City Of Bradford Metropolitan District Council

Further education and skills inspection report

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Inspection of City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council

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Overall effectiveness Good

The quality of education Good Behaviour and attitudes Good Personal development Good Leadership and management Good Adult learning programmes Good Apprenticeships Good Overall effectiveness at previous inspection Good

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Information about this provider

City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council provides education and training across Bradford through its Skills for Work department. At the time of the inspection, there were 325 adult learners enrolled on courses funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), including English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), mathematics, English and digital literacy. There were 57 apprentices enrolled on standards in level 2 customer service, level 3 team leader/supervisor, level 3 business administration, level 3 public service operational delivery officer and level 5 operations/developmental manager. Most apprentices are aged 18 or over. 23 to 26 April 2024

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Adult learners benefit from an ambitious curriculum that helps them to develop the knowledge and skills that they need to progress into employment or further training and to become socially active in their communities. Leaders and managers provide effective programmes to engage learners who are the hardest to reach, who live in the most deprived wards of the city and who are from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds. Leaders, managers and tutors are passionate about improving the lives of their learners. Most learners are motivated and demonstrate positive attitudes to learning, despite facing significant challenges in their personal lives.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Apprentices benefit from a well-planned curriculum that enables them to develop the knowledge, skills and behaviours that they need to be successful in the workplace. For example, on the level 2 customer service apprenticeship tutors begin by developing apprentices’ confidence in working in their organisations and then support them to understand the systems and procedures that they need to follow in the workplace. Most apprentices achieve their qualifications, many with high grades, and many progress in their careers by gaining promotion at work or taking on additional responsibilities. However, a few apprentices make slower progress than they are capable of in achieving functional skills English and mathematics qualifications.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Learners and apprentices benefit from calm, orderly and suitably equipped learning environments that help them to study well in classes, workshops, remote learning sessions and their workplaces. They value the facilities that they have access to and positively engage with staff and their peers. Learners benefit from being able to attend programmes in local primary schools where their own children attend. These familiar settings help learners to feel more confident.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Learners and apprentices demonstrate professional and mature behaviours in learning and at work. Tutors set clear expectations at the start of programmes. For example, apprentices know that they are required to have their cameras on during online training sessions and be appropriately dressed.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Most apprentices attend sessions well and are punctual to their training sessions and work. Tutors reinforce the importance of attendance and punctuality, and link this to the professional behaviours required in employment or further learning. Although the attendance of adult learners has improved from the previous year, leaders and managers rightly recognise the need to improve attendance further on a few courses.

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What is it like to be a learner with this provider?

Learners and apprentices feel safe in learning and work and know to whom they should report any concerns. They have a good understanding of local risks such as knife crime, gangs, drugs and right-wing extremism, and value the information that tutors provide to help them stay safe. For example, tutors supported learners and apprentices to plan different routes to and from the training centre when protest marches were taking place in the city centre. 23 to 26 April 2024

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better?

Leaders and managers work closely with a range of stakeholders, including WYCA, local colleges and voluntary and community organisations, to help them determine and review the adult learning curriculum that they provide. They have focused the curriculum offer predominantly on the development of English, mathematical, language and digital literacy skills.

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better?

Leaders and managers work well with employers to identify the skills that are needed in the region. They have developed an apprenticeship curriculum to meet the employment needs of local councils and those working in the health sector, including customer service, business administration and leadership and management programmes.

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better?

Tutors establish what learners and apprentices know and can do at the start of their programme in order to assess their starting points accurately. Tutors who teach on apprenticeships complete helpful skills scans with apprentices to gain an accurate understanding of their prior learning, knowledge and skills. Tutors who teach learners on adult programmes make effective use of initial assessment information, including in English and mathematics, to set personalised targets for learners. These are recorded in learners’ individual learning plans and reviewed frequently by staff.

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better?

Most tutors make effective use of personalised learning strategies to ensure that learning best meets learners’ needs, regardless of their ability. For example, tutors delivering entry level ESOL programmes are aware that their learners’ reading, writing, speaking and listening skills vary significantly and provide more challenging tasks for those with more well-developed knowledge and skills. In a very few instances, learning activities do not provide sufficient challenge for more able learners, and this slows their rate of progress.

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better?

Tutors are very experienced and qualified in the areas in which they teach. They benefit from attending effective training to update their subject knowledge and to improve their teaching skills. For example, they attend training on initial assessment and setting targets for learners that are measurable, achievable and time-specific. They also attend ‘communities of good practice’ where they share effective practice identified in the observations of teaching that managers carry out.

