Outstanding provision in community development - Leicester City Council 1/3

Overview

“Everything we do is about developing communities, especially those which are socially deprived. Until 2007 each of our 28 centres had a manager who was responsible for the day to day running of the centre and curriculum delivery. The great strength of the centre managers was that they knew their communities well. Two years ago we decided to appoint curriculum coordinators with detailed knowledge of specific subject areas to work across all the centres. This had two advantages: the quality of provision could be managed centrally, ensuring more consistency across all centres; and it released time for the centre managers to get more involved in the local community.

The majority of the centres are in the most deprived areas of the City and the learners all have different needs. We aim to focus on the most relevant community provision in each area, and give it high status. As a natural progression from this focus on community needs, we developed the Highfields site as a multi-access centre, providing a range of advice and guidance on jobs, finance and social matters, as well as education and child care provision. It has been so successful that we have opened a second multi-access centre in the city centre.”

Advice for others?  “Focus on the quality of provision. Understand the neighbourhoods in which the work is located and, above all, communicate well with the different parts of the organisation and with the communities being served.”

Claire Cronin, Senior Manager Curriculum and Kerry Gray, Senior Manager, Learner Responsiveness

The good practice in detail

How can a diverse community with significant areas of deprivation and differing needs be effectively served? This good practice example explores how a range of provision meshes together to provide customised packages of learning and development in different parts of Leicester.

In 2007, the two strands of adult learning services in Leicester were merged to become Leicester City Council Adult Skills and Learning Service (LASALS). Under the new organisation, four senior managers are responsible for: systems and finance, learner responsiveness, curriculum effectiveness and worklessness. Prior to this, each centre manager was responsible both for developing the curriculum and identifying the needs of the local community. By giving equal strategic weight to curriculum and learner responsiveness, the service has been able to build high quality provision tailored to the needs and activities in each locality.

How do you ensure that the needs of local communities and specific curriculum development are meshed together?

Key to the success are the multi-access centres. They respond to the specific needs of their communities in a holistic way. The first centre was set up in Highfields, an area of Leicester with high levels of deprivation. A second has been opened in the city centre, and six more are planned. The centres offer services which address the needs of the community, including: advice to help people come out of worklessness, advice for refugees and asylum seekers, and financial and benefit support. Alongside, the centres offer courses in a wide range of curriculum areas, such as: family learning, sport, arts and crafts and languages. Another important area is training in advice and guidance, to help the communities to grow their own expertise in this area.

Priya Thamotheram, Centre Manager at Highfields discusses provision with Aiyub Zamakda

One learner spoke about how the provision “supported my career change from manufacturing to advice and guidance”. Another talked of the way the course has helped her to see that giving advice wasn’t about “just sitting and listening, but about understanding the legal aspects”. Another was positive about her increasing confidence as she learnt new things that she could pass on to others. They all felt that the course was giving them the tools to go out and help their communities. They spoke of it as ‘a feel good’ course.

A group of learners on an advice and guidance course at the Highfields centre

The centres also teach literacy, numeracy, language, and child care. And having built the skills, they celebrate them at awards evenings. The learners agree that the provision is so effective in the community because it is “available to everyone, whatever their age, background or ability”, and “everyone is given an equal chance”.

Family learning and sport are central to the provision. These activities help parents and children to work together and increase the health and cohesion of the communities. A mother attending family learning sessions explained how much she enjoyed playing the games she created in lessons with her children. She also spoke of how she met new people and felt more self-confident. Another learner spoke of her pride in going to enrol for a course on her own and how it will help her to find a job.

A tutor and a learner try out a number game created in a family learning numeracy lesson

Community provision has a strong focus on helping people out of worklessness. Nelda Kappia is the Senior Manager for Worklessness, and is based in the city centre multi access centre. The centre opened during a recession and little easy access to jobs. She forged strong partnerships with other local organisations which had similar targets for supporting those in long term unemployment. She reflects: “The centre provides space for partner organisations to meet their clients, so that the clients can access a range of advice and training in one place. By working together, the agencies make best use of the funding streams available. LASALS also maintains a comprehensive database of clients’ activities which ensures that they receive seamless support. The centres also help smaller organisations to train their staff and make links with other organisations in the local community.

