5A: How to achieve success in leadership and management

Strategic relationships between the provider and probation management

To identify and address appropriately the literacy, numeracy and ESOL needs of offenders on community supervision, relevant managers from the provider organisation and the probation area should liaise effectively. Joint working should include:

• clarification of Skills for Life targets and relevant targets for offenders on community supervision
• identification of issues experienced by offenders on community supervision, in relation to the arrangements for literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision
• joint strategic and operational planning about the literacy, numeracy and ESOL needs of offenders on community supervision, including arrangements for collection, analysis and review of performance data, and for using information from ILPs to enhance the supervision plan
• making the relevant links between literacy, numeracy and ESOL and employment
• action-planning for performance improvement
• clarification of accountabilities
• identification of continuing professional development (CPD) priorities in relation to literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision for offenders on community supervision.

Management commitment

Plans for literacy, numeracy and ESOL skills provision for offenders on community supervision should be included in the strategic plan, the operational or business plan, and the associated action plans for improvement, of both the provider institution and the probation area. Well-organised literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision has clear cross-organisational management structures in which roles and responsibilities are defined, and are transparent to all involved.

Roles should include a named coordinator for Skills for Life. This person should have specific responsibilities for offenders on community supervision. A strategic focus on improving the literacy, numeracy and ESOL skills of offenders should aim to increase offenders’ employability, reduce re-offending and foster social inclusion.

Performance data

There should be joint planning between the provider organisation and the probation area to ensure effective collection, analysis and dissemination of performance data, and planning for performance improvement. Data should be collected to monitor the performance of individuals and cohorts; set targets for performance improvement; and provide evidence for self-assessment, action-planning, three-year development plans and performance reviews.

Data should include:

• courses and activities (including reviews and induction)
• accredited qualifications offered
• relevant demographics on offenders on community supervision (for example, gender, ethnicity, age)
• outcomes of initial assessment
• outcomes of diagnostic assessment
• the number of offenders on community supervision who start courses
• retention rates
• reasons for non-attendance
• reasons for non-completion of learning programmes
• achievement rates (including the achievement of learning goals)
• duration and intensity of provision
• the number of offenders on community supervision with learning difficulties and/or disabilities
• the number of offenders on community supervision for whom English is an additional language
• progression routes, where known (education, training and employment).

Monitoring of, for instance, minority ethnic groups will show whether they are underrepresented in the delivery of Skills for Life to offenders on community supervision. The performance of different cohorts of learners can be used to guide programme and course development. Where appropriate, data on employment trends (at national, regional and local levels) should be used in reviews and to help offenders on community supervision prepare for employment.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance arrangements, including a strategy, policy and framework, must be in place in the provider organisation and the probation area. All stages of the learning process, from screening to exit interviews should be monitored. Regular checks should be made to ensure procedures are being followed to the expected standards. This can form the basis for internal audit. The effectiveness of procedures can be evaluated using performance data and feedback from learners and teachers.

The quality assurance system should be structured around an annual quality cycle. Procedures for performance monitoring, and the evidence produced through performance monitoring, should be made clear to all staff involved in Skills for Life. Staff should use the quality assurance system to monitor the effectiveness of their own work and to identify ways to improve the quality assurance system.

Observations

Quality assurance will also include the observation of the teaching of all staff. Any learner questionnaires used to support judgements on teaching must be presented accessibly and written in clear, straightforward language. Focus groups and informal meetings with learners are good ways of collecting qualitative data on teaching and learning.

Self-assessment

Self-assessment must be transparent and evidence-based. All staff and learners must be included in self-assessment. Self-assessment must lead to an action plan which is updated as actions are completed.

Managers from the provider organisation and the probation area should ensure that appropriate strategic and operational connections are made with the Learning and Skills Advisors from the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Unit (OLSU), the Regional Directors from the Skills for Life Strategy Unit, and relevant staff from the National Probation Directorate (NPD). All these organisations have important roles to play in the continuous improvement of literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision for offenders on community supervision.

Providers should use the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) inspection toolkit to prepare for inspection. The toolkit sets out in hardcopy and on CD everything a provider can expect to happen pre-, during and post-inspection. It is available on the ALI website at: www.ali.gov.uk/htm/excalibur.htm

Staff qualifications and training

It is crucial that well-qualified, experienced staff deliver Skills for Life to offenders on community supervision. Management should conduct an audit of the qualifications of staff delivering Skills for Life and establish a timescale for staff without appropriate qualifications to gain them.

Managers should ensure that all staff teaching and supporting learning hold or are working towards a nationally recognised teaching qualification. Those responsible for teaching should have or be working towards the Level 4 subject specialist certificate in adult literacy, numeracy or ESOL. Those supporting teaching should have or be working towards the Level 3 certificate in subject support for adult literacy, numeracy or ESOL. Volunteers should have or be working towards the Level 2 certificate in adult learner support.

Managers should also ensure that teachers have attended training in the core curricula and are familiar with Access for All. Managers should facilitate the access of all teaching and support staff to regular continuing professional development (CPD). CPD should include the background and needs of offenders on community supervision; managing challenging behaviours; and effective liaison with the NPS about the arrangements for literacy, numeracy and ESOL for offenders on community supervision. The latter area should include arrangements for collecting and analysing learner data, and planning for performance improvement.

Managers can also use CPD to ensure that those involved in delivering Skills for Life understand the importance of learning materials that are sensitive to individual learners’ needs. This includes consideration of factors such as ethnicity, age, gender and faith.

See the Read Write Plus site at: www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus
/qualityandtraining for information on the Skills for Life teaching qualifications framework.

See the LSC Skills for Life Quality Initiative site at: www.sflqi.org.uk for details on training opportunities for literacy, numeracy and ESOL staff.

The learning environment

Managers should monitor the extent to and ways in which the learning environment is inviting and safe for offenders, and meets the needs of individual learners.

Good-quality teaching accommodation is important in motivating and engaging offenders on community supervision. Poor accommodation, where rooms are small, and the acoustics, lighting, furniture and decoration are unsatisfactory, can prevent offenders on community supervision from engaging fully in learning. Teaching rooms should be a good size, have furniture and equipment appropriate to an educational environment, and be suitably decorated. Buildings should be accessible for those with restricted mobility.

Managers should ensure that learners’ work is displayed on the walls or on display boards, to mark achievement. If work is displayed in probation offices and hostels, this can motivate offenders to engage in learning. An appropriate range of books, CDs, videos and audiotapes should be available to support learning.

To enable offenders living in remote rural areas to access learning, managers should provide, for instance, transport to classes, or learning buses or video conferencing, where feasible.

Managers must monitor the extent to which all aspects of the learning environment meet the requirements of legislation such as the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA), the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (DDA/SENDA) and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.