Video Transcript

Video transcript (AI generated)

Hello everyone. Welcome to another edition of our oted webinars aimed at Ask Oted about oted and if you've joined any of our previous webinars, which have been running for about two years now, so we have an extensive back catalog already, then you'll know these webinars are aimed at providing you with important clarification, hopefully plenty of reassurance, and of course the opportunity at the end to ask any questions of the panel. We know that we always try and select topics that are of particular interest or of particular challenge, and tonight is no exception. Our topic tonight is how Offstead inspects alternative provision. Thank you to all of those individuals who've already sent in their questions. And of course, if anything pops into your head as we're going through the presentation, by all means please put it in the questions box or the chat box in the control panel. I'm not alone tonight, as is usual on our webinar program. I have a team of individuals and colleagues who are going to contribute some of the specialist detail. For those of you that don't know me, my name's Leeton, I'm one of his Majesty's inspectors, and I'm also Ted's Deputy Director for Schools and Early education. But as I said, you can see us all there on screen. I'm not alone, so if I just ask Anna to give a bit of an introduction. 

Sure. So I'm Anna Oui, I'm Deputy director for Cross Remit Education. Thanks, Lee. Steve 

Afternoon everyone. My name's Steve Shaw, I'm senior HMI and I work in the Send Cross Remit team, which has responsibility for how we inspect ap. Dave. 

Hi there. I'm Dave Gilkerson, HMI in the East Midlands. I've been asked to give a bit of my background just at this point, so just to let you know, I'm on this panel because I've been at HMI for the last two years, but before that I worked in mainstream secondary schools, mostly involved in the in-house ap within those schools. I then left to be executive head teacher over a group of 13 schools nationally that were AP schools. So I've been in the sector for quite some time and worked out the other day that just before I joined Ted, I've been through 29 often inspections as a leader, so I know what it's like going through on the other end. 

Yeah, great. Thanks Dave. And as I said, great to have kind of assembled a team of experts with a range of experience and importantly drawing on your experience there of actually leading alternative provision. So brilliant. Thank you everybody. If I forget at the end to thank you all, thank you for your contributions and if we could just move on to the next slide, what I'll do before we launch into some of the detail is actually answer the number one question we always get asked if somebody hasn't already put it in the box, which is when can I get a copy of the slides? Well, we will always make sure that the slides are available on SlideShare and due course and you can see on the slide all of the usual ways of being able to engage and get in touch with us through various things that we publish from time to time. 

So at this point I'm just going to say we are still here. You will still be able to hear us, but we're just going to turn our cameras off and you will see us all again at the end when we do the q and a session. But this just gives you an opportunity to focus on the slides. So in terms of the webinar we're presenting tonight, it's about how we inspect alternative provision or you may hear us say ap and so we've split it into three sections to try and get underneath three different, three different elements and in the first section we'll just reflect a little on the national context in which AP has to work. Obviously as part of that we'll need to talk about the complexity and the dynamism of the AP landscape and we know that aps do some amazing work with some very vulnerable and at times challenging pupils. 

So we'll want to comment on the pressures that we know the AP system is under, and that's especially in relation to what is increasingly overlapping perhaps with the send system. And we'll reference the ongoing work by the department for education through its improvement plan for send and ap. We'll then move on to the inspection itself and explore some of the activities the inspectors will do to arrive at their judgments. And as in other webinars as I mentioned right at the start, we'll then consider some of the questions that you've either paused in advance or that you want to pause as we're moving through the course of the slides. And a reminder, please do pop anything additional into the control panel and we'll consider them in the time that we have at the end of the session. But first and foremost, this is kind of the slides that I just wanted to make sure we have at the start of all of our webinars this term because it is such a crucial message and I think provides the right level of context before we launch into some of the specifics. 

So it's important to acknowledge as we have on all of our previous webinars that we understand that schools can't be everything to everyone and this is especially true of alternative provision, which are often expected to be precisely that be everything to everyone and often at a point when a young person has reached the end of the road in terms of mainstream education. So we've included this slide in a number of our webinars and it's something we've talked about actually directly with inspectors in our September training program. We know that you are facing unprecedented challenges at the moment when these challenges include but are certainly not limited to the continued impact of lockdowns gaps in learning the economic crisis and for some the risk and disruption caused by RAC or aerated concrete, a very recent issue. At the same time, we know that our research work and the support and intervention that might have routinely sat with wider agencies has shifted more directly towards schools and in some of your schools, this landscape will be compounded by the demand for special needs places and in many instances we know that the availability of places is simply not keeping up with demand and that therefore means there can be consequences landing increasingly at the doors of alternative provision. 

So during our inspection work, we do bear all of that context and those pressures in mind and our handbook from September was updated to particularly have a definition about leadership capacity to improve and in the final bullet on the screen there you can see we have that question, to what extent have leaders done all that can be reasonably expected in the time available and the circumstances in which they work? And obviously context here is key. While we don't want to reduce our expectations and collective ambition to secure the absolute best provision for children and young people in alternative provision, actually we do want inspectors to be realistic and proportionate in going about inspection work. So with that kind of overarching context, both what we've delivered to inspectors and what we've delivered through our range of webinars across this term, I'm going to hand over to Anna to take you through the next section. 

