work experience diaries do not demonstrate that these roles are sufficient to cover the breadth and depth of the work experience required for the course. Most of the diaries contained insufficient detail about the activities that learners carry out and many sections were empty, such as the name of the organisation where they worked and the name of their supervisor.

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

 Learners have an insufficient understanding of British values. While there is information about British values on the virtual learning environment and a brief mention of them in the learner handbook, tutors do not use naturally occurring themes in lessons to explore what these values mean and how learners can apply them. There was no reference to British values in learners’ written work, despite this being a fundamental part of health and social care.  Learners do not receive appropriate careers information, advice and guidance. Too many learners are on the wrong level of course. For example, learners who have never studied an educational programme before and who do not hold level 2 qualifications in English and mathematics are on the level 3 health and social care diploma. Only two learners are working towards level 2 English and/or mathematics qualifications.  Learners receive insufficient and unrealistic guidance and information about the options

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Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

for their next steps. While staff encourage them to have high aspirations and to consider studying at university, this is inappropriate for the majority of learners. Consequently, they do not receive sufficient help to move on to appropriate destinations.  Learners enjoy their programmes. They demonstrate good behaviour in lessons and grow in confidence. Learners are from a wide range of diverse backgrounds and in lessons they work effectively together and treat each other’s views with respect.  Learners are aware of safeguarding issues and know whom to go to if they wish to report any concerns.  Attendance and punctuality have improved significantly since the last inspection. Learners attend their lessons regularly and are on time.

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Outcomes for learners Inadequate

 The standards of learners’ work are not high enough and do not reflect those required for a level 3 course. Too much content is inaccurate and often is not in learners’ own words.  Learners on the level 3 diploma in health and social care course make insufficient progress. This accounts for all learners at the provider. Learners’ notebooks provided as examples of their current work contain insufficient content, given the length of time that they have been on their course. The work is of a very poor standard. For example, learners cannot explain the difference between a disability and an impairment. Learners have not completed any assessed work since the start of their course at the beginning of September 2018.  Previous achievement data for 2016/17 and 2017/18 is unreliable. Significant concerns exist about the reliability of assessment practices. For example, when awarding organisations had identified malpractice, learners continued to receive high grades.

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Outcomes for learners Inadequate

 In 2016/17 and 2017/18, the vast majority of business studies learners achieved the minimum grade to pass their courses. Very few of them achieved high grades. This course is no longer running.  Destinations for level 3 learners in health and social care for 2017/18 are not as positive as college documentation originally indicates. For example, data provided by the college suggests that 14 learners moved on to university. However, further information indicates that 22 of the 27 learners remained in their existing employment, were seeking employment or were undecided about their futures. Data identifies that over four fifths of business studies learners intended to progress to a level 4 business qualification. However, there is no evidence that they enrolled for this course.  The management of data is weak. Learners’ registrations for courses and their start and end dates are confusing. Awarding body information shows that learners enrolled on

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Outcomes for learners Inadequate

courses in 2015/16. This is not reflected in college data reports. The recording and monitoring of when each learner started are unclear.  Managers and teachers do not monitor the progress that learners make on their courses, or the impact the qualification has on learners’ career or progression plans.  A few learners have progressed to university courses to study paediatric, mental health or general nursing. These learners held higher level qualifications in other subject areas that they had achieved before starting the health and social care diploma course at this provider.

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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 Altaf Ramtoola

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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

0 0 0 0 0 24 0 0 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+ 0 0 0 0 0 0 Number of traineeships 16–19 19+ Total 0 0 0 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 At the time of inspection, the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors: N/A

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Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the director/head of centre, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plan, and the previous inspection report and development plan. Inspectors used group and individual interviews and telephone calls to gather the views of learners and stakeholders; these views are reflected within the report. They observed learning sessions and other activities. The inspection took into account all relevant provision at the provider.

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Inspection team

Suzanne Wainwright, lead inspector Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Inspection team

Susan Gay Ofsted Inspector 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 .

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Inspection team

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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

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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Inspection team

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