Heritage Skills Academy Limited

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Name of lead inspector: Montserrat Pérez-Parent, Her Majesty's Inspector

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Type of provider: Independent learning provider

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Address: 4 Parkside North Leigh Witney Oxfordshire OX29 6SG Monitoring visit: Julie Maycock, 8–9 April 2021

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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

Julie Maycock (trading as Mighty Oak Training) is a training provider based in Oxfordshire. Julie Maycock became an apprenticeship provider in January 2019 and began teaching apprentices in September 2019. At the time of the visit, 31 apprentices are on the standards-based revenues and welfare benefits practitioner apprenticeship at level 4. All apprentices are levy funded.

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Context and focus of visit

Apprentices work for nine local authorities and two housing associations in the north- west, north-east and south of England. At the time of the visit, training was remote using live video conferencing software. The impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) has been taken into account in the findings and progress judgements below.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders have extensive experience of working for local authorities in the areas of revenues and welfare benefits. They have used their specialist knowledge and expertise to design an ambitious curriculum for apprentices to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours they need to become skilled revenues and welfare benefits officers.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders work closely with employers to design and teach their apprenticeships. As a result, apprentices receive frequent and well-planned training that is bespoke to their employer and job role. Employers enable apprentices to swiftly practice at work what they have learnt in their training. They ensure that apprentices receive coaching and support from experienced staff until they can carry out tasks independently.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders recognise that they need to improve how they use the information they gather from apprentices at the start of their programmes to plan the length of their training. Currently all apprentices receive training for the same length of time. A few apprentices who are new to their jobs and whose roles involve dealing with both Monitoring visit: Julie Maycock, 8–9 April 2021 revenues and welfare benefits feel overwhelmed with the frequency and pace of training.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders make sure that apprentices understand thoroughly the assessments they need to complete to achieve their apprenticeship. Trainers are ambitious for their apprentices and support them well to achieve the high grades apprentices aspire to. They provide additional sessions on any topics that apprentices struggle with, which helps them understand.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders have recently set up useful quarterly meetings with their functional skills sub-contractor to monitor the quality of the training they provide. It is too early to see the impact of these meetings on apprentices’ progress. Leaders have a realistic understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their provision. They acknowledge that external scrutiny would help them to identify and address some of the areas for improvement sooner.

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Reasonable progress

Apprentices develop substantial new knowledge, skills and behaviours that enable them to deal with increasingly complex tasks at work. For example, apprentices apply their knowledge of legislation to resolve complicated benefit cases or learn how to recover money from overpayments. Employers value the benefits that apprentices bring to their organisation. As a result of their training, apprentices grow in confidence and provide better customer service to a wider range of clients, such as students or self-employed customers.

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Reasonable progress

Trainers provide apprentices with a range of well-considered resources that promote learning effectively. Trainers check carefully how well apprentices understand the subjects they teach. Trainers reduced group sizes and increased the frequency of breaks and the variety of activities when they started teaching online to ensure that apprentices continued to participate enthusiastically in lessons.

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Reasonable progress

Apprentices complete useful workbooks which enable them to apply the new knowledge they learn to different scenarios. The written feedback that apprentices receive on their work does not help them to understand how to improve it further. For example, when apprentices’ answers to a scenario are brief, trainers’ feedback does not encourage them to write more detailed responses that replicate working practice.

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Reasonable progress

Apprentices benefit from opportunities to develop their existing English and mathematical skills in their online lessons. For example, apprentices accurately calculate council tax bands and learn how to structure emails professionally. Apprentices who need to take qualifications in English and mathematics do not Monitoring visit: Julie Maycock, 8–9 April 2021 always understand the theory behind the calculations that they practise on their online learning and therefore are not able to replicate them outside of their functional skills learning.

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Reasonable progress

Staff responsible for safeguarding are appropriately trained. They keep their knowledge up to date with frequent refreshers. They use this information to ensure they keep apprentices safe. In the very small number of incidents which have occurred, staff intervened quickly and effectively.

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Reasonable progress

Apprentices feel safe and know how to raise any safeguarding concerns. Leaders work closely with employers to ensure that apprentices receive comprehensive training on safeguarding and the ‘Prevent’ duty. Apprentices understand how to apply this knowledge when at work. For example, they understand how and when to refer customers who may be at risk.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders ensure that apprentices cover safeguarding during induction. However, they do not revisit safeguarding topics enough during their training to help apprentices reinforce their understanding of how to keep themselves safe. Monitoring visit: Julie Maycock, 8–9 April 2021 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.

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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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