South West Regional Assessment Centre Limited

South West Regional Assessment Centre Limited

Address: Merley House, BH21 3AA Unique reference number (URN): 54501

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Safeguarding standards met

The safeguarding standards are met. This means that leaders and/or those responsible for governance and oversight fulfil their specific responsibilities and have established an open culture in which safeguarding is everyone's responsibility and concerns are actively identified, acted upon and managed. As a result, learners are made safer and feel safe.

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How we evaluate safeguarding

When we inspect providers for safeguarding, they can have the following outcomes:

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How we evaluate safeguarding

Met: The provider has an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not met: The provider has not created an open and positive culture of safeguarding. Not all legal requirements are met.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders have established a highly inclusive culture. They have an acute understanding of the social disadvantage in the communities they serve and the challenges that their learners face.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders and governors work diligently to remove the barriers that prevent young people from engaging on education or training. They have established productive partnerships with external agencies such as social services, crime reduction agencies and local authorities to design responsive and flexible curriculums for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, those who have previously disengaged from education and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Learners are able to start a course at four different points across the calendar year, which reduces the amount of time they have to wait before enrolling.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders and staff act swiftly to identify the support needed for learners with SEND. They rigorously assess learners’ needs at the start of the course and carefully adjust the support that learners receive throughout their course.

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Inclusion Strong standard

Leaders provide staff with high-quality training in topics such as oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit disorder and trauma-informed practice. Consequently, staff understand learners’ emotional needs and behaviours extremely well and are adept at applying strategies to help learners to behave and study.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders and governors have a clear, shared vision to support young people who face challenges and barriers to their education and training so that they can overcome disadvantage and make progress to employment or independent living.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders have a thorough understanding of the provider’s strengths and areas for development. They take largely appropriate actions to raise standards. Governors challenge leaders to improve the rigour with which information about learners’ punctuality and attendance at college is collected and scrutinised. However, they do not scrutinise or monitor well enough the impact of the actions that leaders take to ensure high-quality teaching.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders plan the continuous professional development of staff well. Staff receive regular and high-quality training in a range of topics including how to manage the needs of learners with SEND and how to deescalate learners’ behaviour when it becomes dysregulated.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Since the previous inspection, leaders have improved their assessment of the knowledge and skills that learners with high needs have at the start of their course. Teachers and support staff now use information from these assessments well to review and adjust the personal targets they set for learners so that most learners now make positive progress with their studies.

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Leadership and governance Expected standard

Leaders take care to ensure that staff workloads are fair. They support staff to work flexibly to deal with family commitments and provide free healthcare and additional holiday entitlement.

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Achievement Expected standard

Most learners who start a one-year personalised preparation for life or work course achieve their qualification. Learners are supported well to develop their English and mathematics skills and most achieve their qualifications at the expected level.

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Achievement Expected standard

Learners successfully develop new knowledge, skills and behaviours over time. The majority of learners study additional awards in subjects such as customer services and information technology to increase their employability.

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Achievement Expected standard

Learners mostly produce coursework at or above the expected standard. Learners typically produce written work that is of a good quality. Most teachers ensure that learners improve their written work by highlighting spelling and grammatical errors.

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Achievement Expected standard

Most learners progress to a positive destination when they complete their course. Typically, they continue in education, with a minority of learners progressing into employment or voluntary work.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders understand well the strengths and areas for development of the curriculums for young people. They make effective use of the views of learners to improve the quality of teaching by, for example, improving the feedback that learners receive about what they have done well and what they need to improve.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers assess learners’ starting points well and they use this information suitably to plan learning. They include additional topics specific to learners' needs, such as emotional wellbeing. Most teaching is of a suitable quality. Teachers model problems for learners studying information technology to resolve through spreadsheet tasks that learners are increasingly expected to complete independently. However, in a few instances, teachers do not correct learners’ misconceptions or errors. Most teachers collaborate well with staff who provide additional support to learners in lessons. For the most part, they achieve the right balance between learners receiving support and being encouraged to study independently. However, occasionally learners receive too much support.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers plan carefully the order in which learners study topics so that learners develop new skills over time. For example, learners practise and apply social and study skills at the start of their course before focusing on topics such as work readiness and practical life skills.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers make thoughtful adaptions to curriculums to help learners participate in and remain in learning. Learners who find a full course timetable too challenging at the start of their course receive individual tuition and a reduced timetable to help them to transition into college.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Staff at the college prioritise the wellbeing of learners. They collaborate very well with parents and carers to remove the barriers that learners face, such as special educational need and/or disabilities, transport costs and access to the resources and equipment that they need.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Learners receive effective careers guidance from specialist advisers who carefully align learners’ skills and personal attributes with their aspirations. Staff take care to ensure that the work experience and volunteering placements that learners undertake are purposeful, enabling them to gain the skills and behaviours they need to achieve their long-term work or educational goals.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Learners contribute positively to their local communities. For example, they create heat- retaining aluminium foil sleeping bags for the homeless and work in food preparation charities to support families on low incomes. Because of this, learners gain in confidence, learn new skills and develop their sense of social responsibility.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Staff ensure that learners know how to keep safe. They teach learners about pertinent topics such as consent, personal boundaries and how to keep themselves safe online. Learners are very confident that staff will respond quickly to any concerns they raise.

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Achievement Expected standard

In the previous academic year, most learners with high needs on the preparation for life course and four fifths of learners on the preparation for work course achieved their qualifications. Learners make good progress in achieving their education, health and care plan objectives. They study topics and participate in activities well, such as work experience and enterprise initiatives, which prepare them well for life or for progression to further study or a supported internship. Learners broadly achieve qualifications in English and/or mathematics at the expected levels.

