Ofsted has published new research looking at
subcontractors in the further education and skills sector.
New research by Ofsted finds that subcontractors in the further
education and skills (FES) sector often have
overall control of the day-to-day quality of a learner’s
education and training. However, directly-funded providers do not
always exert enough influence to manage the subcontracted
provision well. For example, they might not have the necessary
subject or industry expertise to review provision meaningfully.
The research also found that the current approach to inspection
means that some subcontractors are visited more than once, while
others are not visited at all.
While Ofsted is not funded to directly inspect subcontractors,
the research proposes a more comprehensive and transparent
approach to improve oversight.
Today’s report, ‘Subcontracting in further
education and skills’, recognises the acute economic
challenges FES
providers are facing as a result of COVID-19, as well as the
broader decline in subcontracted provision over recent years. It
explores what makes for high-quality FES provision delivered
through subcontracting and asks how inspection and regulation
might need to adapt as a result of a rapidly evolving landscape.
Ofsted is responsible for inspecting the quality of education
offered by directly-funded FES providers, but
inspectors do not report on all subcontracted provision. However,
the inspectorate has increased its focus on subcontracting over
the past 2 years, in response to concerns about the quality of
some subcontractors.
Currently, Ofsted inspections give a rounded judgement of a
directly- funded provider by sampling activities across the
provision. The choice of subcontractors to sample is made within
practical constraints, such as their location. These activities
then inform the leadership and management judgement of the
directly- funded provider and, where appropriate, the quality of
education judgement.
Today’s report suggests there are limitations to this approach
and concludes that the oversight of subcontracted education could
be improved by sampling more subcontracted provision. Therefore,
Ofsted is seeking to make inspecting and reporting on
subcontracted provision more comprehensive and transparent by:
- working with the Education and Skills Funding Agency
(ESFA)
to improve access to timely and accurate data on the number and
size of subcontracting arrangements held by a directly-funded
provider
- increasing awareness among inspectors of Ofsted’s available
inspection resource, in order to investigate more subcontractors
- changing the way evidence is recorded to systematically and
consistently include information about all subcontractors visited
- where appropriate, highlighting more subcontractors in
inspection reports
In particular, more accurate data from the ESFA would allow
Ofsted to arrange to visit subcontracted provision that was far
away, because out-of-region resources could be factored into
planning.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, said:
The financial stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic and
ESFA’s
tighter regulations around subcontracting make this an
important and timely report. Over the past two years we have
increased our focus on the management of subcontracted
provision. However, this new research has highlighted the
importance of reviewing subcontractors within our current
model.
We are open to exploring how we could directly inspect
subcontractors in the future, but that would need significantly
more financial resource and better data. So, for now we will
continue to inspect subcontractors as part of our inspections
of directly-funded providers. But I’m confident that the
changes set out in today’s report will make our oversight more
meaningful and transparent.
Today’s report is based on visits to 14 subcontractors in
November and December last year; focus groups with 38 inspectors;
and desk-based analysis of inspection reports and evidence bases,
as well as other publicly available data on subcontracting.
