Ofsted

2.5 High needs post 16
Over this reporting period, Ofsted visited 26 providers to look at the early implementation of the
Children and Families Act 2014 on the educational experience of high needs learners in a small
sample of FE and skills providers.
They found that the sharing of important information between these providers and health and
social care providers was fragmented. This situation weakens the effectiveness of support since
the providers are not as prepared as they should be to meet the needs of their learners. As a
result, too little provision focused on preparing learners with night needs for adult life.
Only four of the providers stood out as having exemplary study programmes that prepared learners
very well for their next stage of education, employment and independent living.
Nationally across both schools and FE and skills, the investment in provision for learners with high
needs was nearly £5.2 billion in 2014/15. Ofsted express concern that neither local authorities nor
the providers and specialist services visited by their inspectors were able to show that they
evaluated whether their portion of this investment was delivering the desired impact on the lives of
these learners.
2.6 National findings and local implications
Ofsted summarise that England’s education presents a varied picture and that increasingly, the
quality of education for children before the age of 11 is high, but from age 11 onwards, the picture
is less promising. Secondary schools have not improved as quickly as primary schools and
increasingly general FE colleges are struggling. They cite that these weaknesses are having the
biggest impact in the North and Midlands. As a result, destinations for young people leaving
schools and colleges in these areas are not as positive and a higher proportion of young people go
on to take up apprenticeships. However as shown by their inspections, the quality of the
apprenticeships on offer is often poor.
From September 2015, Ofsted have introduced the new common inspection framework. This
aligns inspection across all the educational remits Ofsted inspects. Inspections are consistent and
comparable, making the same judgments in the same language across all phases and types of
education.
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