Self improvement
We are proposing a system of self regulation through which providers will demonstrate, individually and collaboratively their capacity for assuring minimum levels of performance and for continuously improving the quality and standards of provision for the benefit of learners, employers and local communities. We also envisage a situation where the Single Voice has a pivotal role in developing the capacity for self improvement within the FE system, through sector ownership of improvement guidance and support programmes and the national improvement strategy on which these programmes are based. This will ensure that the sector assumes direct accountability for its performance and reputation, a key objective of self regulation. The Single Voice would wish to enter into early discussions with government on how the sector could achieve ownership of the improvement strategy and the support programmes that arise from this.
Organisational review and development
All providers will need to demonstrate that they are capable, as autonomous organisations, of self-regulating their own affairs through effective arrangements for organisational review and development. These will include the capacities for identifying and responding to the needs of learners, employers and communities, setting appropriate performance standards, benchmarking performance, ensuring rigorous self-assessment, managing risk, acting on underperformance, identifying and spreading good practice and more generally for operating as effective learning organisations. Each provider will be expected to set out its own approach to carrying out these aspects of organisational review and development for scrutiny during inspection and other external review processes. The Single Voice will have the lead role in working with other agencies to develop guidance standards for organisational review and development, including self-assessment. A multi agency group has been established to achieve these aims and it has been proposed that this group be taken forward under sector ownership.
The Framework for Excellence will provide the key ‘output’ measures against which all providers will self-assess and review their performance. Providers will, however, be given greater flexibility in using self-assessment and peer review to support their own business development needs, a mission-driven approach to organisational review and development similar to that used in the American Middle States Commission on Higher Education (as cited in the Foster Report). Providers will be expected to develop their own key performance measures (linked to the Framework) for this purpose. Over time the Single Voice will develop and consult on a broader set of outcome measures to demonstrate the sector’s contribution to wider government targets, including for communities.
The Single Voice will have a strategic role in the further development of the Framework for Excellence to support both organisational review and development, including self assessment. In particular it will work with other agencies to develop the Framework as a diagnostic tool that can be used by providers for improvement purposes. This work will involve identification of the organisational ‘enablers’ (input and process indicators) that support achievement of output measures set out within the Framework. The EFQM model will be examined as part of this exercise.
Collaborative approaches to improvement
Providers will increasingly work together in developing their capacities for self improvement, development centred on benchmarking performance, validating self-assessment judgements, spreading good practice and facilitating single action on underperformance. Such an approach recognises the single responsibilities that providers have for improving performance within the sector and in particular targeting underperformance.
Following on from the findings of the national peer referencing pilots, further extended trials are currently being undertaken through the QIA Support for Excellence programme to assess the effectiveness of whole organisational approaches to peer review and development aimed at helping providers to improve their self assessment processes, to build their capacity for improvement and to support their moves towards greater self regulation. The Framework for Excellence will be used as a reference standard within these trials. The Single Voice will work with QIA in producing good practice guidelines arising from this work. Development work will also be undertaken to identify the skills base necessary for effective practice in peer review and development and the national training standards that might be developed for this purpose.
Provider participation in peer review and development activity will be voluntary. The Single Voice will consider the outcomes of peer review trials which are now being undertaken for the first time across the whole of the FE sector, through the Support for Excellence programme. Once these are substantially tested, the Single Voice will consider the recommendations that are made on the appropriateness of a national peer review and development system. Such a system would allow the inspectorate to focus on the effectiveness of the self regulation at a system level, consistent with the role of an external regulator. In the immediate term it is anticipated that OfSTED will give increased recognition to the findings of peer review activity as part of its own evidence base for inspection.
Providers will be expected to develop a range of strategies for identifying and spreading good practice both internally and externally as part of their approach to organisational review and development. The Single Voice will wish to nurture, through the improvement strategy, providers and practitioners who are capable of developing and spreading innovative practice which can be scaled-up across the FE system.
Dealing with underperformance
Providers will be expected to develop systematic approaches for identifying and dealing with under-performance as part of their arrangements for review and development. Review activities, including self-assessment, should be undertaken ‘proportionate to risk’ and robust risk management systems developed for this purpose. The role of the Single Voice in managing underperformance will be considered in the light of legislation that will transfer and extend intervention powers currently held by the Secretary of State to the LSC. The Single Voice will work with the LSC to develop a licensing system that ensures all public-funded providers meet and maintain minimum standards of provision. Such a licensing arrangement is seen as a pre-requisite for establishing public confidence in a self regulating sector. The Single Voice will also work with other agencies in recommending support and intervention strategies for dealing with providers whose performance is just satisfactory or not improving.
The Single Voice will work with LSC to develop benchmarks that define minimum levels of provider performance for achieving and retaining licensed status. It will also issue guidance to providers on the need for more targeted approaches to underperformance as part of arrangements for organisational review and development. Peer review and development trials will be expected to focus on underperforming provision and action to address the causes of under-performance. The Single Voice will promote collaborative arrangements such as federations, collaborative partnerships and trusts in order fill gaps in provision and to address poor quality.
National improvement strategy
A national improvement strategy will be necessary to advance the aims of self regulation, including the capacities of providers, individually and collectively to improve their performance in a self regulating environment. The Single Voice will ensure that the new improvement strategy is responsive to the needs and priorities of providers, learners and employers, as well as the government’s own reform agenda.
The Single Voice will work with QIA and other agencies in reviewing the current national improvement strategy and how this might be further developed to support the aims of self regulation. It will consult with the sector to determine priorities for the new strategy and to ensure its alignment with the government’s own reform agenda. Finally, the Single Voice will work with national agencies to develop programmes and services that can best support the strategy.
