governance good practice guide

self-assessment across FE

raising standards and achieving potential

It is the government's aim to raise the quality and standards of learning and skills provision nationally, and to ensure that poor quality is either improved or removed.

This objective applies not only to further education colleges, but also to all post-compulsory learning and skills providers.

FE colleges already operate inside a strong external compliance and accountability regime that:

• scrutinises college missions (the initial stages of the government's Success for All initiative)
• oversees college programmes and performance (Annual Provider Review)
• is subject to robust inspection and annual assessment by the Office for Standards in Education - Ofsted (using the Common Inspection Framework (CIF))
• SA Across FE - involves Learning and Skills Council (LSC) oversight of colleges' finances - through the Provider Financial Assurance ( PFA) scheme
• requires the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), and individual awarding bodies, to assess and approve qualifications, staffing levels and course content.

But, on its own, external scrutiny is only part of the quality story - particularly in a sector that is moving towards self-regulation.

Click here for information on self-regulation.

Real commitment to quality through systematic and robust self-assessment is essential if standards are to be maintained and improved.

An approach to self-assessment that is led from the top (management and governance), involving the whole organisation - informed by learners, staff, employers and other external stakeholders and recognised to be an essential business benefit - is central to generating improvements.

Compliance with external requirements is not enough.

Colleges and other providers assess their activities and their provision at different levels throughout the organisation against a number of different quality and finance inspection and audit frameworks, mirroring the activities of the external bodies.

Examples of the frameworks used for self-assessment in the FE system include:

• common inspection framework (Ofsted/ALI)
• self-assessment report questionnaire (LSC)
• NVQ Code of Practice (the awarding bodies)
• Care standards: every child matters.

In addition, providers may make use of other quality improvement tools to focus on individual areas of their activity - eg the Business Excellence Model, the National Standards for Teaching and Learning, the National Standards for Leadership and Management (including Governance), and the Good Governance Standard for Public Services.

LSC is developing a Framework for Excellence which aims to provide a national, consistent, streamlined approach to self-assessment and improvement across the FE system and should become a major tool for providers. The Framework should also help governors analyse their college's performance and monitor their actions to improve.

Click here for information on the Framework for Excellence.

Effective self-assessment improvement plans start at individual course, programme or service level, feed into broader learning areas, which then feed into department, school or faculty levels and then finally into the overall college self-assessment report.

Self-assessment should not just look at curriculum and quality, but at the whole organisation to obtain a holistic view of how learners and stakeholders are being served. It should include risks, health and safety and equality and diversity issues and many other areas of college life.

Some providers find it helps to add objectivity and a wider perspective by bringing in outside consultants to help them review an area or to validate their own self-assessment. Others find it helpful to work with other providers to carry out peer reviews. The Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) is currently piloting approaches to peer review and peer referencing with a number of colleges.

Click here for information on the Improvement Strategy.

Whatever approach is used, it is important for governing boards to have the assurance that the self-assessment process is rigorously applied and accurate in its assessment - which may include some form of external validation.

In support of the government's objective to raise quality and standards of learning and skills provision, colleges and other providers are encouraged to:

• produce truly objective and evaluative self-assessment reports
• use the judgements made through robust and systematic self-assessment to set targets for improvement; to establish and implement a quality improvement plan and to measure the success of their actions.

The Ofsted inspection arrangements (from autumn 2005) introduced a greater emphasis on the self-assessment process and report. The report and the improvement plan have a central role in the planning and performance dialogue and form the starting point for the new Annual Assessment Visits (AAVs) by Ofsted and for the annual LSC Provider Review.

Self-assessment should not be seen simply as a preparation for external inspection. It is an essential business process in its own right, providing valuable information which colleges and other providers use for planning, implementing and monitoring actions to create stronger, more responsive provision.

The recently formed Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) reinforces the need for consistently high-quality and improving provision from provider organisations. This in its national Improvement Strategy (IS) - placing the experience of learners as the key to proper self-assessment. And there is an additional focus on:

• how well the needs of employers and communities are being met
• active promotion of equality of opportunities
• health and safety
• the capacity to improve and how well this succeeds.

It is important that colleges look outwards as well as inwards, that they share good practice (both in-house and with other education and training providers), that they benchmark, peer reference and learn from others and that they are committed to excellence across the whole of the FE system.

Click here for the White Paper: Raising Skills and Improving Life Chances.

Quality is the cornerstone of success: high performing colleges may move to a three-year funding plan, a lighter touch from audit and inspection and access to growth and contestable funds.

The college self-assessment report is now more central to the planning dialogue with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), and will provide the starting point for Ofsted's Annual Assessment Visits and LSC's annual Provider Reviews.

framework for excellence

As a result of recommendations in the Foster Report: Realising the Potential and the White paper: Raising skills and Improving Life Chances, theLearning and SkillsCouncil (LSC) is developing a Framework for Excellence in conjunction with the QIA and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).

Click here for information on the Foster report.

The Framework for Excellence is a streamlined guide for the assessment of college and training provider performance against a nationally agreed set of key performance indicators.

Click here for the Framework for Excellence.

The intention is that this new framework will simplify the management of quality improvement, enabling the achievement of real results across the whole of the FE system.

The Framework applies to all colleges and post-compulsory learning and skills providers (except school 6th forms). It comprises seven key performance indicators which are brought together to describe three dimensions of performance - responsiveness, effectiveness and finance.

Each of these dimensions will be graded and the results used to determine one overall performance grade. Governors will be able to look closely at the judgements of each dimension and identify their college's strengths and any issues to be resolved, along with the effect these have on their overall rating. This will aid self-analysis and monitoring of improvement initiatives.

Just as the various inspection bodies (ALI, Ofsted, Care Standards) are coming together for the first time under one agency, there are also real opportunities to streamline scrutiny and achieve clarity and consistency by delivering a self-assessment framework which serves the needs of colleges, quality inspection and audit.

Such streamlining will reduce unnecessary duplication of time and effort, avoid confusion and release resources to the front line.

in conclusion

A key message regarding self-assessment is that it is not just used to prepare colleges for external inspection - the Ofsted Annual Review, the LSC Annual Planning Review etc - it is also a powerful tool for ongoing self-improvement that brings both quality and business benefits when:

• led from the top, with strong leadership from principal, senior management team and governing board
• it is adequately resourced and supported
• the entire college is proactively involved, within a mature, reflective organisation culture
• learners, employers and other stakeholders are routinely, systematically and successfully involved in the self-assessment and improvement process
• colleges share good practice ( in-house and with other learning and skills providers) peer referencing and learning with others college
• colleges and governing boards look outwards as well as inwards and are committed to excellence across the learning and skills system.

As a result self-assessment promotes ongoing excellence in provision and provides an effective and reliable foundation for self-regulation sector-wide.

Click here for information on self-regulation.

The Governance Good Practice Guide aims to help governors and clerks place their own and their college's involvement in self-assessment within a broader regional and national context, as well as providing practical guidance on in-house self-assessment.