Ofsted Watch: Three providers rated ‘good’ in first inspections

It’s been a big week for new providers, with five first-time inspection reports published – three of which resulted in a ‘good’ rating.

Elsewhere a college was downgraded from a grade two to three, while seven monitoring visit reports were published.

The Results Consortium Limited, an independent learning provider, got a ‘good’ result this week in a report published December 10 and based on an inspection in late October.

Directors at the provider, which offers loans-funded provision in business administration and adult social care, were praised for “investing significantly in developing technology and digital learning” that enabled “learners to learn around their existing work and home commitments”.

“Most” learners attend lessons “frequently” and “diligently work independently outside of lessons to produce a good standard of written work”.

“Learners improve their confidence and acquire good work-related skills that enable most to progress to, or remain in, employment or learning at a higher level,” the report said.

Barrett Bell Ltd, another independent learning provider, also received a grade two in its first ever inspection, carried out in late October and published December 10.

The provider offers training to become a gas engineer primarily for learners referred by JobCentre Plus, and inspectors noted leaders’ “clear vision and high ambitions” centred “successfully” on “helping unemployed learners achieve their aspirations”.

Learners “achieve well” – thanks to tutors’ “significant industry experience” – and develop their employability skills “exceptionally well”.

“Learners are proud of their achievements and appreciate the positive impact on their lives and the lives of their families,” inspectors found.

The Ridge Employability College, an independent specialist college, was rated ‘good’ in a report published December 10 and based on its first ever inspection, carried out in early November.

Leaders at the college, which offers FE and training for learners aged 16 to 25 with learning difficulties or disabilities, have “successfully established high-quality provision”.

They use high-needs funding “effectively” to “provide an ambitious learning environment” that helps learners “develop good practical skills”.

Learners “benefit from high-quality work experience with local employers” and “develop strong work-related and organisational skills that help them to move on to appropriate jobs”.

The Colchester Institute lost its previous grade two rating in a report, published December 12 and based on an inspection in early November, that rated the college ‘requires improvement’.

The college’s “quality assurance processes and improvement planning” were found to “lack clarity”, while leaders did not “focus on the impact of teachers’ practice on learners’ progress”.

“As a result, essential improvements are not made to teaching, learning and assessment,” the report said.

The college’s apprenticeship provision as rated ‘good’, and most employers “value the technical off-the-job training provided”.

Independent learning provider Dhunay Corporation Ltd was rated ‘requires improvement’ in its first report, published December 12 and based on an inspection in early November.

Governors’ challenge of leaders and managers at the provider, which offers adult learning programmes, traineeships and apprenticeships, was deemed “insufficient”.

“Governors do not receive enough information to give them an accurate oversight of the quality of provision,” the report said.

Staff and assessors were criticised for failing to check apprentices’ and learners’ “prior skills and knowledge in enough detail”, and for consequently not teaching sessions that “build on these skills to challenge all apprentices and learners”.

But adult learners on some pre-employment courses “makes very good progress and achieve their qualifications”.

As previously reported by FE Week, independent provider Beyond 2030 was rated ‘inadequate’ in its first ever inspection this week, which found evidence of copy and paste assignments and raised concerns over safeguarding.

Five apprenticeship early monitoring visit reports were published this week.

Two of these, for Crosby Management Limited and the IT Skills Management Company Limited, found the provider to be making ‘significant progress’ in one theme under review and ‘reasonable progress’ in the remaining two areas.

The three other providers – Capital 4 Training Limited, Ricoh UK Limited, and Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – were all found to be making ‘reasonable progress’ in all three themes.

A further two monitoring visits, to providers currently rated ‘requires improvement’, were published this week: Hertford Regional College, and Lakeside Early Adult Provision – LEAP College (Wargrove House Ltd).