Thank you Lee. Really helpful. So I'll pass to colleagues to just go into some of the specifics shortly, but I just wanted to talk through the wider context and landscape. Now, Lee's just touched on some of the external pressures and we also know that in the DFE at the moment, they have the send an AP action plan, which many of you'll be very familiar with and seeing how that is landing in your areas. Just to note here, we have said before, and I think the DFE are well aware that some of the statutory guidance from 2013 doesn't necessarily reflect the changing nature of the sector. So as part of their work there, we're mindful of that in our inspections, as you will be mindful within your schools and settings and in the commissioning processes to just make sure that we are doing the best for those children and young people who do find themselves in alternative provision. 

Now, our inspection framework, the EIF, it enables the teams to explore the quite unique nature of each ap, but we know it is. Lasly was saying it's a very complex sector with many external pressures. So strong AP canon does. It provides an excellent education for many children and young people who are no longer in mainstream education, but we recognize some of those pressures and we do take those into consideration when we are on inspection. Lee's just mentioned a little there about the overlap between AP and send. So we know that around 80% of children and young people have send H in alternative provision and there is that particular pressure at the moment in terms of shortage of places which we're mindful of and we talk about this in fairness, we talk about this in our annual report that's coming out on Thursday, so you may well see some more of this in press messages, but we talk a bit about the alternative provision sector being a shadow send system, particularly for those children who may be waiting for places in specialist provision or otherwise. 

So we're mindful of that when we are out on inspection and some of the challenges that you as leaders and otherwise will face just in terms of the wider, obviously we have the send an AP improvement plan, which sets out a really ambitious landscape for ap, which we are mindful of making sure that we take consideration of. I'll just move on to our approach to inspecting in some of the sector publications that we've already released. So earlier this year you'll see in September we published a blog on how we inspect ap. If you've not seen that yet, I'd encourage you to have a look at it because it just sets out there some of the areas that we'll cover today and also just outlines some of the different approaches we see when it comes to a settings core objectives, what are they there for and how are they achieving those. 

So some of those core objectives can range from short-term behavior intervention packages to much longer term and even permanent full-time placements. And we also noted in that blog that even though an AP does not always look and sound like a mainstream school, we do use the same inspection handbook, the education inspection framework, and we do that very intentionally. It's designed to be flexible. It makes sure that we have those high ambitions for all children and young people wherever they are educated, but we are mindful that the flexibilities within it means that we can use that to look in AP where there are differences in the way that you may educate children and young people in relation to how a mainstream setting would. So the EIF deliberately focuses on the quality of education and the importance of a high quality curriculum. I'm going to hand over to colleagues now so that they can talk about how we go about inspecting an APS curriculum when we know that the complexity and diversity can make it look and feel quite different to a mainstream school's curriculum

Just to note that our first step when inspecting an APS curriculum is to understand its core work and objectives, and although we recognize that aps are likely to have different objectives to mainstream schools, to mainstreams and even other aps, it's really important that we've got the A IF to keep a consistent approach to what we would say is a good quality of education. So Steve and Dave are going to talk through some of the specifics of that and then we'll hand back over to me for some of the questions and I can see some are coming in already. Thank you for that. 

Thanks very much Anna. I'm going to pick things up from here, colleagues, and what we thought we'd do is walk you through the inspection process through an ap. So next slide please, Joe, I'll just pause here to say we're not going to read the inspection handbook to you. Everything we're talking about today is in the handbook specifically as you can see on the slide there, paragraphs 2, 8 3 to 2 8 7. It'd be well worth familiarizing yourself with those paragraphs in the handbook, but we'll capture the main points here today to help you understand what we inspect and why. Let's have a look at the overview then for the ground that we'll be covering in this section. So we're going to talk through what you can see on this slide and we've picked these three areas because they're the ones that we're often asked about by AP leaders. 

We know that AP leaders want and need us to get the provision. Crucially AP leaders want to feel confident that inspectors understand that the AP is not a mainstream school, that it has different priorities. The three areas here then reflect what we believe will be the most useful to you today in this webinar. So we'll consider the phone call with leaders after notification exploring the curriculum, especially how we go about selecting the deep dives and then thinking about how we inspect behavior in an ap. Understanding the APS core work and objectives is an essential part of the initial phone call head. Teachers don't have to take this call on their own. They may want to be joined by other senior leaders. We're increasingly having conference calls with senior leadership teams. For instance, during this call, the lead inspector will ask the head teacher to describe and explain the APS core work and objectives. 

This is so that the ally can understand how the AP is set up to meet its pupil's needs. This conversation will necessarily involve a discussion about the APS curriculum. Now, as Lee and Anna mentioned, we've got high aspirations for all pupils attending AP and we expect APS to share those aspirations and that that should be reflected in the curriculum. But we know that aps face a number of challenges when designing a curriculum including pupils with different jumping on and jumping off points throughout the year. Some pupils being placed for a few weeks, others for longer, and some permanently pupils with gaps in that knowledge. Some insufficient information about a pupil being provided before they arrive and pupils with send some of it undiagnosed, often manifesting itself through challenging behaviors. This phone call is an opportunity for the head teacher to help us get under the bonnet of the APS curriculum to describe how it connects with the APS core work and objectives. 

