Hospice In the Weald (Trading) Limited

Hospice in the Weald (Trading) Ltd Monitoring visit report

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Name of lead inspector: Emma Leavey, Her Majesty's Inspector

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Type of provider: Independent learning provider

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Address:

Maidstone Road Tunbridge Wells TN24TA Monitoring visit: Hospice in the Weald (Trading) Ltd, 15-16 July 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 the Education and Skills Funding Agency 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

Hospice in the Weald (Trading) Ltd (HITW) is a charity that provides end of life care to patients with a terminal illness. We:Train, a small independent learning provider set up by HITW, provides qualifications, short courses and apprenticeships to the staff from HITW and other local care facilities. At the time of the monitoring visit, there were 16 apprentices in learning, all following standards-based apprenticeships. Of these, three were working towards assistant healthcare practitioner at level 5, four were working towards senior healthcare support worker at level 3, eight were working towards lead adult care worker at level 3 and one was working towards adult care worker at level 2.

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Context and focus of visit

The impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) has been taken into account in the findings and progress judgements below.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders and managers do not plan the curriculum to meet apprentices’ needs or to develop their individual interests, or to meet the needs of their employers. Leaders do not ensure that employers know enough about their responsibilities to their apprentices. Most apprentices have to complete their training in their own time. Their managers at work do not understand the progress their apprentices are making and so cannot support them sufficiently.

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Insufficient progress

Managers and assessors do not use the information they collect about apprentices' prior knowledge and experience well enough to plan effective training programmes. Managers do not acknowledge the ample prior experience of their apprentices who already work in the care sector. As a result, they use the apprenticeship merely to accredit apprentices’ existing skills. Monitoring visit: Hospice in the Weald (Trading) Ltd, 15-16 July 2021 Leaders have not ensured that training staff, employers and apprentices understand how apprentices will be assessed at the end of the programme. Assessors do not prepare apprentices well enough for these assessments. Most apprentices do not understand how and when they will be assessed. A few apprentices are past their end dates and are not aware of when their assessment will take place.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders do not know enough about the strengths and weaknesses of their provision. Although managers observe training activities, they concentrate on what trainers do and very little on what apprentices learn and the progress they make. As trainers receive little feedback about the quality of their training, they do not know how to improve it. As a result, apprentices do not benefit from high-quality training.

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Insufficient progress

Apprentices do not benefit from well-planned, high-quality on-and-off the job training. As a result, few develop the substantial new skills, knowledge and behaviours they need for work. Tutors do not sequence or plan the curriculum effectively for their apprentices. Apprentices have to decide the order in which they want to learn topics. Consequently, apprentices do not build their knowledge logically over time or embed it into long-term memory. Employers know little about which topics their apprentices study and, as a result, are not able to help their apprentices put any learning into practice or gain further knowledge.

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Insufficient progress

Apprentices do not get enough time at work to complete their training. They complete almost all of their off-the-job learning in their own time. A small number of apprentices and employers are not aware of the requirement to provide apprentices with time to complete their training. Apprentices complete most of their work in isolation and do not benefit from the support of line managers and fellow employees to help them develop their skills.

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Insufficient progress

Too few apprentices receive support to help them consider their next steps. They do not know how their current role will provide them with the knowledge, skills and qualifications to progress to their next destination.

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Insufficient progress

A few apprentices who are new to the sector have developed useful new knowledge and skills, which have had a positive impact on their performance at work. For example, apprentices have developed strong skills to communicate with non-verbal patients to help them identify their needs more quickly.

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Insufficient progress

Apprentices are motivated to learn and aspire to move on to higher levels of learning and in their roles. Most apprentices value the learning resources that they have access to which help them complete their assignments. Monitoring visit: Hospice in the Weald (Trading) Ltd, 15-16 July 2021

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Insufficient progress

Safeguarding staff do not understand or plan to mitigate the risks that may affect their apprentices. They do not know about local risks and so are unable to support apprentices to understand how to keep safe from the risks of extremism and radicalisation. They have not made suitable links with external organisations to help them with safeguarding concerns.

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Insufficient progress

Managers and training staff have not undertaken recent safeguarding training. They do not know well enough the procedures for reporting concerns. Although leaders have sensible safeguarding and ‘Prevent’ duty policies in place, they do not apply these effectively or ensure that apprentices are aware of or understand them.

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Insufficient progress

Leaders conduct suitable pre-employment checks to ensure that they recruit staff working with apprentices safely. Apprentices feel safe at work due to safeguarding training from their employers. Monitoring visit: Hospice in the Weald (Trading) Ltd, 15-16 July 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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Insufficient progress

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Insufficient progress

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Insufficient progress

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Insufficient progress

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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