OfSTED Inspecting further education and skills providers

OfSTED has published a number of updates to their guidance for the inspection of further education and skills providers. One of the areas that we thought might be interesting to focus on in a bit more detail was the list of information that OfSTED expects further education and skills providers to have available at the start of an inspection and how Stedfast can help with the preparation for an inspection.

Pre Inspection Information

Ofsted inspectors do not expect to you to prepare anything extra for an inspection but do consider the following information to be presented (where relevant):

• an overview of the provider’s working day, timetables and work-based activity during the week of the inspection
• strategic and operational business plans
• evidence of the work of governors, board members or other supervisory bodies and their impact
• evidence of contractual arrangements with employers funding apprenticeships and with subcontractors
• updated information relating to the self-assessment report
• development/quality improvement plans, operating statements, subject area plans, staff development plans and action plans arising from inspection, programme review or self-assessment
• details of staff qualifications and experience and of staff development activity over the last 2 years
• anonymised information on the performance management of staff
• evidence of compliance with the relevant safeguarding requirements; for example, an up-to-date list of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for staff, as required
• access to the logs that record complaints, incidents of poor behaviour, racist incidents and incidents of bullying or those relating to radicalisation or extremism
• a range of learners’ work, including marked work
• access to virtual learning environments and/or learner management systems
• records of observations of teaching, learning and assessment or support, information and advice sessions
• timetables and schedules of activity involving learners during the week of the inspection (showing locations and staff)
• complete and up-to-date data on learner numbers, achievements and destinations
• complete and up-to-date data on the progress that learners have made since they enrolled
• attendance data for classes and training sessions, including English and mathematics
• minutes from key meetings, including those with community links and employers to develop the curriculum
• information about the provider’s organisation with staff names and responsibilities
• names and email addresses of any employers and/or subcontractors whose premises the inspection team intends to visit
• details of any changes to normal routines during the week of inspection

How can Stedfast help?

There are a number of areas that Stedfast is able to support further education and skills providers in the preparation for an inspection. The first thing is that these points can be converted into an assessment plan and anyone involved with inspection preparation can review this list, add finding and also actions.

Stedfast will also produce reports that are relevant to inspectors. Organisations will be able to create outcomes assessment plans for:

• Strategic plans
• Business plans
• Self Assessment Reports
• Quality Improvement Plans
• Subject area reviews
• Operating statements

We will also be launching our policies and procedures module in the next few weeks which will support additional evidence production for any OfSTED inspection.

Reviewers will be able to add their findings for each of the outcome measures and where there are still missing or weak examples of evidence then this can be added to this review action plan.

 

For further information about Stedfast and how it can support your organisation in preparing for an OfSTED inspection then please contact us for an online demonstration.