We want to get what the AP is all about. So this will include how the AP identifies and assesses the needs of pupils, what the AP does with that information to build an ambitious curriculum around its pupils needs, how coherently the curriculum is sequenced so that it meets all pupils needs, starting points and aspirations and what the AP does to make sure that pupils are able to transition to a suitable destination and lead a successful life. Once we understand the APS core work and objectives and its curriculum, we will start to discuss and agree that deep dives with the head teacher. As we said a few moments ago, we know that the curriculum in an AP is likely to look different to that in a mainstream school to allow for necessary flexibility. There is no fixed number of deep dives in specialist settings in ap, but we generally aim to complete four in larger settings. 

The deep dive areas are likely to include national curriculum subjects as colleagues will know. The DFEs expectation is that APS will deliver a good standard of education including English, mathematics, science, and it. We'd normally expect to conduct a deep dive in one or more of these subject areas depending on the APS context, we would expect to conduct a deep dive in reading if the AP provides places to pupils who struggle with their reading irrespective of their age. If there are primary age pupils in the ap, then a reading deep dive is likely deep dives may also include a curriculum area specific to the AP one linked to its core work and objectives. They may be related to the four broad areas of send as you can see on the slide, or there could be a combination of all of these. We know that such subject areas may not be called traditional subject names In the phone call, we would look to understand the APS curriculum in relation to its core work and agree the deep dives on that basis. 

The precise areas we focus on when evaluating a school's curriculum are set out in the handbook in paragraph 2, 2 7. We'd recommend reading it in full, but we've given you the headlines here. We would have the same high expectations of leaders' curriculum in an AP as we would for any school, not withstanding the challenges faced by aps as touched on earlier and acknowledged in the blog, we would explore the matters set out in this paragraph. So for example, an AP might offer say motor vehicle maintenance as part of its subject curriculum and may ask for this to be one of the deep dives we'd explore with leaders. How ambitious is the motor vehicle maintenance curriculum While achieving qualifications is not necessarily appropriate in all circumstances, we would want to know in what ways is this curriculum ambitious? Does it lead to a qualification or support learning in other areas? 

What outcomes is it intended to achieve for pupils? How will it support transition back into mainstream or into a specialist setting or into post 16? How far is a motor vehicle maintenance curriculum planned and sequenced? Does it follow a particular plan in terms of subject specific content and skills so that pupil's understanding of motor vehicle maintenance builds over time or is it more ad hoc and unplanned so there's no connectivity with say the engine work they did in the previous lesson or the one coming up Next we'd ask, is the learning rigorous? Are pupils learning about vehicles at a suitably challenging level? For example, are they learning about the procedures for the diagnosis of faults? Are they learning about say, engine units on components, electrical units, chassis units, transmission and driveline units, the technical skills required to make light repairs? Pupils might be having a nice time working on parts of a vehicle, but is there a subject content and skills rigor beneath it? 

I would also ask how far have leaders thought about any particular content and skills that may be missing from pupils knowledge before they embark on the motor vehicle maintenance curriculum? For instance, do pupils know the basic rules and procedures for being safe in a workshop? Do they know how to handle certain tools and equipment? Do they have the necessary technical, scientific, mathematical and literacy skills to enable them to access the motor vehicle maintenance curriculum effectively in an AP setting? Then we will particularly want to understand the extent to which an APS curriculum has appropriate coverage, content structure and sequencing and how that's implemented effectively and how it has an impact on pupils outcomes. We'd explore these matters with leaders and through the deep dive methodology that described in the handbook paragraph 230 and which is on a later slide, we know that in some aps we would need to be flexible and creative in working with the head to build the inspection plan so that we could ensure coverage of the APS curriculum work in the deep dive areas. 

We know for example, that an AP can include pupils from different phases and key stages. It can include pupils based on more than one site. It might have single and dual rolled pupils. There could be pupils on short-term placements and pupils on long-term or even permanent placements. Put simply, there is no one size fits all approach to deep dives in aps. We know that we are likely to have to take a very careful look at pupil's curriculums on a case by case basis to fully evaluate the extent to which the bullets on this and the previous slide and that to help us in our exploration and evaluation of the curriculum, we'll look at commissioning agreements for pupils. We take the DFEs alternative provision statutory guidance from 2013 as the basis for what commissioning agreements should consist of and set out to achieve. Inspectors are likely to sit down with leaders to look at a few commissioning agreements and related documentation. 

