Setting

Context

Headmasters Partnership Limited (Headmasters) is a hairdressing company that offers apprenticeships at level 2 in hairdressing to its employees. The company holds a contract with London South Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Headmasters offers hairdressing training throughout South West London, Middlesex and Surrey in its 36 salons. In addition, there are Headmasters salons in Bath and Manchester. The company has a training academy in Ham, Surrey. Most learners attend the academy once a week for off-the-job training and assessment.

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Context

This monitoring visit follows the inspection of Headmasters in March 2008 at which all aspects of the provision were judged to be satisfactory, including the quality of hairdressing training.

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Context

Since the inspection, a largely new training team has been recruited and the number of learners has increased to around 97 with plans for further expansion.

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progress

Headmasters has made insufficient progress in raising success rates. At the previous inspection overall success rates were unsatisfactory at 50% for 2006/07, which was some 13% below the national average. Success rates declined during 2007/08, the year of the inspection, to only 38%. However, Headmasters has taken strong action during 2008/09 to improve retention, increase the rate of learners’ progress and improve success rates. Although Headmasters has a proprietary database for managing data on achievement, none of the staff is currently trained to access reports on overall and timely success rates. Company data suggests that the success rate for 2008/09 is currently in the region of 55%. This remains below the national average for the sector, which was 64% in 2006/07. Headmasters is unable to supply useful data on timely success rates.

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progress

At the previous inspection, all assessment was carried out at Headmasters’ training academy and inspectors judged that learners had insufficient opportunities for work- based assessment. Some learners’ progress was delayed because of insufficient assessment at work. Headmasters had identified this as an area for improvement before the inspection. It is developing a team of peripatetic assessors to provide assessment in the workplace but has made insufficient progress in implementing work-based assessment across all of its salons. Peripatetic assessors now visit two salons in Brighton and Guildford and a small number of learners have completed assessments in their workplaces. However, most learners still do not have access to work-based assessment. While Headmasters has a peripatetic assessment strategy, it does not have an action plan with targets and timescales to implement the strategy across the company.

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progress

Headmasters has made reasonable progress in improving the effectiveness of progress reviews. At the time of the previous inspection, target-setting was weak and employers and workplace tutors were not involved in reviewing learners’ progress. Learners now agree realistic short-term targets during weekly assessment planning sessions and complete monthly action plans. Progress is reviewed during off-the-job training sessions and, more formally, during quarterly progress reviews. A new monitoring record enables learners and trainers to monitor progress more effectively during reviews. Managers and learners also review progress in both the workplace and the training environment during regular personal focus sessions. Salon managers and trainers share information from quarterly reviews and personal focus sessions when problems arise. However, the academy staff do not routinely share information about targets set during focus sessions and action plans agreed

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progress

during reviews with the salons. Headmasters monitors the quality of quarterly reviews through its internal verification processes but does not monitor the quality of personal focus sessions.

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progress

At the previous inspection the collection and use of management information was poor. Although Headmasters has invested in a proprietary database to manage its data this remains an area for improvement. Staff have yet to be fully trained on the use of the database and are unable to exploit its capacity. Headmasters does not use the system to generate regular reports on overall and timely success rates. As at the previous inspection, managers do not monitor the overall progress of groups of learners and they cannot easily identify and monitor learners who are falling behind their target dates.

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progress

Overall, equality of opportunity was judged to be satisfactory at the previous inspection, however the promotion of equality and diversity was a key area for improvement. No discernible progress has been made in the promotion of equality and diversity. Headmasters does not have a plan to improve the promotion of equality of opportunity or a senior member of staff with overall responsibility for this aspect of the provision. Data on learners’ gender, ethnicity and disability is collected but it is not analysed and used by the training team to identify under-represented groups or to monitor any differences in retention and achievement. No targets have been set to increase the participation of under-represented groups. Learners receive information about current equal opportunities legislation during induction and training. Headmasters does not develop learners’ awareness and understanding of the wider aspects of equality and diversity during learning sessions or focus

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progress

sufficiently on how these apply in the workplace. Trainers do not check or develop learners’ understanding of equality and diversity during progress reviews. Staff have not received specific training to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills in the promotion of equality and diversity.

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progress

Inspectors judged self-assessment to be satisfactory at the previous inspection. However, since then Headmasters has made no discernable progress in developing the use of self-assessment as an effective tool for quality improvement. Neither the 2007/08 self-assessment report nor the draft 2008/09 report incorporates the results of the inspection. The quality improvement plan for 2007/08 was not up-dated following the inspection in March 2008. Although managers have recorded progress with the quality improvement plan, they have not planned action to address some of the areas for improvement identified at inspection. The action for developing the management information system has been signed off as completed even though staff still cannot use the system effectively. The draft self-assessment for 2008/09 overestimates strengths. For example, success rates are identified as a strength, along with effective target-setting to enable timely completion. The report does not

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progress

identify areas for improvement around the use of management information, timely success rates and equality of opportunity. The quality improvement plan does not include clear measurable targets which the company can use to evaluate its success in addressing areas for improvement. Headmasters has not made sufficient use of feedback from learners as part of its self-assessment process. The report does not include an analysis of data regarding equality of opportunity. Headmasters has not carried out a self-assessment of its arrangements for safeguarding, currently it is not meeting the government’s requirements for safeguarding. Headmasters has no policies or procedures for safeguarding, staff have not received training and vetting checks have not been completed.

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progress

This report may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced verbatim without adaptation, and the source and date of publication are stated.

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progress

Inspection reports are available on the Ofsted website (www.ofsted.gov.uk).

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