Lorraine Michaels

Lorraine Michaels Report following a monitoring visit to a ‘requires improvement’ provider

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Name of lead inspector: Alison Humphreys, His Majesty's Inspector

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Type of provider: Independent learning provider

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Address:

Crosby Training Ground Floor St Hughs House Trinity Road Bootle L20 3QQ Monitoring visit: Lorraine Michaels 3 and 4 July 2024

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Context and focus of visit

Lorraine Michaels was inspected in June 2023. At that time, inspectors judged the overall effectiveness of the provision 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 resolving the main areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection.

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Context and focus of visit

Lorraine Michaels, trading as Crosby Training, is an independent learning provider based in Sefton, Merseyside. Crosby Training offers short adult learning courses and pre-employment courses across the Merseyside region.

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Context and focus of visit

At the time of the visit there were 34 adult learners in learning. There were eight learners on preparing to work in a classroom environment course at levels 1 and 2 for teaching assistants, 15 on a pre-employment course studying level 2 business administration and level 2 customer service, and 11 learners on a pre-employment course for early years.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders have redesigned the content of their courses to meet the needs of employers and learners. The business administration curriculum develops the knowledge and skills that learners need to secure employment in the Civil Service and other public sector organisations. The teaching assistant course includes an introduction to sign language, paediatric first aid and working with children with special education needs and/or disabilities. This prepares learners for employment. Leaders have worked closely with a range of stakeholders to revise the length of their courses. All courses now provide learners with sufficient time to apply what they learn so that they become fluent in the knowledge and skills required for their next steps. Teaching assistants learn about the stages of a child’s development. They apply this knowledge when considering transitions in children’s lives. For example, children following instructions supports them when transitioning to school. Early

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Reasonable progress

years learners explain how waste from the home can be used to create useful resources for art activities. Monitoring visit: Lorraine Michaels 3 and 4 July 2024 Learners enjoy their courses and are motivated to move on to positive destinations. They understand how what they learn will support them to move into employment or further education and training. Early years learners recall what they have learned on the use of imagination in play and explain confidently how to use toys in different ways when working with young children. Business administration learners develop an understanding of working in an office environment and producing a range of documents to a professional standard. Learners develop transferable skills such as, communication and organisation skills, to enable them to apply for a range of roles in their chosen sectors.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders work closely with learners and key stakeholders to ensure that most curriculums are ambitious. Learners on business administration courses now complete level 2 qualifications that provide the underpinning knowledge required to access wider employment opportunities. Most tutors identify what learners already know and can do at the start of the course to plan an ambitious curriculum. Learners self-assess a range of skills such as communication and digital skills, and complete assessments on English and mathematics. Learning facilitators use this information to support learners to develop these skills further through online workshops. As a result, business administration learners write comprehensive behaviour statements when applying for roles in the Civil Service. However, tutors do not fully take into consideration the prior experience of a few learners. For example, the very few teaching assistant learners that have

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Reasonable progress

some experience in the education sector, do not benefit from a sufficiently ambitious curriculum. Tutors use effective recap activities to ensure that learners retain what they have learned in their long-term memory. They use questioning and quizzes at the start of lessons to help learners recall what they have learned. Learning facilitators and tutors follow up gaps in knowledge by providing individual support. Learners value the opportunity to receive further support once their course has completed to secure employment. Most learners progress to positive destinations.

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Reasonable progress

Leaders have strengthened the processes for staff to provide feedback to learners. They have provided training for staff on how to give learners constructive and Monitoring visit: Lorraine Michaels 3 and 4 July 2024 encouraging feedback. They have put in place minimum standard guidelines which outlines to tutors how feedback should be provided to learners. Advanced practitioners visit lessons and review learners’ work to identify the impact of training and use this information to provide further development for their staff. For example, tutors have benefitted from training on providing developmental feedback to learners on the use of command verbs in questions. Tutors now provide useful, individualised feedback to their learners so that learners work improves over time. Most learners now receive useful, developmental feedback on their written work to improve the standard of it. Tutors identify what learners have done well, and what

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Reasonable progress

they need to do to improve. Learners’ value the individual verbal feedback that they receive from their tutors. They find this helpful and supportive. However, tutors on the teaching assistant course do not routinely provide useful feedback to learners when they fail their tasks. This feedback is not sufficiently developmental to support learners to identify errors in their submissions. This means that a few learners continue to fail subsequent tasks and make the same errors in their written work. Learners develop their writing skills through a variety of activities. They write personal statements, develop their use of paragraphs, and learn how to structure statements about their professional behaviours. Tutors provide learners with commonly misspelt words and grammatical errors appropriate to their sector. For example, teaching assistants use lists of these misspelt words to correct their spelling

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Reasonable progress

errors, such as behaviour, and independent. As a result, learners’ writing skills improve over time.

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Reasonable progress

Since the previous inspection, leaders have made reasonable progress in making improvements to the quality of education that learners receive. They have recruited additional staff to newly created advanced practitioner and learning facilitator roles. Leaders now have additional capacity to carry out further quality improvement activities to support them to rectify the weaknesses found at the previous inspection. Leaders have strengthened their quality systems and processes. They carry out routine formal lesson observations twice a year, and monthly ‘drop-ins’ to lessons. Leaders complete a range of activities such as speaking to learners, reviewing learner work and feedback, and observing tutors’ lessons. They use these activities to identify strengths and areas of weakness. Tutors receive personal development action plans to improve their teaching. They benefit from training on the use of assessment to improve learners’ recall. Tutors now use a range of assessment

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Reasonable progress

strategies such as quizzes to identify gaps in learners’ knowledge or rectify misconceptions. Leaders monitoring and use of data is now more robust. They carefully monitor the outcomes of learners to identify differences in achievement between learners that Monitoring visit: Lorraine Michaels 3 and 4 July 2024 are long-term unemployed and those that are recently unemployed. Leaders provide the board with a range of useful information around job outcomes and achievement rates. This means that governors and senior leaders can accurately measure the impact of quality improvements on the quality of education that learners receive. Monitoring visit: Lorraine Michaels 3 and 4 July 2024 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

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Reasonable progress

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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