This will be a professional dialogue where we ask leaders to walk us through a few live placements. We often hear from AP leaders about their tailor made and bespoke curriculum. This meeting is an opportunity for leaders to shine a light on their curriculum in action and to showcase how they support their pupils. So we'd be interested in exploring a number of pieces of evidence with you and relevant documentation could include but isn't limited to things like EAC plans and reviews, PEPs and PEP reviews, IEPs, pupil timetables, curriculum documents such as programs of study. Other sources of evidence could include what you can see on the slide there. So pupils work on entry assessment information, records of meetings with agencies and services, records of meetings with parents and carers, transition information from school or the local authority and behavior and attendance information. These are illustrative and not intended to be exhaustive. 

You will doubtless think of others that could be tabled and discussed and none of these documents or sources of evidence are replacements for what we see on deep dives when we visit lessons talk to staff and pupils and review pupils work rather, we would use such case sampling as a lens through which to help us explore the impact of commissioning agreements. What we're interested in here is how leaders make use of such information to plan a curriculum that's designed to meet pupils needs and to help them to achieve the best possible outcomes. So let's just reflect for a minute on what we might mean by outcomes for pupils in an AP and how we might measure the impact of an APS work on a pupil's outcomes. The inspection handbook states in paragraph 283 that alternative providers differ from other schools and that they are generally intended to be short-term interventions to secure the successful re-engagement into education. 

In these settings, inspectors will gather and evaluate evidence about what you can see on the slide. Also taken from paragraph 2 83. So inspectors gather evidence about how well leaders ensure that pupils outcomes are improving as a result of any different or additional provision being made for them. We are careful not to expect to see a mainstream curriculum leading to the traditional suite of GSE subject grades at the end of key stage four. We might see this and we would evaluate its suitability and effectiveness if we did. However, in general, and this is a generalization, we do not take outcomes in an AP just to mean a suite of GCSE grades. So let's think a little bit more carefully about outcomes on this and the next slide. We think about the sorts of outcomes that will to the appropriately personalized degree be in scope for pupils placed in an ap. 

As we said a few moments ago, for pupils in ap, it may or may not be appropriate for them to be working towards formal qualifications. This will depend of course on the length of time it's intended that they will be in the AP and their age and other relevant factors. But we would certainly wish to explore and understand the decisions you have made about whether pupils are working towards national qualifications and if so, which ones and the rationale for doing so. But we also know that outcomes for pupils in AP especially those with send, will also include a wider range of outcomes than national qualifications. The sorts of outcomes this might include around this and the next slide. And remember from the initial phone call through to the case sampling of commissioning agreements and associated information to the deep dives, we will have been exploring your rationale for the curriculum decisions you have made for your pupils. 

We sometimes find that pupils in AP are following courses and doing activities which do not align with their interests or needs. For example, pupils doing hair and beauty or equine studies or construction and the like, but have no interest whatsoever in that field and there is no coherent plan for how any of the outcomes you can see on these slides are intended to be delivered. In these cases, pupils are in effect just being occupied. So for the pupil doing motor vehicle maintenance, they might or might not be working towards a national qualification, whichever will be asking you, what outcomes does this curriculum pathway deliver? Why this course for this young person? Which outcomes for this young person is it intended to achieve? How have you decided that this is an appropriate means of achieving those outcomes? What voice has the pupil had in the decision to place them on this curriculum pathway? 

In what ways is motor vehicle maintenance preparing them for life after school? How is it contributing towards developing the pupil's personal and social skills? And here are some more possible outcomes for pupils attending ap. We've commented earlier about the overlap that often occurs between AP and send. The code of practice defines an outcome as the benefit or difference made to an individual as a result of an intervention. And this can be a helpful way of thinking about outcomes for pupils in an ap. Whatever the curriculum we would want to understand and evaluate the extent to which the curriculum is in the pupil's best interests is linked to any provision set out in an EHC plan or PEP and is designed and implemented so that it achieves a relevant impact as outlined on this and the previous slide. Okay, we've spent some time thinking about how we inspect the curriculum in aps. Let's turn now to how we're considered behavior because this is likely to be a core piece of most aps work. And Dave, I'm going to hand over to you. 

Thanks Dave. We're going to turn that to the part of the webinar where we're going to think about how we inspect behavior in an AP and we've explored deep dives in previous webinars. You can find those in our library if you want to know more. And we'll pop a link into the chat bar too and you may well have seen this slide. If you've watched the recent behavior webinar, we've placed a bit of a blue glow around the areas of the deep dive that can be particularly valuable in gathering evidence about behavior and attitudes. Of course we'll be talking to pupils where possible and we're meeting with them separately to talk about their learning. And these discussions will also consider behavior most likely towards the ends of our conversations. And we want to know people's views about behavior, their experiences and feelings about any potential bullying and whether learning is interrupted by poor behavior. 

And we want to reassure you though if pupils do raise any issues, this won't suddenly mean that we'll arrive at a certain judgment or in an ungraded context immediately mean that inspectors form some specific concerns and we be proportionate. We'll also discuss our emerging findings with leaders. Most importantly of all, if any issues do arise, we'll speak to more peoples about their views and ensure we gather a representative sample of thoughts and feelings. On the flip side of this, if all the peoples we speak to talk about how much better their behavior has been since they started at the AP and say that the longer they've been at the school, the more settled it feels, then this is valuable evidence that inspectors can use to triangulate with what leaders say and what has been seen in the school. In terms of talking to staff, we'll prioritize curriculum discussions first and then we'll typically talk about areas such as wellbeing, workload, and then pupils behavior. 