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Achievement Expected standard

Learners create portfolios of coursework which capture very well evidence of their interests, what they have learned and the progress they have made towards their targets and goals.

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Achievement Expected standard

The small minority of learners who study supported internships have successful experiences working for an external employer, with the majority gaining employment or progressing to further relevant studies.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Leaders have designed curriculums that successfully meet the needs of learners with high needs. They collaborate closely with local authorities to design curriculums that enable learners to achieve their education, health and care plan objectives and prepare them well for their next steps in education, training or work.

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

Teachers ensure that learners study carefully designed learning programmes to enable them to meet their individual goals such as independence, confidence and self-advocacy. They mostly plan lessons well so that learners have the time they need to practise and then apply their skills. Most teachers provide learners with helpful feedback so that they know what they have done well and what they need to improve. However, in a few instances, the feedback that learners receive from teachers is largely congratulatory and does not identify the extent to which learners have understood what they have been taught. Leaders rightly recognise that the teaching resources used by a few teachers are not inspiring and do not support learners well enough to develop their skills or to understand key concepts. Leaders have effective processes in place to monitor the quality of the support that learners receive. Staff with expertise in special educational needs and/or disabilities make good use

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Curriculum and teaching Expected standard

of learning walks to measure the effectiveness of the interventions put in place to support learners. Staff use this information very well to adjust the levels of support that learners receive, and this successfully encourages increased levels of independence as learners progress through their course.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Learners with high needs participate actively in the life of the college. They contribute to a thriving student council, where they have a say in the development of college behavioural rules and regulations and the creation of social and recreational facilities such as the choice of gymnasium equipment. Staff encourage learners to make good use of technologies to improve their communication skills, such as Braille readers and communication applications on mobile phones.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Staff ensure that learners receive careers guidance that specifically meets their needs. They work closely with learners’ families and external agencies, such as the Department for Work and Pensions, to plan learners’ progression pathways to work or further study. Staff have recently created a job club for learners, which successfully connects learners to opportunities for paid and voluntary work.

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Participation and development Expected standard

Learners have a good understanding of life in modern Britain. They are respectful towards each other and staff. Staff assist learners to develop helpful life skills so that they can become more independent, such as how to safely use public transport and how to access community services in their local area.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Learners enjoy their studies. They value the guidance that they receive from staff to help to prepare them for life and work. They speak positively about the welcoming and calm environments provided at the college’s campuses. They make good use of the college’s quiet and multisensory spaces to regulate their behaviour before resuming their studies.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Learners develop their workplace behaviours and skills well through carefully tailored work experience placements. Learners who are anxious about going into the workplace are sensitively supported to attend either as part of a small group of their peers or are accompanied by a college staff member at the start of their placement.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

The most vulnerable learners receive empathetic support and mentoring from staff. College staff collaborate very effectively with carers and external agencies such as social services to design support programmes so that learners receive effective care and support both in and out of college. Learners are taught well about healthy relationships and how to keep themselves safe online. They know who to speak to at college if they have a concern. Learners value the importance that staff place on enabling them to feel comfortable and open about their sexual orientation and how they self-identify.

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What it's like to be a learner and/or an apprentice at this provider

Learners study towards helpful additional qualifications in topics such as health and safety, food hygiene and customer services to improve their employability skills. They make positive contributions to their communities through activities to raise funds for charitable causes and business enterprise projects, through which they learn about teamwork, marketing and money management.

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Next steps

• Leaders and governors should strengthen the focus they place on improving the quality of teaching to ensure it is of consistently high quality. • Leaders should ensure that all learners receive helpful feedback so that they know what they have done well and what they need to improve. • Leaders should ensure that teachers of programmes for learners with high needs use high- quality learning resources. • Leaders should ensure that a higher proportion of learners achieve their qualifications in English and mathematics.

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Team inspectors:

Steve Kelly, His Majesty's Inspector Sharon Dowling, His Majesty's Inspector

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Facts and figures used on inspection

The data was used by the inspector(s) during the inspection. More recent data may have been published since the inspection took place.

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About this inspection

Following our updated inspection framework, all inspections are now led by His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) or by Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) who have previously served as HMIs.

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About this inspection

Inspection activities: Inspectors spoke with leaders, staff and learners during the inspection.

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About this inspection

South West Regional Assessment Centre Limited has a total of 176 learners studying either a preparation for life or a preparation for work course, with 20 studying a supported internship. Nearly all of the learners are in receipt of high needs funding. Twenty-one learners are following education programmes for young people. Most learners have not previously achieved level 2 English language and/or mathematics qualifications at the start of their course.

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About this inspection

Nearly all of the learners studying at the college have a special educational need and/or disability. Most learners are from disadvantaged areas and nearly all have previously disengaged from formal education.

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About this inspection

The provider has six campuses, which are located in Boscombe and Dorchester in Dorset and Winton, Bootle, Southport and Widnes in the North West.

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Exceptional

Practice is exceptional: of the highest standard nationally. Other providers can learn from it.

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Strong standard

The provider reaches a strong standard. Leaders are working above the standard expected of them.

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Expected standard

The provider is fulfilling the expected standard of education and/or care. This means they are following the standard set out in statutory and non ‑ statutory legislation and the professional standards expected of them.

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Needs attention

The expected standards are not met but leaders are likely able to make the necessary improvements.

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Urgent improvement

The provider needs to make urgent improvements to provide the expected standard of education and/or care.

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Urgent improvement

services providing education and skills for children and learners of all ages, and inspects and regulates services that care for children and young people.

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Urgent improvement

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Urgent improvement

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

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