The Chief Constable Of Northumbria

The Chief Constable of Northumbria Monitoring visit report

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Name of lead inspector: Pat Hornsby, Ofsted Inspector

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Address:

North Road Ponteland Newcastle upon Tyne NE20 0BL Monitoring visit: The Chief Constable of Northumbria, 4–5 December 2019

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Context and focus of visit

From October 2018, Ofsted undertook to carry out monitoring visits to all newly directly funded providers of apprenticeship training provision which began to be funded from April 2017 or after by ESFA and/or the apprenticeship levy. This monitoring visit was undertaken as part of those arrangements and as outlined in the Further education and skills inspection handbook, especially the sections entitled ‘Monitoring visits’ and ‘Monitoring visits to providers that are newly directly publicly funded’. The focus of these visits is on the themes set out below.

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Context and focus of visit

The Chief Constable of Northumbria (Northumbria Police) began to deliver apprenticeships for its employees in May 2018. It currently has 13 apprentices on customer service practitioner standards at level 2, and 17 on emergency service contact handling standards at level 3. An external learning provider delivers functional skills qualifications in English and mathematics. Apprentices work in the communications centre, dealing with emergency and non-emergency calls from members of the public. Northumbria Police also commissions a range of apprenticeship programmes from other learning providers to meet the development needs of its workforce. These are not included in this monitoring visit.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders did not ensure that they planned the programmes effectively when they started to offer apprenticeships. They did not allocate appropriate staff resources to manage and deliver the provision. As a result, the quality of programmes has, until recently, been poor and apprentices have made slow progress.

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Insufficient progress

Since then, leaders have appointed staff to manage and coordinate the programmes, and these staff have now been in post for several months. Leaders have ceased recruiting new apprentices, so that staff can focus their efforts on providing intensive support for existing apprentices, most of whom are already overdue in completing their programmes. Two apprentices passed their end-point assessments recently.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers have not established suitable arrangements for apprentices to achieve their functional skills qualifications in English and mathematics in a timely manner. No formal agreement is in place with the external learning provider that delivers this provision and no arrangements exist to monitor the quality of the provision. Apprentices take their functional skills qualifications towards the end of their programmes and do not benefit from developing their skills in English and mathematics for the full duration of their studies. Monitoring visit: The Chief Constable of Northumbria, 4–5 December 2019 Programmes incorporate sufficient off-the-job learning to meet apprenticeship requirements. The majority of learning takes place during an intensive block of initial training and mentoring, which apprentices are right to value highly. However, apprentices do not have enough ongoing study time throughout their programmes to

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Insufficient progress

complete their learning and prepare for their end-point assessments.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers implement a curriculum that supports apprentices to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours that they need to carry out their specialist call- handling roles. Programmes contribute well to meeting the organisation’s workforce development needs.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers have an accurate understanding of the main strengths and weaknesses of the provision. A recently established steering group oversees quality improvement and monitors the progress of apprentices effectively.

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Insufficient progress

Staff do not assess apprentices’ starting points. Many apprentices have considerable prior experience in customer service and call handling in other contexts, but staff do not take this into account when planning learning. All apprentices complete the same programme of learning, irrespective of their different experiences.

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Insufficient progress

Following initial training and mentoring, too many apprentices receive insufficient ongoing support to meet the required standard and to prepare for their end-point assessment. Many receive little guidance on how to generate evidence of their competence. They have insufficient feedback on their work to help them improve it. Having identified this as an area for improvement, staff have recently strengthened support for apprentices by assigning new mentors who receive training for their roles. Staff have increased the frequency of meetings between apprentices and their mentors.

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Insufficient progress

Apprentices are not sufficiently clear on how much progress they have made towards completing their programmes. Staff set apprentices targets to complete tasks. However, they do not help apprentices to see how much progress they make towards developing the knowledge, skills and behaviours required by the standard.

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Insufficient progress

Apprentices benefit from a well-planned and carefully sequenced block of initial learning that prepares them for their roles. This helps them develop the specific knowledge and skills required to work in this specialist setting. Well-qualified and highly experienced police officers deliver the training. During the training, apprentices acquire technical knowledge about subjects such as incident awareness, health and safety, and legislation. They also develop their communication techniques, such as building rapport and showing empathy to service users. They then carry out practical training with their mentors. They respond to simulated, and Monitoring visit: The Chief Constable of Northumbria, 4–5 December 2019 then live, calls under their mentors’ supervision. This develops their confidence and skills to work independently. The communications centre has good resources for learning, including facilities for simulating emergency response calls.

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Reasonable progress

Effective safeguarding is central to the work of Northumbria Police. Leaders and managers implement a range of policies and procedures to safeguard all staff, including apprentices. These include stringent vetting procedures for new employees.

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Reasonable progress

Apprentices know how and to whom they should raise safeguarding concerns. Staff record and handle concerns appropriately and apprentices receive good support throughout the process.

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Reasonable progress

Northumbria Police provides a high level of welfare support for staff. This is particularly important because apprentices may deal with calls that they find stressful or traumatic. Apprentices can access a risk assessment designed to support staff following trauma at work. They can also access counselling services.

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Reasonable progress

All staff, including apprentices, complete training in safeguarding and the ‘Prevent’ duty during a well-structured induction. They have a good understanding of these topics, including online safety. However, apprentices are unaware of the specific risks in the local area, such as those posed by county lines. Monitoring visit: The Chief Constable of Northumbria, 4–5 December 2019 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

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Reasonable progress

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Reasonable progress

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Reasonable progress

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Reasonable progress

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