Chatsworth Futures Limited Ofsted Report

Full report

Information about the provider

• Chatsworth Futures Limited (Chatsworth Futures) joined Chatsworth Multi-Academy Trust in September 2018. The trust is made up of Chatsworth High School and Community College and Chatsworth Futures. The college moved to new premises in Swinton, Salford in September 2018. The premises were used previously as a primary school. The college is co-located with local authority specialist provision for students aged 11 to 16. The college provides day provision for young people aged 19 to 25 who have high and very high special educational needs. All students are funded as day placements.
• Students study on programmes that are at, or below, entry level. At the time of the inspection, Chatsworth Futures had 15 students on roll. Eleven students have progressed from Chatsworth High School and Community College, a school that caters for pupils with severe learning difficulties, profound or multiple learning difficulties and autism spectrum disorder. Four students have come from other settings.

What does the provider need to do to improve further?

• Leaders and managers must act urgently to address health and safety issues, including the assessment of risk, to ensure that students are kept safe from potential harm.
• Ensure that the senior leadership team has suitable leaders who have experience of working with, and supporting, students with high needs in further education and skills settings.
• Improve quality improvement processes swiftly so that actions to address weaknesses are successful and result in sustained improvements to the quality of provision.
• Improve students’ progression from the college so that more progress to volunteering, supported internships, supported employment or paid employment.
• Ensure that performance management is linked to the outcomes of the observation of teaching and learning so that teachers and teaching assistants develop their skills and improve their teaching practice.
• Leaders, managers and governors must improve quickly the quality of teaching, learning and assessment by:
  • ensuring that teachers use key information about students to provide effective teaching and support that meet students’ individual needs
  • improving the setting of targets for students so that they are sufficiently personalised and help students to make good progress
  • focusing explicitly on the skills students need to develop in order to reach their full potential.

Inspection judgements

Effectiveness of leadership and management Inadequate

• Chatsworth Futures Limited became part of the Chatsworth Multi-Academy Trust in September 2018. Shortly before the inspection, the only senior leader with experience of working with students with high needs in a further education and skills setting resigned from their post at the college. The process of recruitment for a replacement vice-principal has not yet formally commenced. The senior leadership team currently lacks the knowledge, skills and expertise to work with, and support, students with high needs.
• Senior leaders have not acted quickly enough to address the weaknesses identified at the previous inspection. Leaders do not consistently monitor or evaluate improvement actions. As a result, most weaknesses identified at the previous inspection remain.
• Quality improvement processes, which were identified as a weakness at the previous inspection, remain insufficiently rigorous. The self-assessment report is too descriptive, lacks evaluation and, as a result, is overly optimistic. The resulting quality improvement plan is unwieldy and unhelpful in supporting leaders and managers to make rapid and sustainable improvements.
• Performance management processes for staff require further improvement. Teachers and teaching assistants have annual appraisals and receive improvement targets for the coming year. However, staff are not involved sufficiently in setting and reviewing their own targets. Although leaders and managers review teachers’ targets three times per year, they are too generic, insufficiently personalised and do not reflect outcomes from observations of teaching and learning. As a result, performance management does not support staff to develop their skills or improve their teaching practice. Targets for the executive headteacher focus mainly on the multi-academy trust (MAT). Targets relating to leadership of the college are unrealistic.
• The curriculum is not fully aligned to students’ individual needs, particularly in preparing students for adulthood and challenging the most able. As a result, students do not reach their full potential.
• Teachers and teaching assistants benefit from a range of staff development activities to improve their skills, such as understanding autism spectrum disorder and strategies for crisis intervention and prevention. However, observations of teaching and learning fail to identify specific training needs. Staff do not share good practice at the college or across the MAT to improve their teaching practice.
• The college is a harmonious environment. Students treat their peers and staff respectfully. Students enjoy their time at the college.

The governance of the provider

• The governing body of Chatsworth Futures was formed in September 2018, when the college became part of Chatsworth Multi-Academy Trust. Governors have a wide breadth of skills and experience across education, health and social care. They have a good understanding of the provision’s strengths and weaknesses, particularly in teaching and learning, and the challenges that leaders and managers face. Governors provide strong challenge to senior leaders.
• Governors have expressed concerns to the executive headteacher about the capacity, skills and expertise of leaders and managers to lead the provision. The executive headteacher rightly acknowledges that this issue needs to be resolved urgently.

Safeguarding

• The arrangements for safeguarding are not effective.
• Leaders and managers do not adequately address health and safety matters. Their lack of leadership oversight and monitoring of health and safety means that students are not protected from potential risks and are exposed to harmful situations. Leaders failed to act quickly enough to address the significant concerns raised by inspectors.
• Leaders, managers and staff do not assess risks to health and safety sufficiently. Risk assessments are generic and do not identify key hazards such as the safe storage of tools or risks in the classroom. All staff have completed training in health and safety but this is not evident in practice.
• The single central record is accurate. Staff are trained in, and updated frequently on, safeguarding, including the ‘Prevent’ duty.