We want to know how staff are supported to manage behavior and the extent to which that support is effective. Talking to pupils during deep dives and informally is a key component of our work On day one of an inspection as well as during lesson visits, we'll have conversations with pupils at break lunch in corridors where we'll ask 'em about their curriculum and behavior among other aspects. So let's consider behavior and AP specifically then we'll start by sharing the insights of the first phase of os recent research about behavior. Many of you may have already read about these findings. Following HMC i's speech to the Confederation of Schools trusts and a recent article in the Guardian. We shared this in our last webinar as the headline says, disruptive behavior is worse. Since covid, this shift in behavior has been reported by a wide range of organizations. 

This poor behavior and disruption presents a somewhat vicious circle to in that it can also contribute to anxiety and poor mental health among some peoples, which in turn can impact on attendance. We have found that the increase in prevalence of persistent low level disruption is a system wide issue. In terms of the causes and reasons for the issues schools are facing as HMCI has outlined in their speeches, the increase in disruptive behavior can impart be attributed to a loss of socialization As a result of covid, a lot of people have had a lot less of that socialization. Many young people have not had as much of the experience and opportunity to practice as they normally would've done. And of course for children and young people in ap, these causes and reasons can be amplified. I was still leading my schools during the first lockdowns and found that there were other issues that particularly impacted AP schools. 

Many if not all AP schools remained open during covid and it was business as usual in the majority as all pupils were class as being vulnerable. And the issues we faced were the fact that pupils had friends in mainstream schools who they saw staying at home. And we also had parents who kept older children at home to look after younger siblings. In my schools, the social contract that had always been fragile was now completely broken and we know that it takes considerable and effort to rebuild a journey that I'm sure many of you are still on. Reversing the damage done by Covid is a multi-year challenge, hence the focus through our research. So let's look more closely at what the research tells us about the prerequisites for good behavior including in an ap. If you joined us in our last webinar, you'll remember these messages. 

We'll now consider them again in the context of AP aps with good behavior have high expectations. It is important to stress that this is for all pupils. In these aps there is a belief that all peoples can behave well. Those who need extra support with their behavior receive it such that they make improvements in their behavior. Of course, reasonable adjustments may be needed for pupils and we'll refer back to that again later. Improving pupils behavior will probably be a core objective for the ap. aps with good behavior tend to express expected behaviors clearly and concisely. They ensure that these expectations and the reasons for them are communicated to pupils and parents consistently and frequently. In many the expectations are considered and drawn up with the pupils and the parents so that their voices are heard and there is a sense of ownership of these shared values and expectations. 

The systems for dealing with unwanted behaviors are simple to follow and consistently applied by all staff. There's a certainty about what will happen. This certainty and consistency reduces the potential for conflict with staff. People's know it is not personal yet being treated fairly within the agreed and shared expectations. Pupils in these schools tend to perceive the behavior systems as fair even if they don't always agree with them. aps where behavior is stronger know that behavior does not necessarily improve ons own or look after itself. There is a deliberateness to the steps taken. Crucially, these aps take a very proactive approach to ensuring behavior is strong. They teach peoples about the expected behaviors. They are reiterated frequently with the rationale help peoples understand their own behavior and choices and the impact of their behavior on others where behavior expectations may differ. Differ. For example, at the point of transition from the commissioning school to the ap, changing expectations are explicitly shared with pupils. 

They're not just expected to pick them up from observing others. When people struggle with behavior, they receive support to understand the expectations and live up to them. This may well be a core objective for the AP and we'll look at this shortly in these aps while acknowledging that there may be some challenging behavior with some pupils need additional help behaving well becomes the cultural norm. Ultimately what we know from research and are experience is that accepting that pupils have different needs and experiences, we must have high expectations of the behaviors we expect and we can't wait for behavior to improve on its own. It needs to be taught and reinforced over time. Key factors also include the presence of well-established systems and processes for recording and analyzing behavior. In short behavior management requires a consistent proactive approach. We need to be reasonable here and recognize that in APS and at times behaviors and attitudes will be challenging and particularly if it's a windy day and APS core work may be to improve the behavior of pupils placed there. 

As such, we are aware that APS may provide what they call a behavior curriculum or something like that. The AP may make use of individual behavior plans or similar, which set out the antecedents to prevent a pupil from becoming dysregulated. The likely triggers for pupils challenging behavior and approaches that teachers can take for deescalation. As part of these plans, it might be necessary to include an individual risk assessment. We would want to explore these behavior plans and associated information with you due to the fact that aps often take pupils at different points in the year. Depending on when we arrive to inspect the AP may be in the early stages of that work. Consequently, we recognize that we are almost certainly likely to see some challenging behavior At times it's can appear alarmingly disruptive. At times staff may need to use restraint or other appropriate approaches. 

