A specialist security training provider has blamed the behaviour of “one bad employer” for its ‘inadequate’ Ofsted inspection result, published today.
White Point Solutions, which began publicly funded apprenticeship training in January 2024, was handed the lowest overall inspection grade following its first full inspection this summer.
Inspectors came knocking in early July to examine the provider’s training of 25 apprentices on level 2 and 3 security service standards. At the time of the inspection, all apprentices worked for one employer which supplied security services to sites such as universities.
But the inspection had to be postponed. Stuart Catton, a director at the provider, told FE Week Ofsted “insisted” on pushing ahead with the inspection even though the CEO and head of quality were out of the country.
Catton told FE Week he was not in charge of the education side of the business, so was not best placed to answer inspectors’ questions.
By day two of the inspection, Catton revealed he was struggling with mental health issues. Ofsted then agreed to a one-month delay, and the inspection resumed on August 7.
The watchdog judged quality of education, leadership and management and apprenticeships at White Point Solutions to be ‘inadequate’. Behaviour and attitudes and personal development were graded ‘requires improvement.’
Apprentices’ line managers had “little to no involvement in training” and were unaware of their progress, the report said.
White Point Solutions was criticised for creating “frustration” amongst apprentices nearing the end of their training for the “lack of information” on their end-point assessment preparation.
Inspectors also found misalignment with on- and off-the-job training after “too few” apprentices receive adequate time off from their jobs to attend training, which was also an issue noted in last year’s monitoring visit.
But Catton blamed the only employer it was working with at the time of inspection, which is one of the biggest employers in the country, he claimed.
“We only worked with one employer, and they haven’t held up their end of the bargain, making the apprentices available for off the job training,” he said.
Catton also refuted the inspector’s criticism that too few apprentices complete and achieve their qualification in the planned timescales.
“A typical time frame would be when you’ve got an employer on board who’s actually investing in the staff and giving them the time to do the work,” he said.
He added: “We’ve got about five or six different employees now, and it’s a completely different scenario. They’re all giving their staff time to work. We feel that we’ve been judged by one bad employer, but that was the only employer we had then.”
Private providers judged ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted are usually sanctioned by the Department for Education, which can include contract termination.
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