Essex Adult & Community Learning Service Inspection Recommendations

Essex Adult & Community Learning Service

Leaders and managers should help tutors, assessors and employers to set clear, measurable, skills-based targets for learners and apprentices so that they can gauge and monitor their own progress more effectively.
Leaders and managers should work to improve the proportion of learners who progress from non-accredited to accredited learning.
Tutors and assessors should be supported to provide clearer and more detailed feedback to learners about how they can improve their work.
Leaders and managers should ensure that a greater proportion of learners on accredited courses in functional skills mathematics develop a good range of skills that allow them to achieve their qualifications.

Urgently ensure that all safeguarding arrangements for all groups of learners are effective.
Improve rapidly the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that:
- tutors’ and assessors’ planning enables learners and apprentices to understand how theory underpins their practical skills development and motivates them to develop their higher-level thinking skills and excel
- tutors promote the value of work-related skills effectively with learners on accredited courses and enable them to progress to higher levels of learning or purposeful employment
- tutors assess, check and reinforce learners’ and apprentices’ understanding and application of knowledge and skills before introducing new learning
- tutors and assessors set and review challenging targets that motivate learners and apprentices to reach their potential
- leaders and managers rectify urgently the identified weaknesses in the observation process.
Ensure that leaders’ self-assessment is robust, appropriately self-critical and drives effective action planning that secures sustainable improvement.
Leaders should provide county councillors with accurate information on all aspects of performance in order for county councillors to challenge them effectively.

Improve the effectiveness of teaching, learning and assessment by ensuring that tutors:
- use the results of initial assessments to develop individual learning goals with learners and record them as measurable targets in individual learning plans
- who are assessed as being able to inspire outstanding learning share the techniques they use so that learners make the best possible progress in every lesson
- thoroughly and more frequently review learners’ progress, particularly on entry level English and mathematics courses
- plan to include the development of English and mathematics in courses where learners can benefit from improving these important life and employment-related skills.
Improve the self-assessment process by focusing it more effectively on the quality of the provision and on identifying areas for improvement.
Develop managers’ skills in critically interpreting data to help early identification of underperformance.
Reduce weaknesses in the quality of learning by ensuring clearer lines of authority and accountability within the recently established management structure.