4B: What is success in guidance and support?

One provider considers childcare to be essential to enable adults to access provision. There is a crèche coordinator and approximately 30 part-time sessional crèche workers. Almost every class is run with a supporting crèche. Where this is not possible due to space, health and safety reasons or because of low numbers, free childcare with a registered childminder is offered instead.

The deployment of crèche workers is managed by the crèche coordinator. Two or three crèche workers will be assigned to a site, which may only be for the duration of a particular programme. One crèche coordinator produced a crèche workers’ manual to set standards for provision and to ensure that parents and carers were aware of standards and policies.

Information, advice and guidance is built into all of one provider’s family literacy and family numeracy courses. The Community Learning Officer, who has a qualification at Level 4 in Information, Advice and Guidance, attends one session.

The group receives impartial advice on the range of progression routes as well as individual advice that is specific to each learner. There is a follow-up telephone call a week or two after the course to find out whether learners have taken up any of the other opportunities or whether they need more information.

Mandeep enjoys using the paint programme on the home computer, but Gurmajo has never touched a computer before coming to the ‘Together into Computers’ family learning course. She is really enjoying it, but would like to know a bit more. The ICT coordinator came to one session to tell her what other computer courses are available in her local area.

As a result of this focused support, four learners from one programme run at a village school decided to join a ‘Brush Up Your English’ course at a college in the nearby market town.

At the end of a recent programme, all learners progressed to some further learning.

Recent progression includes learndirect courses in basic skills, ICT, childcare training, accounting, learner support training, as well as preparatory courses for the Open University and higher education.