learning improvement service
Bromley Common
Who and what is the Learning Improvement Service? The Learning Improvement
Service was set up by Phil Hatton (read about Phil here), an ex-Ofsted HMI and
National Adviser. Through his extensive experience in leading inspections,
surveys, good practice, advisory work and improvement consultancy, Phil has a
unique and wide understanding of best practice in the Further Education sector,
particularly in colleges and in work-based learning. He is utilising his
knowledge to help colleges and other providers of training improve the learning
experience they give to their learners. The LIS only wants to work with those
who have a real will to improve their provision, by establishing where you are
now and where you would like to be in the future. We do not intend to just help
to ‘patch you up’ to get you through an inspection, but to help you make
sustainable improvements. We use only the best people, who know what they are
doing, because they have done it themselves. Below is a brief summary of the
main ways that we can support you (however, please contact us if you require
something else not listed below): Consultancy support to improve key aspects of
your provision - consultancy support to cover key aspects of quality improvement
systems such as self-assessment reporting, position statements, improvement
planning, observation of teaching, learning and assessment, sharing of good
practice, course reviews and evaluation, the user voice and being prepared for
short or full Ofsted Inspections. Phil can also help you to improve English and
maths and ensure that your safeguarding is exemplary. Providing a ‘critical
friend’ service to check and validate self-assessment, observations of teaching
and other key quality processes such as course reviews – confirmation that you
are moving in the right direction – we’ll work with you to confirm you are doing
the right things in the right way, responding specifically to your needs,
keeping you on target to improve your provision. This is one of the key areas of
our work particularly from September through to February. Phil will also provide
you with support by email or phone if needed prior to and during inspections.
Safeguarding, Prevent and British Values Reviews – Phil has developed real
expertise in what the best practice of the sector is and can work with you over
two days to check out every aspect and leave you with a position statement of
where you are and what you can do to be outstanding. Phil can also provide
bespoke training and materials to raise awareness of staff, governors and
learners Apprenticeships and subcontracting – Phil knows all there is to know
about these two areas and has helped transform some of the biggest college and
worst performing providers in terms of their success rates. The ideal scenario
is a five day visit to check and sample how you do things, suggest improvements
and provide you with the resources needed, finishing with a half-day staff
development that is bespoke to your improvement needs. Please contact Phil as
long in advance as possible to get time allocated for this Internal inspection
or review of areas requiring improvement - a tried and tested way to improve an
area is to first gain an informed view of exactly where that area is in terms of
strengths and weaknesses, using an expert with extensive inspection experience.
Unlike an Ofsted inspection, all feedback to staff and managers observed in an
area is given constructively to help improve practice for the benefit of
learners (while also giving you robust evidence for your OTLA system, SAR and
QIP). An internal review could be for an area of learning or for a cross-college
aspect such as safeguarding, equality and diversity, or course reviews. All
consultants undertaking this work are personally known to Phil Hatton as to
their ability to do so. The LIS will only conduct such work when they have the
right person to do it (often Phil himself). You will receive a report that
focusses on ways of improving the area reviewed, based on the best practice of
the sector that is proven to work (not just telling you what has been seen,
which is the usual practice of most consultancy companies). Helping individual
institutions in the sector achieve good or outstanding teaching, learning and
assessment through establishing robust observation of teaching, learning and
assessment (OTLA) systems – depending on where your system is we can its
validate current robustness by conducting observations (joint ones are best
value as they train your staff) and scrutinising the gradings and paperwork
historically awarded. If more work is required, we’ll equip you with the tools
(training, paperwork and systems) to establish an OTLA system that delivers
accurate and well recorded findings by your observers. Your observation system
will help keep a focus on promoting improvement, identifying and promoting the
sharing and adaptation of good practice by teachers (a reoccurring weakness in
Ofsted inspections in the past year). We will provide you with the training,
paperwork and systems to move your staff forward, encouraging their
collaboration in the development and sharing of resources, so your staff will
deliver learning in true teams. We will support you with either graded or
ungraded systems. An approach of conducting joint ‘learning walkthroughs’ of 20
to 25 minutes duration is providing many institutions with an overview of their
provision and enables the judgements of college observers to be tested out for
their accuracy and breadth. Sharing exemplary practice and systems in
self-assessment with you, leading to quality improvement planning that moves you
forward – we’ll support you in developing your capacity to self-assess all of
your work honestly and robustly so that your staff ‘own’ the resultant
self-assessment reports and improvement plans, understanding their part in
moving you forward. Few are really good at self-assessment, we can make sure
that you are and that self-assessment moves you forward. Several colleges and
providers have received very positive feedback about their SARs in 2016
following support and the use of LIS templates, particularly the use of a two
page Executive Summary SAR that helps focus improvement actions. If you have a
50 page SAR it will not be an effective improvement tool. Helping you to produce
position statements – if you think you are likely to be inspected it is
important to be able to say where you are ‘now’ as self-assessment looks back on
the past year - we’ll support you in writing effective position statements for
key areas that tell you and others exactly where you are for that area. They are
a great way to demonstrate to inspectors that you know your provision and have
helped a number of LIS clients move from a grade 4 inadequate to a grade 2 good.
Phil has also helped a number of colleges achieve grade 1s for their leadership
and management. An exemplar position statement can be seen here but is not as
good as what you will finish up with (samples can be shared)!! Conducting a
confidential ‘health check’ of your organisation by one or more of the top and
most experienced recent HMIs (and previously lead inspectors with the FEFC, TSC
and ALI) – if it is sometime since your last inspection or there have been
significant changes in management or what you offer, a ‘health check’ could be
invaluable. We’ll examine your leadership, management, performance and quality
improvement against and beyond the requirements of the September 2015 Common
Inspection Framework in a way that can only be achieved by being carried out by
the right people. Depending on institutional size and complexity, this totally
confidential and focused ‘health check’ will ensure you know your provision
inside out and have no surprises should you be inspected. It will help you to
decide and prioritise how to move your provision on.
