Why as a country are we so obsessed with Ofsted grades, and why do we view anything not “good” or “outstanding” with the perception that everything must be appalling at that provider? This is something I’ve been grappling with for the last year.
At 9am on June 24 2024, and I’d just taken my seat at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers conference in London when i received the phone call that nobody wants; two days’ notice of a full Ofsted inspection for our skills bootcamps provision. We’d never experienced an inspection before as a standalone provider, as all our provision had been sub-contracted from local authorities and colleges. Nothing compares to the pandora’s box opening at your own full inspection.
Worse still, it completely caught us out. Whilst we had received our first Ofsted monitoring visit, for traineeships in 2022, I didn’t expect a full inspection so soon for our recently acquired bootcamps provision. We’d been out of scope for an inspection, with traineeship funding coming to an end the previous academic year.
After the dreaded call, I quietly slipped away to our Brighton office to get preparing. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive the grade we’d hoped for but a grade 3. It was a fair inspection and whist I viewed it as free consultancy on driving ongoing quality improvement, it came with unexpected consequences.
The obvious one was facing challenges bidding for new contracts, as many colleges automatically exclude providers with an Ofsted grade 3 or 4. We’ve had no choice but to ‘sit out’ of countless adult skills fund (ASF) tenders, as our Ofsted grade prohibited us from bidding. This blanket-ban approach has been frustrating, especially as we had a 97.1 per cent achievement rate across 211 enrolments last academic year for our Brighton and Hove City Council adult education sub-contract. Excluding a provider from bidding for a completely different funding stream doesn’t make sense, especially when our data and references from those councils we’ve delivered on behalf of for many years would clarify the high-quality provision we provide.
As our bootcamps were the only provision in scope for the inspection, we didn’t have the benefit of other funding streams such as ASF being included to provide a more balanced evaluation. Reviewing Ofsted reports from other providers, I’ve noticed that many have received similar feedback on their skills bootcamps.
What I didn’t expect was our new 16-18 study programmes contract being withdrawn by a London-based college in August, two weeks before delivery was due to commence, as they didn’t want to work with a Grade 3 or 4 provider. We’d bid for their sub-contract six weeks before our inspection.
To make matters worse, we’d recruited two new staff members who had to be made redundant before they’d even started.
Then in March when our insurance came up for its annual renewal, our insurance premium went up by £10,000 due to the perceived risk associated with our grade. Whilst our safeguarding was found by Ofsted to be effective, the underwriters thought our public liability risk was higher.
Then in May, we were finalising a commercial mortgage with a bank who attempted to charge a higher interest rate because of their perceived increase in risk – all because of one inspection of one funding stream for bootcamps, representing one of our 32 contracts.
Grade 3 is seen as a badge of embarrassment, like an STI that you don’t really want to talk about. Whilst we found the full inspection incredibly useful and embraced the outcome, outsiders automatically assume the grade applies to every funding stream and programme that the organisation delivers. What I’ve learnt is commissioners and colleges who sub-contract provision through competitive tenders often take the easiest (and dare I say it idlest) route with due diligence, by taking an Ofsted judgment from one funding stream and applying it across the board. This risks excluding providers who have strong track records with other funding streams that were out of scope for an inspection.
We have come a long way in the last year, and worked incredibly hard. In May we received an Ofsted RI monitoring visit, and I look forward to sharing the news once it’s published.
Your thoughts