quality-standards-and-curriculum-committee - 30 September 2024

The Committee took the opportunity to welcome M. Llewellyn as the newly-elected 16 – 19 Student Governor and G. Mills, the Board Chair, to their first meeting of the Committee.

35/24.       Election of Chair of the Committee

Having been proposed by A Prichard and seconded by R. Harrison, it was

Resolved:  That J. Barratt be appointed Chair of the Committee.

J. Barratt in the Chair.

36/24.       Appointment of Vice Chair of the Committee

Consideration of appointment of a Vice Chair of the Committee would be considered at the next meeting, after consideration by the Search & Governance Committee at its meeting on 16 October 2024.

ACTION:  Item to S&G 16/10/2024 and to Q, S & C on 02/12/2024

J. Barratt in the Chair.

37/24.  Declarations of Interest

No pecuniary interests declared.

38/24.  Minutes – 10 July 2024 (Appendix – Agenda Item 3)

Resolved:  That the Minutes of the meeting held on 10 July 2024, were approved as a true record.

39/24.  Matters Arising from the Minutes

Minute Number 29/24. Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Progress Report

The Draft 2024/25 QEP was presented to this meeting, so governors could appreciate the key issues and actions at an early stage in the year.

Minute Number 28/24.Higher Education Strategic Direction Progress Report

The VP, T&VE provided a verbal update on the progress against the Higher Skills Injection Fund (HSIF) spend, as a significant proportion of the revenue fund had been allocated to a media campaign designed to boost higher education recruitment.  The Committee observed that, whilst this presented an excellent opportunity to improve HE provision, invest in the estate and in targeted campaigns thereby strengthening the college brand, the Finance & Business Operations Committee would seek further assurance that the college had in place robust plans to ensure the funds would be spent by the December 2024 deadline.  The Executive Director of Finance would be requested to provide an update to the Board at its meeting on 07 October 2024.

Minute Number 32/24. SEND and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Termly Report

The VP, S confirmed that the EDI Annual Compliance Audit would be discussed with the EDI Link Governor at their meeting on 11 October 2024.

40/24.  OFSTED

The VP, Q, A & I presented to the Committee a detailed briefing and verbal report.

• Ofsted was required to inspect all eligible education providers by July 2025.
• The college was now in scope for a Full Inspection.
• In anticipation and to ensure effective preparation and reduce stress and anxiety for staff, the college had redesigned and refocussed systems to support Inspection and launched an OFSTED Teams channel on which staff could upload documents in advance.
• The college was also collating, in advance, key documentation such as Curriculum Rationales, Schemes of Work, Handbooks, Initial Assessments and Mark Work.
• Teachers were working closely with the Quality Team to prepare and deliver data early in the year; this had resulted in the Draft QEP, which would be used, going forward, to drive quality enhancement for the year.
• As a result of ‘The Big Listen’, Ofsted had made some changes to the approach to Inspection.
• The Education Inspection Handbook, whilst slightly amended, remained the core framework for how inspections would be undertaken and on what basis inspections would be conducted.
• Skills remained a key element of the Inspection. The governors who met with the Lead Inspector were expected to demonstrate knowledge of both the college’s strategic approach to meeting local and regional skills needs and cite specific examples at a curriculum level of effective employer partnerships.

Having discussed the report, the Committee AGREED –

• The college was well-placed to present a compelling and robust case for an outstanding college.
• The college had in place well-planned and robust preparations to not only meet the needs of the Inspection but also manage the wellbeing of staff involved.
• The Board ‘inspection team’ would prepare for the Inspection.
• The Governor Portal had been populated with key documentation to help with preparation, including the Inspection Framework, College Self-assessment Report 2022/23 and Accountability Agreement.

41/24.  Outcomes Summary 2023- 24 (Confidential Appendix, Agenda Item 7)

The Committee analysed a report (previously circulated) advising of the key successes, outcomes, and initial areas for improvement from the 2023/24 academic year.  This was a likely year-end position before final data was submitted on 17 October 2024.

