Our Culture, Our Values, Our Understanding

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Our Culture, Our Values, Our Understanding

• CLLP Conference
• May 2005
• Richard Moore
• Adult Learning Inspectorate

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How effective and efficient are the provision and
related services in meeting the full range of
learners needs and why?
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The Common Inspection Framework

• All post-16 learning is inspected against the
  CIF
• It is interpreted according to the context (ACL,
  colleges, prisons, New Deal, armed forces)
• Inspection is aligned with the objectives of the
  provision and programmes being inspected
• It forms the basis for a providers annual
  self-assessment and development planning

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The Common Inspection Framework

• How well do learners achieve?
• How effective are teaching, training and
  learning?
• How well do programmes and activities meet the
  needs and interests of learners?
• How well are learners guided and supported?
• How effective are leadership and management in
  raising achievement and supporting all learners?

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Emphases of the Framework

• Focus on learners and how well they achieve
• The standards reached
• Their progress in relation to prior attainment
  and potential
• Personal and learning skills
• Their learning outcomes
• Quality of education and training particularly
  important evidence in adult and community
  learning
• Leadership and management in terms of its impact
• Inclusiveness is central equality of
  opportunity

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ALI cultures and values

• Open and transparent
• No surprises
• Doing with and not doing to
• Not about contract compliance
• Impact on the learner
• A positive experience
• Remaining a listener throughout the inspection
• Supporting the nominee and keeping managers
  informed

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The Sector

• More than 1.7 million learners
• 20 are LSC funded learners
• 150 Local Education Authorities
• 150 LEA maintained external institutions
• 35 independent external institutions
• 14 specialist designated institutions

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Adult Community Learning Inspections To Date

• Approximately 135 inspections -75 have been LEAs
• Approximately 12,000 observations of learning
  sessions an average of about 90 per inspection
• Average of around 90 days per inspection
• Largest inspection has been the WEA which took 3
  weeks
• Leadership and management a recurring issue,
  particularly quality improvement
• Just over 60 per cent of lessons observed have
  been good or better, about 30 per cent
  satisfactory

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Emerging strengths in areas of learning

• Good teaching and learning in some areas of
  learning e.g. visual and performing arts and
  family learning
• Well-motivated learners
• Good support for learners
• Good social benefits and personal development for
  learners

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Emerging weaknesses in areas of learning

• Poor initial assessment
• Narrow range of teaching methods
• Some poor resources
• Too much satisfactory or unsatisfactory teaching
  and learning in some areas of learning e.g.
  sports and leisure
• Insufficient advice and guidance
• Too few observations of teaching and learning
• Lack of qualified tutors, especially in Skills
  for Life
• Poor operational, day to day, curriculum
  management

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Emerging strengths in Leadership Management

• Effective partnership arrangements
• Innovative programmes to widen participation
• Some good strategic management

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Emerging weaknesses in Leadership Management

• Poor curriculum planning and management
• Collection, analysis and use of data
• Quality assurance arrangements almost all
  aspects
• Monitoring of equality of opportunity
• Reinforcement of equality of opportunity

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Our understandingThe Adult Learner

• Adults have many, and sometimes multiple,
  learning purposes my success is not your
  success
• Some learning may be about process rather than
  product turning up, taking part
• Some learning does not have an impact in the here
  and now it comes somewhere else and later
• Some learning is not about gaining ground it is
  about not losing it
• No single analytical tool will capture all the
  ways in which learning makes an impact

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Our understandingAchievements

• Development of knowledge, skills and attitudes
• Application of knowledge and skills outside the
  classroom
• Improved self-esteem and self-confidence
• Impact on the lives of others
• Ability to take on new roles
• Progression into employment, or other education
• Attending
• Improved community facilities, way of life
• Projects established

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Our understandingSources of evidence for
achievements

• Talking to learners their testimonies and their
  attitudes
• Qualifications gained
• Witnessing learners skills
• Artefacts products of learning
• Achievement of individual learning plans
• Evidence from other agencies, stakeholders and
  partners
• Achievement of collective learning plans
• Project outcomes
• Destination data
• Quality of life surveys
• Best value reviews

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Our understandingTypes of ACL provision

• Learning for personal well-being and development
  Learning for personal development, intellectual
  or creative stimulation, and for enjoyment.
  Usually organised by curriculum area
• Skills for Life literacy, numeracy, language
  and ICT
• Skills for Work enhancing employability
• Community learning first steps learning. May be
  a broad curriculum or a single focus e.g. family
  learning
• Community development focus on developing
  community involvement and collective
  decision-making

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Enhancing Access and ProgressionThe challenges

• Progression often not viewed as an achievement by
  the tutor or the learner. No post-course advice
  or guidance
• Learners literacy, numeracy and language levels
  not taken into account
• Individual course planning not quantified
  objectives not set
• Monitoring learners progress and achievements
• Ad hoc development of curriculum areas
  coherence and progression suffer
• Silo management within curriculum areas
• Incorrect balance between management by geography
  and by curriculum
• Community and employer needs often not considered

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Enhancing Access and ProgressionThe challenges

• Low risk strategy tendency to stay with tried
  and tested areas
• Wasteful competition often no overall strategy
• Little market research which is difficult to
  carry out
• Mechanisms for enrolment, advice and guidance
  which dont suit the adult learner
• Inadequate, misleading course descriptors
  unprofessional approaches to promotion
• Induction can be difficult to get right
• Specialist support services often operate at
  wrong times or in wrong locations
• Innovative provision is not sustainable, often
  due to funding constraints
• Over-estimating the ability of the learner to
  progress without the right support

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Where it is being done well..

• Senior managers have a clear strategic vision.
  They know exactly the purpose of each and every
  part of their provision
• Business planning principles are applied
  appropriately
• The capacity to maximise access and progression
  is carefully planned, particularly in first steps
  provision and project work
• Staffing structures emphasise support and
  guidance to help learners make transitions
• Internal and external partnership working is good
  people talk to each other
• Consideration is given to what other providers
  are doing, particularly what they are doing well
• Marketing is not seen as a dirty word, associated
  with corporate business

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Where it is being done well..

• There is a culture of sharing good practice
• Supporting learners with additional needs is an
  integral part of the philosophy of all staff
• Curriculum planning is demand-led and asks the
  question why?
• Managers think outside of their curriculum or
  geographical area
• Funding isnt seen as the prime mover leading
  to project proliferation
• Everyone realises that most of us like to
  progress in some way or another
• The learner is at the heart of everything we do!

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How is it best to prepare for inspection?

• Remember the focus on the learner
• Develop self-assessment as an honest working
  document
• Inclusive
• Self-critical
• Meaningful
• Linked to planning and quality improvement
• Use support agencies and talk to other providers
• Visit the ALI website look at previous reports
  and the good practice database