Art Providers Ltd

At the most recent full inspection, the following areas were identified as needing to improve:

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 Strengthen leaders’ understanding of the quality of training accurately to improve teaching and the learning experiences of apprentices.

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 Improve apprentices’ attendance at training.

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 Plan curriculums in a logical order so that apprentices develop their knowledge and skills in a coherent way.

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 Increase the proportion of apprentices who achieve their apprenticeship on time.

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 Involve employers in apprentices’ progress reviews, so they can support apprentices to apply and reinforce the skills learned during training in the workplace.

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During the monitoring inspection, inspectors focused on the following themes:

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 What progress have leaders made in improving their understanding of the quality of training so that they can take appropriate action to improve training?

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 What progress have leaders made in making sure that apprentices have high attendance to training sessions?

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 What progress have leaders made in sequencing training effectively so that apprentices develop the knowledge and skills they need to achieve well, in particular those who are disadvantaged, those with SEND or high needs, those who are known (or previously known) to social care, and those who may face other barriers to their learning and/or wellbeing, including those without level 2 English and/or mathematics?

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 What progress have leaders made in making sure that apprentices achieve their apprenticeships, and that they do so within anticipated timeframes, in particular those who are disadvantaged, those with SEND or high needs, those who are known (or previously known) to social care, and those who may face other barriers Art Providers Ltd 2 Middle Row, Ashford TN24 8SQ

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report:

28 and 29 January 2026 Monitoring inspection report: Art Providers Ltd 28 and 29 January 2026

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to their learning and/or wellbeing, including those without level 2 English and/or mathematics?

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 What progress have leaders made in making sure that employers understand apprentices’ progress so that they can support apprentices to apply and reinforce their knowledge and skills in the workplace?

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training?

Following the previous inspection, leaders responded rapidly to update their quality assurance policies. However, leaders’ implementation of these policies is too slow.

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training?

They have not maintained sufficient oversight of the quality assurance practices. Leaders have appointed staff to undertake checks on training but have not trained them to be accurate in their judgements about the quality of training. Staff do not justify their evaluations of the quality of training well enough. They do not consistently identify the impact that training has on the progress that apprentices make. Staff do not record apprentices’ feedback in sufficient detail to help trainers understand the apprentices’ experience of training. Inspectors noted that staff observing trainers were copying and pasting generic statements into their feedback. As a result, neither inspectors nor leaders can have confidence in the accuracy of the judgments about the quality of training and leaders cannot readily identify where further improvements are required.

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attendance at training sessions?

Since the previous inspection, leaders have recently put in place a new system for recording and monitoring attendance, but it is too early to see the impact of this development.

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attendance at training sessions?

Leaders do not routinely check on apprentices’ attendance, which limits their ability to intervene swiftly and act upon poor attendance. Leaders and trainers do not track non- attendance well enough, particularly in group training session as they are unclear about which apprentices should be at these activities.

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attendance at training sessions?

Trainers have a good understanding of how well individual apprentices attend. For these apprentices, trainers monitor attendance well. Trainers support individual apprentices to attend training sessions with helpful reminder emails.

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who are known (or previously known) to social care, and those who may face

Monitoring inspection report: Art Providers Ltd 28 and 29 January 2026

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2 English and/or mathematics?

At the time of the previous inspection, leaders had recently strengthened their training plans. Since then, leaders have used these plans appropriately so that subject content is typically taught in a logical order. For example, adult care worker apprentices learn about regulations, so they understand how these how these affect their subsequent learning of how to properly care for their clients.

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2 English and/or mathematics?

However, leaders have not completed these changes rapidly enough. While apprentices who start their apprenticeship when the training plan begins build their knowledge and skills over time, trainers do not support well enough those apprentices who start at different times to catch up with missed learning.

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2 English and/or mathematics?

Staff typically provide most apprentices with the help they need to catch up on work when they are unable to attend. This is not always true for the small number of apprentices that have identified learning needs.

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2 English and/or mathematics?

Since the previous inspection, leaders have reacted swiftly to respond to the areas of improvement identified. They implemented an action plan that addresses all the key themes. They rightly recognise that all their actions are aimed at improving apprentices’ achievements. The appointment of an external governor, who brings a wealth of valuable experience in the teaching and leadership of apprenticeships, has supported this process well. Leaders now have a much better understanding of the priorities for improvement.

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2 English and/or mathematics?

Leaders do not analyse their management data well enough to improve the quality of training or apprentices’ progress. As a result, they do not identify where improvements are not rapid enough or where their actions are not having a positive impact.

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2 English and/or mathematics?

Leaders have decreased significantly both the number of apprentices that withdrew before the end of their training and the number who do not complete in a timely fashion, including apprentices that have specific learning needs. The proportion of apprentices on breaks in learning remains too high. Leaders do not have a clear understanding of the reasons behind this.

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2 English and/or mathematics?

Trainers give apprentices feedback that is too vague and do not give apprentices the information they need to improve and achieve as well as they might. Monitoring inspection report: Art Providers Ltd 28 and 29 January 2026

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reinforce their knowledge and skills in the workplace?

Leaders have not made enough progress in making sure that employers understand apprentices’ progress. Leaders have not made sure that employers routinely attend apprentices’ progress reviews. Where employers do not attend, staff do not typically put in place measures to help keep them informed.

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reinforce their knowledge and skills in the workplace?

Leaders and staff do not help employers understand their role in the apprenticeship programme. They do not work sufficiently well with employers to coordinate training so that apprentices can develop their skills in the workplace. This hinders and slows the progress that apprentices make.

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reinforce their knowledge and skills in the workplace?

Leaders have only very recently begun sharing information on how well apprentices achieve in their final assessments. It is too early to see the impact that this might have on apprentices’ progress.

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Additional next steps

Leaders and those responsible for governance should, in addition to the next steps raised at the provider’s last full inspection:

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Additional next steps

 ensure that they have greater oversight of the impact of the actions they are implementing so that they can intervene swiftly when improvements are not rapid enough or are ineffective.

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About this inspection

This is the first monitoring inspection following publication of the inspection report on 6 October 2025 which found the provider to be inadequate overall.

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About this inspection

The provider’s previous full inspection was carried out under the Education Inspection Framework (EIF) at that time. The renewed EIF took effect from 10 November 2025. The areas for improvement identified at the provider’s full inspection have been cross- referenced to relevant evaluation areas in the inspection toolkit for consideration on this monitoring inspection.

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About this inspection

The purpose of this monitoring inspection was not to determine grades for any of the evaluation areas set out in the further education and skills inspection toolkit. The purpose was to identify and report on the provider’s progress in addressing the areas identified as needing to improve since the provider’s previous inspection. Monitoring inspection report: Art Providers Ltd 28 and 29 January 2026

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inspection

Monitoring inspection report: Art Providers Ltd 28 and 29 January 2026

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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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