The Committee discussed, in particular –

• Retention Rates. In response to a question, the VP,ALs explained the barriers to achieving the expected 2023/24 KPI for retention, including -
  • Student transfers between courses in college
  • Withdrawals, such as -
    • Transferring to another provider
    • Entering paid employment
    • Residual impact of cohort meeting entry grades with slightly inflated GCSE grades
    • Citing Mental Health/lack of resilience

The Committee agreed that analysis demonstrated that most withdrawals occurred early in Year 1.   However, if students were retained, they progressed, achieved and achieved to a high standard.  This emphasised the importance of securing students onto the right course, through supportive advice and guidance and in securing early engagement with prospective enrolments.  The Committee questioned what the college was doing to secure improvements in terms of advice and guidance.  The VP, V&TE explained that the college was looking at ways to ensure early and timely engagement with prospective students and building integrity into the application process to identify early those students most at risk of withdrawal, for example, focussing on providing early support to students through Progression Specialists and looking at ways to help students settle in.  For 2024/25, to support students on the academic programme who were at risk of early withdrawal, the college was holding a repeat ‘mini enrolment’ event to identify and support those students.

The Committee sought assurance that all withdrawal requests were sufficiently scrutinised before processing.  The VP, V&TE explained that no withdrawal could be completed unless either he or the VP, ALs were satisfied that sufficient rigour had been applied to support or provide solutions to students.

The Committee supported the approach being taken to secure both early engagement with the college and helping applicants make clear their course intentions at an early stage, as this increased the chances of retention, a positive student experience and achievement.

• High Grades.  Whilst High Grades had increased year on year, to reflect the expectation of high performance, the VP, ALs explained that the college was looking to increase the achievement of High Grades based on a raw percentage.  In response to a question, the VP, Q, A & I explained that, to achieve this, the D, Q, T L and the Enhancement Leads were already working on protocols to encourage students to achieve higher grades.  However, it was noted that the college was making more progress than the national average across all three prior attainment groups, measured by G Score in the Sixth Sense report.

• Apprenticeships. In response to a question asking why the college’s achievement rate was off-target and what was being done to secure improvement, the VP – Q, I & A explained that -
  • Whilst not quite at the ambitious target the college set, the achievement rate was still above the National Average.
  • This achievement rate was still affected by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on long duration apprenticeships, particularly related to Electrical, Plumbing and Engineering Standards.
  • The college no longer offered the Trades’ Union apprenticeship. However, apprentices were still going through the system, affecting the achievement rate. This apprenticeship was being withdrawn nationally.
  • To improve retention, the college had put in place entry requirements for Level 3 apprenticeships, including the requirement to have GCSE Maths & English and put interventions in place to improve End Point Assessment, which would take time to impact.

• Attendance. Whilst attendance rates for both first and second years had improved since 2022/23, demonstrating the positive impact of interventions put in place, they were still below expected targets.  In response to a question on how the college would improve attendance in 2024/25, the VP, ALs explained that, in common with other providers in the sector, the college faced some particular challenges with respect to attendance. In terms of barriers to attendance, the key issues for the college were –
  • Travel (including the increasing costs, withdrawal of public transport providers and the impact of adverse weather)
  • Mental Health (which was always followed up by the college)
  • Parental facilitation of student absence (i.e., holidays taken in term time and parents supporting college avoidance behaviour)
  • Conflicts with paid employment opportunities.

Strategies were being put in place to mitigate the impact of these challenges, where possible, however, rebuilding attendance remained a challenge.  Successful interventions from 2023/24, would be continued, for example, increasing the delivery time of tutorial from 1 hour to 90 minutes, encouraging students to attend to connect with other students and the teacher.  As a result, students were clearer on what the benefits of attendance. 

• Engagement with employers. The VP, V&TE provided a verbal update on the impact of the college’s Skills Advisory Panels. The Committee requested that the updated details of the employers with whom the college engaged, together with an updated list of the T Levels offered by the college, be circulated to all governors, to ensure they were up to date on their knowledge.

In conclusion, the Committee AGREED that –

• Outcomes overall represented positive achievements and progress, reflecting the hard work and commitment of staff and students.
• Attendance remained a core issue affecting all courses across the college and therefore the Committee would continue to scrutinise the impact of the college’s programme of interventions on student attendance.
• The college had identified areas to improve and had, through the early preparation of the QEP, already started to address interventions; this put the college in a good position to make further improvements, which the Committee supported.
• The revised reporting format of ‘turning data into information’ supported the Committee’s understanding of the key issues and invited more questions.

42/24.  Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) (Appendices - Agenda Item 8)

QEP 2023/24 – Year End Review

The Committee reviewed the 2023/24 Plan (previously circulated), analysing achievement against targets set. 

The Committee concluded that it understood clearly those projects that had not met expectations and the reasons for this.