However, we want to emphasize here that setting won't be judged negatively just because these things are happening as pupil's challenging behavior is likely to be the reason why pupils are at the ap. Instead, it is about the response to that behavior and the systems structures and routines that exist to achieve good behavior and manage any potential issues and the work that is being done with the pupil. To help reduce these incidents, we would want to explore the actions leaders have taken to establish the extent to which they were being effective in their behavior management strategies. Taking people's starting points on entry to the AP as a benchmark for any evaluation of impact. The starting point for exploring all of these matters is again the phone call between the lead inspector and the school leaders after notification. So let's go back to the phone call with leaders for a moment. 

In a previous slide we explored what we might discuss in relation to the curriculum. So now let's consider behavior during the call. Inspectors will do exactly what we can see on the slide. We'll want to understand your assessment of the current strengths and weaknesses of pupil's behavior and attitudes subject to what you tell us. We might also ask about areas relating to the behavior policy, what we can expect to see when we visit lessons and walk around the school. We want to gain a sense of the routines and structures in place and how these are enacted and reviewed. We want to explore how pupils present when they first join the school, including any specific challenges and then what pupils are taught over time. We might also explore at very high level how staff are trained and any other initial information about attendance and the extent to which it is a high priority. 

It's important to emphasize here though that these discussions are all quite high level at this stage and we'll explore much more with you in detail when we join you on site. And of course we will not be forming any judgments at this stage. We just want to understand what you do, why you do it that way and the impact you think it has. We'd want to hear from you about your core work to support pupils with their behavior. So let's move on to pupils who have specific needs. aps are likely to be working with pupils with particular needs in order to improve their behavior or their attendance. Often this will be pupils who have been permanently excluded or who are at risk of permanent exclusion. We'll talk to you about what you do to support these pupils. Questions might include how are commissioning agreements used to effectively scope the precise nature of the aps, work with the pupil, what are pupils specific needs? 

How have these needs been assessed? What mechanisms are in place to support pupils and help them improve? How are staff trained to support these pupils? What ongoing support do staff receive? How are improvements tracked? Can staff evidence the demonstrable improvements pupils are making? So let's have a quick look at what sources of evidence we might explore. The handbook in paragraph 3 1 0 exemplifies some of the activities that inspectors may undertake during the course of an inspection to evaluate behavior and attitudes. On this slide, we've given a few examples of what we'd expect to focus on in an ap. I mentioned earlier that we know that you may make use of behavior plans to help you work with pupils in improving their behavior. We'd expect to look at these as part of the commissioning agreement case sampling activity to really understand how you focus on behavior with specific young people or look at records and analysis of behavior incidents on all school inspections in an ap. 

As we said earlier, we know that pupils are likely to arrive with some challenging behaviors. A core part of your work is likely to be about supporting improvements and that this can take time. So we'll be interested to discuss their starting points from where they joined you and look at your records of incidents and analysis and crucially how you're using such records and analysis to inform your actions. And don't just assume that we're only interested in your records of negative behaviors. A reduction in negative incidents is not in itself evidence of improved behavior. It may well be that staff have given up logging the poor behavior that has led to the reduction. But if you're capturing the positive behaviors you want people to demonstrate and this is more likely to give you valuable data about improvements that you can share with us and with the pupils in schools and aps, we often see seclusion or isolation or calm rooms or chill out rooms. 

And we would visit these and talk to you about their purpose, their suitability and effectiveness. We may wish to speak with staff about the use of such rooms and we speak with the pupils about them. In the behavior webinar we spoke about two specific guidance documents that schools should be aware of if pupils are removed from a class due to their behavior. And as a reminder, these are positive environments where children can flourish and behavior in schools guidance. It's important that there is no restriction of liberty. That is to say except in very exceptional circumstances where there is a significant risk of harm, pupils should be able to leave any given space of their own free will and we recognize that this is a complex matter and likely to be even more so where APS core work is around improving pupil's behavior. Again, we would use the activities we've talked about in this webinar to gain an understanding of your settings context. 

When we're exploring the use of such rooms, we won't just jump to the conclusions. So let's finally think about what the handbook says about evaluating behavior and attitudes. Now on the screen you can see the descriptors for outstanding and good that are found in the handbook. Inspectors will focus on the extent to which leaders are taking highly effective action in supporting pupils with their behavior. As you can see, it is possible for APS to be evaluated as good or even outstanding for behavior attitudes. Remember that good is a best fit judgment for behavior in the same way it is for the other graded areas of the framework. The context of the score is taken into account when applying a best fit judgment. And to answer the question that I expect that you're all muttering at the screen at, yes, I have given outstanding for behavior attitudes to several special schools and an AP school, all of which were dealing with very challenging behavior. We haven't touched on attendance in this webinar as the focus has been on the curriculum and behavior. But the same principles apply, have leaders done all that they can be reasonably expected and the time available and the circumstances in which they work to improve pupil's attendance from their starting points on entry. It's all about that demonstrable improvement. So that brings us to the end of this bit of the presentation. So I'm now going to hand over to Anna for some questions. Thanks Anna. 

