Sharing good practice

This a two-fold process in that it involves identification and sharing of good practice that occurs both within a provider and between providers. You can find good practice through reading Ofsted inspection reports of the best providers, good practice examples on the Excellence Gateway and through observation of training processes.

How does the way you use good practice to instigate quality improvement compare with that of the most effective provision seen on inspection?

The following strengths and areas for improvement have been taken from recent inspection reports across the Ofsted Learning and Skills remit.

Common inspection strengths

• Effective methods of sharing of good practice
• Good initiatives to share best practice and improve the quality of provision

Common inspection areas for improvement

• Poor sharing of good practice
• Insufficient planned opportunities to share good practice
• Ineffective sharing of good practice to improve teaching and learning

If you were given a similar area for improvement bullet at the end of your last inspection, self assessed this area as an area for improvement, or want to work to avoid such areas for improvement, then consider what inspectors judge to be key.

Particularly effective practice identified in inspections includes:

• Adapting good practice from other organisations, including those offering similar training or training in another area of learning or context (this included subscribing to the good practice database, reading Ofsted inspection reports of grade 1 providers or those who have done well across their inspection, reading thematic reports and establishing sharing mechanisms within groups of providers). In one geographical area a provider network carried out 'learning raids' on grade 1 providers to identify good practice that could be adapted. Some providers have formal links with Beacon providers as part of benchmarking.
• Adapting other people's good practice so that it suits your organisation - do not feel that because there is good practice in catering that it cannot be adapted for construction or hairdressing. Things that work well in one area can usually be transferred to others. Similarly, something that works well with college students can usually be adapted to work with other contexts such as work-based learning.
• Identifying and adapting good practice from within the organisation - making good practice an agenda item at formal meetings, including identification of good practice part of the internal verification and observation systems (include a recording box on paperwork), having good practice as part of the self-assessment report and development plan.
• Ensuring that analysis of performance data in larger organisations is used to pinpoint better performance (in recruitment of under-represented groups, or in an area of learning) in different training centres or areas of learning in order to identify good practice.
• Encouraging staff to share their good practice with each other (in one example all staff kept a notebook where they recorded any examples of things that worked well for them or that they saw at employers to share at future meetings).
• Breaking identified good practice down into a series of actions that will enable it to be easily used elsewhere and action planning the implementation. This is very much like you should be doing for learners if they needed to master a complex task. Keep a good practice log to demonstrate to others such as inspectors what you have done in a particular year.
• Remembering to identify improvements or the impact on learners as a result of adapting good practice as part of your self-assessment process.

What could you do next to improve your provision?

• Read inspection reports to identify what the best providers are doing in your particular type of provision or area of learning (also check other types of provision as good practice is usually transferable between inspection contexts - adult and community learning, college, DWP, work-based, etc). As well as looking at providers with ‘outstanding’ aspects or monitoring visit reports with judgements of ‘significant progress’, look at providers who are similar to yourself in terms of remit, size and what they offer – Ofsted inspection reports
• Get a clearer and richer understanding of what you need to do to improve – Learner-centred self-assessment
• Use downloadable quality-improvement resources to develop your staff team and to focus on actions that will help to improve your provision – Actions for quality improvement
• Adopt or adapt the best bits of other providers’ work that inspection has identified as being particularly effective – Ofsted good practice database examples
• Measure just how effective your initial-assessment system is and if your quality-improvement initiatives are working – Data projects
• Develop a blueprint for initial assessment of your learners – Initial assessment and support
• Check whether your self-assessment report is fit for purpose – Self-assessment surgery projects
• Use the guidance developed by Ofsted to know what to expect in order to prepare for inspection, look at the Ofsted inspection handbook for your remit or the inspection toolkit – use the search box if necessary - inspection handbooks and toolkit
• Use the Excellence Gateway as a first ‘port of call’ when researching areas that you would like to improve. As well as the Ofsted-related area, simple word searches will bring you a variety of information about what others in the learning and skills sector are doing to improve their provision. This is particularly useful for any newer areas that you may wish to research.