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better?

Tutors use a range of effective teaching strategies to provide interesting, enjoyable and demanding lessons. For example, tutors teaching functional skills mathematics courses use a range of techniques well to help learners learn new mathematical skills. They use rhymes to help learners to recall mathematical methods, such as how to understand and remember the different kinds of average.

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better?

Tutors use a range of assessment strategies effectively to check learners’ understanding. For example, tutors on a level 2 supporting teaching and learning course use directed questions to check learners’ understanding of key words. Tutors on ESOL programmes listen to learners’ discussions to assess their speaking and 23 to 26 April 2024

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listening skills. Tutors provide clear feedback to learners and apprentices to help them improve their work.

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Leaders and managers have an accurate oversight of the quality of the programmes that they provide. They have a rigorous process in place to identify any areas of concern with teaching, training and assessment. They carry out observations of teaching and review the work of learners and apprentices. Leaders and managers work well with the advisory board and external consultants who provide effective support, advice, scrutiny and challenge. Members of the advisory board have the appropriate expertise to discuss important topics, such as safeguarding and the quality of education.

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Leaders and managers have implemented effective strategies to reduce the number of learners who leave their course early. They understand the significant personal challenges faced by vulnerable adult learners, many of whom are refugees and asylum seekers. They provide an inclusive and welcoming learning environment and strive hard to support their learners to stay on programme and achieve their individual targets and qualifications. For example, leaders and managers carefully considered the reasons for retention concerns in functional skills mathematics and introduced additional workshops as a bridge between level 1 and level 2. As a result, the number of learners who have withdrawn from functional skills mathematics courses has significantly reduced from the previous year.

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Most adult learners progress successfully into employment or further training on completion of their course. Leaders and managers monitor the destinations of learners so that they can evaluate the impact of the curriculum. They rightly recognise the need to identify strategies to increase the number of learners who they are able to contact after leaving their programme.

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Tutors provide learners and apprentices with a personal development curriculum that covers key themes, including the promotion of British values. However, as leaders and managers recognise, learners in a few curriculum areas do not have full access to some components of the personal development curriculum, including engagement in enrichment activities.

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Learners and apprentices benefit from useful careers advice and guidance. Tutors support them well to understand and plan their next steps. Advisers from the National Careers Service deliver sessions to learners and apprentices and provide them with personalised support in writing and enhancing their curriculum vitae. Staff provide useful and effective careers advice and support to enable apprentices to secure positions and promotions prior to their apprenticeships ending.

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Leaders and managers ensure that the very small number of apprentices under 18 years of age are provided with information about sexual harassment and healthy relationships. Apprentices have an appropriate understanding of these topics and know to whom they should report any concerns. However, in a very few instances, tutors do not provide this information early enough in the programme. 23 to 26 April 2024

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Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

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What does the provider need to do to improve?

 Ensure that there is a coordinated approach to implementing the personal development curriculum, so that apprentices and learners benefits from all aspects of it, where appropriate.  Ensure that apprentices who need to achieve functional skills English and mathematics qualifications benefit from high-quality teaching, so that they make more rapid progress towards achieving these qualifications.  Identify and develop further strategies to gather destination data from a higher proportion of adult learners in order to evaluate the impact of the curriculum.  Maintain a strong focus on ensuring that adult learners have high attendance, remain on their programmes and achieve their individual targets and qualifications.

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Provider details

Address City of Bradford Metropolitan Council 39/41 Chapel Street Bradford BD1 5BY

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Provider details

Principal, CEO or equivalent Suzan McGladdery

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Provider details

Date of previous inspection 25 March 2014

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Provider details

Main subcontractors None 23 to 26 April 2024

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Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the principal, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider's most recent self-assessment report and development plans, and the previous inspection report. The inspection was carried out using the further education and skills inspection handbook and took into account all relevant provision at the provider. Inspectors collected a wide range of evidence to inform judgements including visiting learning sessions, scrutinising learners' work, seeking the views of learners, staff and other stakeholders, and examining the provider's documentation and records.

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Inspection team

Jacquie Brown, lead inspector His Majesty's Inspector Mark Keen His Majesty's Inspector Sarah Benson-Smith Ofsted Inspector Neil Clark Ofsted Inspector 23 to 26 April 2024

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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.

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