Thank you very much Dave. Appreciate that. I think I've come on screen if others are able to do the same. We've got some questions that came through in advance and we've also got a couple that have come through now, but if you haven't had a chance to put a question in yet, please do and we'll see if we've got time to get to it because I'm mindful we want to finish the time. But also there's some really, really helpful questions that have come through. Dave, I enjoyed the part where you said yes, you have given outstanding for behavior, particularly even when there has been challenging behaviors, you could see the work that leaders are doing. Really helpful context. So I've got a question here and it's actually more it's so it's related to when we are going to a mainstream setting provider school and they have commissioned alternative provision for some of their students. And the question is how likely are inspectors to visit provision? So how likely are they to go offsite and see some of the alternative provisions and the arrangements they're having there. Dave, I know you've just done a lot of talking for us, but would you mind if we came to you on this one? I think you've got some points on this that I think it's helpful to raise. And then Lee or Steve, I'll ask you to come in if there's any other points. Thank you. 

Yeah, thanks Anna. I think the handbook makes it clear that where schools are using, so mainstream school is using aps is that especially if that AP is unregistered, that we will do everything we can during the time we're given to go in and look at that ap. The very least that inspectors do will make a phone call to those aps. But generally if the alternative provision that a school is using is unregistered and inspect will normally go out and visit that ap, the things they're looking at are the same that we expect for all pupils. So why has the school chosen that ap? How is that AP enhancing that pupil's education? Are they getting a good quality of education? Are they being kept safe there? Is their behavior improving as a result of that choice of ap? So we'll talk to leaders about why they've chosen the ap. We'll get an understanding of how they feel that AP is meeting those pupils needs. And then we'll go out and we'll look at the AP to triangulate that. So if is a mainstream school you are using an unregistered alternative provision, then the likelihood is that an inspector will go and visit that ap. 

Thank you. Really helpful. And Dave, there's a question that's literally just coming, which I may well just ask others to build on a little. So where there are multiple aps that are used across year groups, how would inspects to decide where to focus the AP as part of the inspection lead? Do you want to come in on that one? Potentially? 

I can do, and I think there's no kind of easy answer there because what we see we don't do is build an inspection team that is equal in size to how many aps a mainstream school might be using. So just as we do with the curriculum, we'll try and sample to ensure that we can get a broad, I suppose a broad view of the principles and purposes that you go through as a maintain school and kind of assuring yourselves of the quality and the safety of pupils that attend that broad range of alternative provision that you use. And of course, just as we've gone through this webinar, have discussions with you about why do you particularly use the provision that you do, what is the reason that sits behind it? Has there been some kind of conscious thought to where you are sending pupils and for what reason and not just, oh well there's a place here and there's a place there. And obviously all within the context as we said right at the very start, and we've continued throughout of the challenges that we know the sectors sectors working in. So it won't be we're using 10 EOP and therefore we'll visit all 10 because no 

In year nine or Yeah, exactly that. Yeah. And there's only a couple in year seven. Yeah, no, that's helpful. And I think just that proportionate view. Yeah, so there is a question here and I'm not surprised to see it to be perfect honest because it's a question that we get asked quite a lot and it's around our view on unregistered alternative provision and question is prerogative here. I'm going to dive in a little and see whether others wants come in afterwards. So I think it's important to note that there are some unregistered alternative provision providers out there doing really good things. We have seen some of that as part of our work. We've also seen some really variable practice and actually some that you really wouldn't want to send pupils, particularly those with additional needs or who aren't able to get their needs met in mainstream to those unregistered providers. 

So what we can see and what we are going to share and we've talked about publicly before and we will continue to talk about particularly on our annual report on Thursday, is that we know that the variation in practice and the lack of oversight that we have of some of that practice is worrying. So while that doesn't mean that by all means, we're not saying never use it, sometimes it is the right decision for those pupils, but as leaders can you assure yourself that you are making those decisions based on the quality that they are offering, the fact that it's right for the child at that time as opposed to just you having concerns and not necessarily having the oversight that you would like as leaders. So I think it's not necessarily a binary, it's all bad, it's all good, but it really, there is some variable practice out there that is troubling. And I think for us, whilst there's some great practice out there, better oversight as a whole of that particular part of the sector is really important for us and others to make sure there's a good understanding of what quality of education is being offered to those children and young people. Lee, Steve, Dave, any thoughts to add in on that? It's a tricky one. I think 

It is. I would perhaps come in and just add to that that we are very aware for example, that a number of LA's will compile what they call typically a directory or an approved list of ap, whether that's registered or unregistered. And sometimes that can give school leaders a misleading sense of security around what's actually being done there and where the responsibility sits. So just to be clear, irrespective of whether the AP is registered or unregistered, but particularly where it's unregistered as the leaders of the school, it's your responsibility for making sure that that's an appropriate and safe setting for you to send your pupils and not to be reliant on an LA approved list or an LA directory. That can be a useful starting point and that can lend some assurances about some things that the LA are confirming to you in writing that they've done, but there's no getting away from the fight that ultimately it's your responsibility to make sure that that setting is an appropriately safe and suitable place for your young people. And that responsibility sits squarely with you and that's in the DFE statutory guidance. So I think that's always a useful thing to be aware of when considering the use of unregistered provision. 

