Decision Session Executive Member for Culture, Leisure and Communities	16 March 2020
Report of the Assistant Director (Communities and Culture)

York Learning – Self-Assessment Report 2018/19

Summary

1. This report presents York Learning’s Self-Assessment Report (SAR) for the academic year 18/19.  The full report is attached at Annex 1 with performance data at the end of the report.

2. The report is supplied to Ofsted.  It will also be used to inform the service’s strategic plan for the academic year 20/21, which will be brought to the Executive Member in August.

Recommendations

3. The Executive Member is asked to consider the findings of the service’s self-assessment report and make comments and recommendations for the production and publication of the final report.

Reason: To help monitor the service and ensure robust governance arrangements.

Background

4. York Learning is a council service which delivers a range of learning programmes to support people into employment, to improve their skills and to support their personal development. The service is funded almost exclusively from external contract funding and fee income. For the academic year 2019/20 this will be £3.3m, with a slight decrease of approximately £19k on the previous year. Most of this decrease is related to restricted recruitment on areas of our apprenticeship offer.   

5. This report is an important element in enabling the service to demonstrate to Ofsted that it has secure and robust governance arrangements in place.

6. The SAR leads to a number of Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs), which are dynamic documents used to monitor and record quality improvement actions at a service level.  It also helps to inform the production of the next strategic plan which will be presented to the Executive Member in August.

Key Issues

7. There has been significant improvement in education and training achievement across the service meaning a continued 3 year improvement trend with overall service achievement now standing at 84.4%. 

8. Within the apprenticeship programmes achievement for 18/19, at 50%, does not show any increase from last year.  This is due to legacy issues from 17/18 and was anticipated. (As an apprenticeship often runs for 2 years it can take over 2 years to show improvement from actions taken).  Achievement within apprenticeship programmes has been skewed by Health & Social Care and Early Years programmes where the majority of learners are on low pay and long hours leading to a high turnover of staff.  We keep our offer under constant review but at present are continuing to restrict the offer in the area of Health & Social Care and Early Years apprenticeships. 

9. Achievement for 19/20 in this area is in course to show a positive increase due to a wide range of improvement actions that have been put in place, following agreement with Ofsted, and which have made an impact on our overall improvement journey.

10. York Learning received an Ofsted inspection in November and successfully maintained their Good Provider rating under the new inspection framework. 

11. York Learning continues to be challenged in having access to suitable premises and venues to enable the service to provide learning in an environment suitable for adults, especially in the city centre.  The service will prioritise investigating options for new premises in its 20/21 strategic plan.   

12. York Learning continued to have challenges in 18/19 with their data systems; however, investment in new systems has helped to drive improvements which will support the service moving forward.  Development of these systems will continue through the 19/20 academic year and the full impact from this work should start to show within 20/21 academic year. 

13. There are also challenges from Ofsted in how we rationalise which courses or learners receive funding and this issue will be taken up in our improvement plan this year. 

Consultation

14. The plan is presented for consultation and approval. It has gone through some internal service consultation with senior managers and is in part as a result of a rigorous self-assessment process which is ongoing. It will also be considered by a group of “peer” partners as part of an external challenge.

Options and Analysis

15. It is open to the Executive Member to suggest any amendment to the SAR and York Learning will then liaise with Ofsted accordingly.

Corporate Objectives

16. York Learning’s plan is set within the context of the council plan responding principally to the objective of “Making History, Building Communities” including residents having the opportunity to get well paid jobs within an inclusive economy; a better start for children and young people; safe communities and culture for all, with an offer that promotes good health and wellbeing so that everyone is supported to achieve their full potential. It also responds to a number of sub regional, regional and national policy objectives.  

Implications

17. Finance: Any actions or financial implications of the SAR are contained with service budgets already set for 2019/20. The service is fully funded via external contracts and grants.

18. The report has no additional Human Resources, Equalities, Legal, Crime and Disorder, Information Technology, Property or other implications.

Risk Management

19. In compliance with the Council’s risk management strategy the main risks identified associated with the areas of work covered in this report are operational, affecting delivery of the Council’s business objectives and its image and reputation.  Measured in terms of impact and likelihood, the risk score has been assessed at 10 which equates to “Low”.  This is acceptable but means that regular monitoring will be required of the Quality Improvement Plans.

Contact Details

Author:	Chief Officer Responsible for the report:
Angela Padfield Acting Head of York Learning angela.padfield@york.gov.uk	Charlie Croft Assistant Director (Communities & Culture)
	Report Approved	ü	Date	2 March 2020
Wards Affected:					All	ü
For further information please contact the author of the report

Annexes:

Annex 1 – Self-Assessment Report including Data tables

Abbreviations:

Ofsted - Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills

QIPs - Quality Improvement Plans

SAR – Self-Assessment Report