governance good practice guide

quality improvement: action/reflection

This section contains all the action/reflection points from the Quality Improvement section.

• As governing board members, do you know the results of the most recent AAV?
• If yes, do the results accurately reflect the findings of your self-assessment?
• Does your governing board take actions as a result of the AAV?
• What are the mechanisms for ensuring that the governing board receives feedback on the AAV?

• Are all members of your governing board familiar with the implications of self-regulation for the college and for the FE system?
• Are your self-assessment procedures, practices and outcomes rigorous and fit for purpose?
• How do you measure the impact of your actions to improve?
• How do you measure the impact of your decisions on the quality of provision for learners?
• Do you look outwards as well as inwards when setting and measuring your improvements?
• Are you involved in peer review and referencing with other colleges/learning and skills organisations?
• Have you considered the implications for your governing board of new collaborative models for working with schools, colleges, businesses and other providers to support system-wide improvements?
• Do you need to review your involvement in self-assessment and self-regulation as a governing board?

Why does your college self-assess?

• Is it simply to comply with external requirements or is it to secure ongoing quality and business improvements?

How does your college self-assess?

• Do the self-assessment arrangements involve everyone, both internal and external stakeholders?
• Are the arrangements adequately resourced in terms of allocation of time, development and staffing resources?
• Are the arrangements owned throughout the organisation, not just by senior managers?
• Do the arrangements encourage honest and open discussion within a reflective, mature, no-blame, whole-organisation culture?
• Do the arrangements look outwards as well as inwards, sharing good practice in-college and with other learning and skills providers by peer referencing and learning from others?

As a member of the governing board:

• do you know what your college's strong and weak areas of provision are?
• are these consistent with the strengths and weaknesses identified in the college's self-assessment report and in the Ofsted inspection report?
• do you know how your college's performance compares with that of other local, regional and national providers?
• is your college concentrating on what it does best?
• are there areas of provision that might better be delivered by someone else?
• do you know about problems before they happen?
• does your college self-assessment feed into formulating a curriculum strategy and proposals for strategic direction?

• Do we have a shared understanding of what good performance as a governing board means?
• Are we an effective board? How do we know?
• How do we define and measure success?
• Are we satisfied with our performance – collective and individual? If so, why?
• What do we do well or less well?
• Are there barriers to effectiveness? If so, what are they and how can they be overcome?
• Do we receive the information we need to undertake our role effectively? Is it in an appropriate format?
• If we need to improve, how can we do this to make a difference?
• How can we measure improvement and impact?
• Are our performance indicators adequate and appropriate?
• Do our performance indicators assess the impact of the board's activities on the quality of provision for learners?
• How good is the quality of governor contribution in and between meetings, and what is the influence on decisions?
• Do I make an active contribution to debate and decision-making?
• How do college managers feel that the governing board performs?
• Is a large proportion of our time spent discussing non-learner and non-employer-related issues?
• Do we know what our students, staff, employers, other stakeholders think?
• Do we listen carefully to them and act upon their views?