Nelda Kappia and Greta VanSchoor in the multi access centre

Another aspect of community development is the work LASALS does with Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities (NLDC) funding. Through LASALS good local knowledge, the learning zone coordinators, who are based in deprived communities, became aware that the application form for this funding did not meet the needs of all applicants, or the aims of LASALS provision in deprived communities. They realised that many smaller organisations were not used to writing effective bids. Now, LASALS staff visit each project to discuss their needs and aims prior to writing the bid. One of the coordinators said: “It put us on a really good footing from the start”. It enables negotiation to take place, especially around helping organisations to be realistic about what can be done. The key documents can be found here. Download the NLDC Application form, the NLDC funding expression of interest form or the summary of guidance for NLDC.

LASALS ensures that good communication networks are in place between the learning zone coordinators, neighbourhood managers and the City’s neighbourhood board, to create a forum for making effective local decisions. They also aim to help everyone who applies. Some projects are concentrated on voluntary activity, some on employment and others on qualifications. In all cases the staff are conscious of the need to promote a balance of activities which match the needs of the people in that community. The coordinator's role in supporting this type of community development is vital. They have an overview of local needs and gaps in provision. They also stay separate from the panel that makes the decisions. And coordinators can help local groups with particular interests to share practice with others across the City.

The learning zone coordinators monitor and help the projects throughout the year. A toolkit has been designed to monitor the provision and assure quality. Its use with each project is negotiated to allow different systems for quality assurance if appropriate. A lesson observation system is being devised and people delivering learning must be suitably qualified, so LASALS provides many of the delivery staff for the projects.

To ensure that this wide range of community development provision can be monitored effectively, LASALS collects data from the centres using a website. Data is accurate and managers can monitor outcomes effectively. As Claire Cronin explains, “There is better accountability for success rates and class closures. The specialist management of the curriculum along with good information which pulls the whole service together are key factors in our success”.

Three coordinators discuss the bids for NLDC funding

Uploaded - December 2009

What could you do next to improve your provision?

Answering all of the italicised questions in the Q boxes above will help you begin to health-check your current practice. Download all of the linked documents, compare them with your own or adapt them for your own use. Write a short action plan to get you from where you are now (what is good and what needs improving) to where you want to be.

The Building Better Practice (BBP) web resource is a great place to start if you want to benchmark yourself against other providers. It will show you the most common inspection strengths and weaknesses for each issue or topic, an analysis of the good practice found on inspection and a series of health-check questions to help you establish how you compare to others. Look specifically at how you could use BBP to improve your strategy and leadership and quality improvement practices.

Actions for Quality Improvement (AQI) is a set of activities with resources around which you can run staff development sessions with your teams. The activities cover all aspects of the learner’s journey and will help your staff embed quality improvement in the heart of your provision. Also look at the achievement section of AQI.

If you need more help, ideas and resources for the process of self assessment then look at the Learner-Centred Self Assessment (LCSA) materials. This is a web-based or hard-copy resource to help you generate a rich source of evidence for your self-assessment report through professional discussion rather than the completion of lengthy forms.

9 Data Projects to Improve Your Provision is a set of projects which help you use data to explore all aspects of the learner’s journey for improvement themes.

The Self-Assessment Surgery Projects have proved very popular at the Preparing for Inspection events. They will help you determine whether or not your SAR is fit for purpose.

Interpreting the Common Inspection Framework (CIF) is essential guidance on how to interpret the CIF for your remit and is now contained in the appendices of the Ofsted inspection handbook for work-related and adult and community learning.

The Inspection Toolkit contains step-by-step guidance on how to prepare for inspection and covers such topics as choosing the right person to be nominee, using data and self assessment.