governance good practice guide

Ofsted annual assessment visit

Since the introduction of self-assessment across the FE system, practices and processes have become increasingly sophisticated. In brief, colleges and other providers analyse their provision and produce a self-assessment report, which includes self-awarded grades for areas of activity and college data. This is submitted to the funding body - the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the inspectorate, Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted).

In addition to its full inspection of the quality and effectiveness of FE provision, Ofsted now undertakes Annual Assessment Visits (AAVs) which enable the inspectorate to carry out mini inspections to validate a provider's self-assessment and monitor the progress of the quality improvement plan.

The AAV enables the inspectorate to assess the provider's capacity to maintain or improve quality - an important factor, with the LSC's increased emphasis on risk management.
Capacity to improve is central to the national arrangements to raise standards of provision. The AAV enables the inspectorate to assess this capacity to improve between full inspections and identifies any performance issues, making sure they are addressed either in that year or during the following year - rather than having to wait for the next full inspection.

These arrangements increase the momentum for quality improvement, encouraging provider organisations to see it as a truly continuous process.

The AAV takes the provider's latest self-assessment report and accompanying evidence as its starting point. The visit considers any changes in the provider's performance, tests the evidence and assesses the accuracy of the provider's judgements of their strengths and weaknesses identified in the report.

Ofsted shares with the LSC its judgements of both the quality of provision and the effectiveness of the provider's self-assessment. This, in turn, supports the LSC in managing the risks associated with the planning, delivery and funding of local provision.