Camphill Wakefield (Pennine Camphill Community Ltd)

Pennine Camphill Community Report following a monitoring visit to a ‘requires improvement’ provider

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Name of lead inspector: Rachel Angus, Her Majesty’s Inspector

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Type of provider: Independent specialist college

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Address: Wood Lane Chapelthorpe Wakefield West Yorkshire WF4 3JL Monitoring visit: Pennine Camphill Community, 13 March 2019

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Context and focus of visit

Pennine Camphill Community was last inspected in March 2018. At that time, inspectors judged the overall effectiveness of the college to require improvement. Teaching, learning and assessment; the effectiveness of leadership and management; personal development, behaviour and welfare; and outcomes for learners were all found to require improvement.

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Context and focus of visit

The focus of this monitoring visit was to evaluate the progress that leaders and managers have made in addressing key areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection.

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Insufficient progress

The principal, trustees and other senior leaders have a clear understanding of the actions they need to take to improve the quality of education that learners receive. They are determined to make the improvements. Progress has been slowed due to a staffing restructure, including of the leadership team, following the previous inspection. A full leadership team has been established and effective improvement actions are now being taken. For some of the actions it is too soon to identify a discernible impact. Leaders have put considerable effort into developing a new system to enable managers to identify more precisely the progress that learners make. Leaders have outlined the expectations of staff to analyse, report and record learners’ progress more thoroughly. Leaders have recently provided useful training to clarify how staff will be expected to use the new enhanced system. Managers have further plans to produce a range of helpful reports from this more

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Insufficient progress

robust analysis of the progress that learners make. This will enable leaders and trustees to maintain a more detailed overview of learners’ progress as well as increasing staff accountability for the progress of their learners. The revised procedures were only introduced at the beginning of the week of the inspection. Consequently, they have yet to have any impact on improving tutors’ and managers’ oversight of learners’ progress against the outcomes recorded in learners’ education, health and care (EHC) plans or on the quality of the vocational programmes that learners follow. Leaders recognise that elements of staff non-compliance with managers’ more rigorous expectations remain a barrier to making the necessary improvements rapidly. The procedure for managing the performance of staff has also been very Monitoring visit: Pennine Camphill Community, 13 March 2019 recently updated to make it more effective. Leaders intend to use the procedure to

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Insufficient progress

spread good practice and improve areas of weakness rapidly.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers have not yet ensured that all staff undertake, or have access to, rigorous early assessment of learners’ starting points including their previous achievements. Too many targets that tutors set for learners remain too broad and do not break down EHC plan outcomes into challenging personal targets for learners to achieve. Not all tutors are using the recently introduced procedures for identifying starting points, or using appropriate learning activities and assessing learners’ progress to a consistently high standard. A few are not using the new procedure at all, which is hampering managers’ intentions to ensure that learners are challenged to reach their full potential. Managers’ own assessment of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment identifies that there is much still to improve. Leaders and managers have successfully reorganised the learning support arrangements for learners. Learning support is now more effectively allocated, based

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Insufficient progress

on the needs of individual learners. Consequently, most support staff now have greater expectations of learners and their ability to work independently and carry out more tasks for themselves. Managers have not yet ensured that the progress that learners make in developing their independence is fully captured in reviews.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders are currently piloting a revised and more rigorous process for the early assessment and guidance for learners who are due to start a study programme in September 2019. In the pilot carried out with the first applicant for the new academic year, staff have thoroughly established the starting point, support and development needs of the learner by working with the learner, their family and other key education and healthcare partners. Staff have produced a detailed work plan for the learner to start when they join the college later in the year. Managers rightly view this new approach to early assessment and guidance as more helpful to the new learner and to the staff. Managers intend to implement this new rigorous approach with all new learners. Staff have also improved the advice, guidance and early assessment for the small number of learners on the employment-focused study programme. This course gives

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Reasonable progress

learners, who staff assess as ready, the opportunity for short work tasters in the ‘achieve group’ or supported work placements in the ‘experience group’ within the Monitoring visit: Pennine Camphill Community, 13 March 2019 study programme. Staff use their assessment of learners’ skills well to identify the most appropriate strand for a learner and monitor regularly learners’ readiness to move to a supported work placement and greater independence. Currently, all learners on this programme have previously been on other vocational courses at the college. Managers recognise that the need to improve the early assessment of new learners to the college to identify if they might move onto this programme more rapidly.

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Reasonable progress

Managers have introduced interesting drama workshops for learners, using a local theatre group. In these drama sessions learners are able to explore a range of personal and social topics, including key safeguarding issues such as safe personal and social relationships. Staff have produced helpful resources for learners that contain the key safeguarding messages staff want them to understand. The resources promote consistent messages about the risks of talking to strangers in person or online. Learners can explain these key risks and what they should do if they have any concerns. Managers have also provided parents and carers with some useful information about the risks young people face online. They direct parents to additional information if they want to explore particular issues further, such as the age recommendations for electronic games. Monitoring visit: Pennine Camphill Community, 13 March 2019

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Reasonable progress

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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