Thank you. Thanks Steven. It's really helpful. In terms of the practical considerations for leaders when they are commissioning either registered or unregistered ap, it's the kind of similar expectations across, there's a question just that's popped in which I'm happy to take off quickly, which is there's been a recent AP thematic review of AP commissioning in particular. So quite right. That has been something that we've, we published our guidance on in January. Those visits are concluded and the report is just getting through the final stages of being drafted and polished. So just one to watch for. I wouldn't want to put a particular date on it because sometimes these things are a bit of a movable feast. But in that you will also see our take on where AP commissioning is at the moment and how we can improve oversight for those pupils who are in alternative provision. 

So watch this space is that one, but soon is what we would hope. So I've got a question that's come through, just excuse me while I shuffle papers a little. It's a question here. So an important one actually, and that is what are the, well in fairness, Steve, you've kind of hit this one off, it's on qa, I might come to question four instead. So it is a sort of a catchall question, but it's what kind of progress will osted want to see when we are out in alternative provision and inspecting? And Dave, given particularly your background working in alternative provision, I'd appreciate if you could take this one. 

Yeah, sure. I guess it's important that Oxford have clearly defined progress in the handbook as pupils knowing more and remembering more. So in ap what we'll be expecting to see in terms of progress is are they knowing more and remembering more of the program that has been chosen for them to follow. So that might be, are they knowing more and remembering more of the behavior curriculum that's in place? It may be are they knowing more and remembering more of particular vocational subjects they may be studying? The definition of progress is have you done a good job of identifying their starting points? Have you got clear and ambitious endpoints for those peoples? And so how are they journeying on I guess that road to progress? Have you really done that good job of knowing where they're starting and knowing where you want 'em to get to? And I think then making sure that they're ready for their next stages. So again, progress will be quite clear in terms of how well prepared are they for what they're going to move on to next. That may well include qualifications, but it may not. 

That's really helpful. Thank you Dave. And I'm conscious of time so I'll come on to the last couple of questions so we can wrap up at five o'clock and thank you to those attending. I know at the end of a very busy day I can see that we still got most if not all of the people who started with us and ending with us. So thank you for staying tuned and listening. Steve, this is a question we get quite often and Lee you might want to come in into, it's around expertise of inspectors and training of inspectors when they're going out to inspect ap. And I think it's right that we just share our thought processes in terms of how we prepare our inspectors appropriately because it's quite right that mainstream and alternative provision have quite different features quite often. So whilst there are some consistent pieces, we obviously do some more nuanced training for particularly inspecting in ap. Steve, did you want to come in because you actually do quite a lot of the training? 

I do quite a lot of the training, yes. Yeah, it's a really important question and it is one that we're asked a lot and it speaks to the point I made right at the start of the presentation really about how important it is for AP leaders to feel confident that we get the AP and that we understand that the AP is highly likely to look different, sound different because it is intended to be different, it's got different priorities. So in terms of training for the reassurance of colleagues on the call, all inspectors who inspect AP have to have completed a specific substantial piece of training in addition to the initial training that all HMI and OIS go through. And in addition to that, they also have to do some specific enhanced training around inspecting specialist settings. So for youngsters with special educational needs. So inspectors aren't permitted to go and inspect these more complex unique settings until they've completed those bespoke pieces of training. 

Thank you, that's a really helpful overview. And just to add in with our new area send framework, we've gone out to recruit additional expertise. We already had a significant amount anyway, but particularly with that framework, we're bringing in Ofsted inspectors who are within the sector either in local area partnerships or with AP experience or special school experience. And that just compliments our existing workforce to make sure that we've got very live on the ground experience too from sector. Lee, is there anything you wanted to add into that? 

No, but just to remind you that obviously Dave is an, I know exactly 

From the sector, so we do have people who have both our training and have the expertise in terms of their previous career before off offset. And of course we have off offset inspectors as well who both run their schools and then devote some time to us in terms of inspection activity. So yeah, I think Steve covered it well. He does deliver an awful lot of that training to colleagues so at my usual plate. But if you are interested inspecting with us then we have various routes to find a way to being one of our office inspectors or indeed from time to time joining us as one of his Majesty's inspectors. 

Well I think colleagues, given that we're at the 5 0 2 mark and I'm conscious of people's very valuable time, unless there are any questions that people can see that have come in that I've missed, I think we probably covered as much as we can do in this time. So Lee, I'll hand back to you to do a final wrapping up. Thank you colleagues. 

Great, thank you. And I think Anna said it just a few moments ago, just say thank you. I know at the end of another very long day for you all, we do appreciate you joining to, as I said at the start, listen to Ted about Ted. We do genuinely want for you to hear messages directly from us rather than using scarce resource time and money to buy others in who may or may not have Ted's view of in this instance alternative provision. So thank you for your time and can I also thank Anna and Steve and Dave for being so expert in terms of the detail, not only in the q and a, but obviously in taking you through the slides. Thank you everybody. Enjoy the rest of your evening.