QEP 2024/25 – Draft Plan

The VP, Q, A & I explained that the Draft Plan (previously circulated) was being developed based on the outcomes of the subject Principal/CEO’s review meetings currently being conducted with all provision areas.  This process identified early the key issues to be incorporated into the 2024/25 Plan, giving the college more time to implement interventions.  The Committee supported this approach and AGREED that the Draft Plan did identify the key issues, which had been discussed at the meeting, and that it would continue to analyse progress against interventions at future meetings.

43/24.  Safeguarding Report

The Committee received a verbal report to receive assurance that the college continued to effectively fulfil its statutory obligations regarding safeguarding in college and that the college had in place effective and appropriate processes to identify and support vulnerable students at the start of the academic year.

• The college had made two important appointments to the Safeguarding and Mental Health Team; the Head of Safeguarding & Student Conduct, who would support the VP – S in the strategic development of safeguarding and support the Team in the more complex and challenging cases. The officer was also leading on conduct at the London Road Campus, working with the site duty and security teams on managing behaviour. As a consequence of this and other interventions, the college had seen an improvement and generally positive level of behaviour and conduct from students from the start of the new year.  The college had also appointed an Emotional Health & Well Being Practitioner to work across all the campuses with students to support their access to timely and appropriate internal and external support. 
• The college’s Student Induction Fairs had taken place. For 2024/25, the college had undertaken these events earlier in the Induction process than in previous years, so all enrichment opportunities and support could be signposted to students at the earliest opportunity. The Induction Fairs had included a range of internal and external safeguarding support services to ensure that students knew how to access support as needed in college.  The Student Governor had attended the Fair, to signpost opportunities to new students.
• The programme of parent engagement events was underway, signposting to parents the range of support available to students. So far, there has been a higher level of engagement because of changes made to the delivery of the programme.
• As the college had enrolled more students, there had been a corresponding increase in the number of safeguarding referrals and interventions, which the Team had responded to. The college had also undertaken 318 ‘transition’ assessments with schools regarding potential students likely to attend in 2024/25, reflecting the impact of improvements made to secure timely information from schools to support the early identification of vulnerable students and put in place interventions to support them. The Safeguarding Link Governor requested an update on progress against encouraging the local authority to provide timely information on students at a higher risk of referral and requiring support.  The VP, S explained that, whilst progress had been made, the local authority had not yet completed the programme, due to capacity strain.
• The annual all-staff Safeguarding and Prevent Duty update was being released and all Governors would be required to certify that they had completed the update, as well as certify that they have read Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024 (KCSiE).
• Three sets of random bag searches had been undertaken across all sites since the start of Term. Students had co-operated positively with the search programme.
• The college had now banned vaping on all campuses. The college was working local residents and the town council to mitigate concerns over students gathering in the vicinity of London Road campus.
• KCSiE 2024 had not provided firmer or clearer guidance on the issue of gender questioning discussed by the Board at a previous meeting. The college was implementing interim arrangements in the meantime.

Having reviewed the report, the Safeguarding Link Governor reported that they would meet with the VP, S as part of their assurance work.

In response to a question, the VP, S confirmed that the Board would receive the Annual Safeguarding Report at its meeting in December.  It was requested that this Report include a briefing on the implications of the wider changing political landscape (for example, the recent UK riots) for the college and what it was doing to mitigate any risks. 

The Safeguarding Link Governor also requested that the latest PREVENT Risk Assessment be circulated to all governors at the December meeting.

ACTION:  Safeguarding Annual Report and PREVNT Risk Assessment to be included on 09/12/24 Board agenda

44/24.  Risk

The Committee considered the strategic risks relevant to its remit and agreed that they had been discussed within the meeting, particularly –

• QSC 1 - Risk of retention factor falling below target 95% for 16-19 students (or declining from year to year)
• QSC 2 - Risk that Achievement rates fall below target or are declining
• QSC 4 – Risk that Attendance falls below target levels
• QSC 5 - Risk that Systems in place to support students who are struggling to achieve predicted grades are not effective.

Going forward, all committees would receive the latest relevant extracts from the ‘live’ 2024/25 Strategic Risk Register, to ensure they were kept up to date with risk mitigations and risk score movements.

45/24.Committee Work Plan 2024/25

 The Committee reviewed and AGREED the Draft Work Plan 2024/25 (previously circulated).

46/24.  Date of Next Meeting – 02 December 2024 from 5.30 p.m. – venue to be confirmed.

The meeting concluded at 7.50 p.m.