Quality of teaching, learning and assessment Requires improvement

• Too many teachers do not use effectively the wide range of available assessment information, including specialist assessments such as speech and language therapy, to inform planning or to meet the individual needs of students. Teachers and teaching assistants do not implement strategies consistently to support and promote students’ communication and positive behaviour. As a result, students, particularly the most able, make slow progress. A few students make good progress in developing their communication skills when working in the community, for example when cleaning the local church.
• A minority of staff do not have sufficiently high expectations for what students can achieve. In many classroom-based and practical activities, students work on the same tasks, many of which are not challenging enough for the most able students. The use of technology to support and enhance students’ learning is limited. As a result, too few students make the progress of which they are capable.
• The most able students do not develop independence and autonomy quickly enough in the classroom. Teachers and teaching assistants intervene too frequently in learning activities and complete tasks for students. Teachers do not give students sufficient time to develop their knowledge and understanding or to complete their activities. Consequently, a minority of students do not achieve their targets or develop their skills sufficiently.
• Teachers’ and teaching assistants’ reviews of students’ progress are not sufficiently rigorous. Annual assessment reviews focus on the targets set by teachers and not the individual outcomes identified on the student’s education, health and care (EHC) plan. Consequently, it is unclear whether the individual outcomes on the EHC plans have been achieved.
• Although teachers conduct baseline assessments of students’ starting points, they do not capture consistently what students can do well and what they need to improve. As a result, teachers do not set sufficiently individualised targets so that each student develops the skills, attributes and competencies that they need to learn or improve.
• The quality of students’ work varies significantly across classes. Teachers do not provide consistent feedback to students. As a result, students, particularly the most able, do not receive feedback that helps them to improve the quality of their work. Teachers do not routinely check for and correct errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar to help students improve their written English.
• Most teachers and teaching assistants use verbal feedback in classes effectively to reinforce students’ learning and to promote and maintain students’ interaction and engagement in lessons. However, a few teachers and teaching assistants use positive feedback too frequently. Consequently, students find it difficult to identify and understand when they have achieved key aspects of their learning.
• Teachers plan and provide activities to increase confidence and promote social interaction and the acquisition of daily living skills effectively. For example, students learn to use public transport, prepare and cook meals and interact with each other during practical activities at college, such as music therapy, and with the local community during visits to supermarkets and local cafes.
• A few students develop their independence and practical and communication skills effectively. For example, in a bicycle repair session, students followed written and oral instructions well and were able to carry out simple safety checks and adjustments with minimal support.

Personal development, behaviour and welfare Inadequate

• Staff are unaware of critical health and safety issues at the college and fail to give sufficient consideration to students’ welfare. They place students in potentially harmful situations. For example, students participating in a cookery activity in the college kitchens were exposed to risks such as corrosive substances left in the cooking area, sharp knives stored on unsafe shelving and trip hazards. A designated sleeping area had sharp nails embedded in the wall at head height and a claw hammer was left on a table in the classroom.
• Students demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning. They display exemplary behaviour and conduct, both in and outside of classes. In lessons, students have high levels of respect for staff and their peers. Teachers manage low-level disruption and challenging behaviour skilfully.
• Established links with feeder schools mean that appropriate procedures are in place to help students make the transition to college. Staff conduct accurate assessments of students’ individual needs to ensure that they receive appropriate levels of support. Students attend college for taster days to help them prepare for college life. Students receive appropriate information and guidance at the start of their programme.
• Students’ attendance is good. Students arrive on time for their lessons. If they are unable to attend college, staff meet with parents and carers to plan suitable timetables and support strategies that enable students to stay on their programmes.
• Most students demonstrate an awareness of how to keep themselves safe. They know who to talk to if they have any concerns or worries. Students understand the importance of staying safe when using the internet. For example, during a discussion on staying safe while online, students were able to identify and explain the risks associated with interacting with strangers in chatrooms and when using social media.
• Students benefit from a good range of enrichment and tutorial activities that help to raise their awareness and understanding of key topics and the wider world. These include the dangers of drugs and alcohol, managing personal hygiene, Chinese New Year and Ramadan. Students participate frequently in activities to promote emotional and physical well-being, such as using the gymnasium at the local leisure centre and sports and yoga classes at the college.
• A few students benefit from external work experience placements at various local employers, including a local cafe and the library. Most students develop their employability skills through practical activities at college, such as horticulture and bicycle repair sessions.
• Careers guidance is not sufficiently developed and requires improvement. As a result, too few students progress to higher levels of study, employment or supported internships after leaving the college.

Outcomes for learners Requires improvement

• Targets for the development of students’ skills are limited and do not support students’ progress well enough. Consequently, too many students make slow progress and the most able students lack sufficient challenge in their learning and do not make the progress of which they are capable. This weakness was identified at the previous inspection.
• Too few students progress to volunteering, supported internships or supported or paid employment when they leave the college. A few students progress to supported living. Almost all students go to adult day services when they finish their programmes.
• Almost all students enrolled at the college remain on their programme.
• Achievement rates on functional skills English and mathematics at entry level are very high. Achievement rates on the award for further learning and employment are very high.
• Leaders and managers analyse the performance of male and female students well. There are no significant achievement gaps between male and female students.

Provider details

Unique reference number 141887 Type of provider Independent specialist college Age range of learners Approximate number of all learners over the previous full contract year 19+ 17 Principal/CEO Martin Hanbury Telephone number 0161 921 1405 Website www.chatsworthfutures.org.uk

Provider information at the time of the inspection

Main course or learning programme level Level 1 or below Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 or above Total number of learners (excluding apprenticeships) Number of apprentices by apprenticeship level and age 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ - 15 - - - - - - Intermediate Advanced Higher 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ 16–18 19+ - - - - - - 16–19 - 19+ - Total - Number of traineeships Number of learners aged 14 to 16 Number of learners for which the provider receives high-needs funding At the time of inspection, the provider contracts with the following main subcontractors:

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Information about this inspection

The inspection team was assisted by the executive headteacher, as nominee. Inspectors took account of the provider’s most recent self-assessment report and development plans, and the previous inspection report. Inspectors used group and individual interviews, telephone calls and online questionnaires to gather the views of learners, staff, parents and stakeholders; these views are reflected within the report. They observed learning sessions, assessments and progress reviews. The inspection took into account all relevant provision at the provider.

Inspection team

Anita Pyrkotsch-Jones, lead inspector Tracy Gillett Neil Clark

Her Majesty’s Inspector Ofsted Inspector Ofsted Inspector