Validated self-evaluation
Midlothian Council
18 May 2010
Contents
Page
1.
The aims, nature and scope of the validated self-evaluation
1
2.
What did we find as a result of the validated self-evaluation?
3
3.
How has the validated self-evaluation contributed to
Midlothian Council CLD’s capacity to improve
4
Main findings from the validated self-evaluation
6
1.
The aims, nature and scope of the validated self-evaluation
HM Inspectorate of Education’s (HMIE) mission is to work with others to secure
improvements in the education and wellbeing of the people of Scotland. It
promotes public accountability for the delivery of high quality education for all
learners, and services for children. HMIE is developing a more proportionate
approach to evaluating and reporting on these functions in line with the drive to
reduce external scrutiny at service level. This exercise with Midlothian Council
was carried out as a pilot exercise to test the methodology of validated
self-evaluation (VSE) in community learning and development (CLD).
What is Validated Self-Evaluation?
VSE is a voluntary process which aims to support and challenge the work of
education authorities to deliver and improve the quality of provision and outcomes
they offer for learners. It involves a partnership between the education authority
and HMIE in which HMIE apply their knowledge of educational delivery and
expertise in evaluation in order to extend, challenge and support the education
authority’s own self-evaluation processes, and so affirm (or otherwise) and
strengthen the outcomes. VSE acknowledges that the responsibility for improving
services and outcomes lies with the education authority. It recognises that
self-evaluation is increasingly well embedded across the Scottish educational
landscape and that high quality self-evaluation can lead to continuous
improvement for learners and the achievement of excellence in practice and
provision. In summary, VSE seeks to:
•
build the capacity of education authorities to evaluate their own performance
and improve the quality of services and outcomes for learners;
•
promote and develop good practice and best value in education authorities;
•
provide information to Scottish Ministers and the public on the quality of
provision in education authorities;
•
offer independent evaluation and validation; and
•
contribute to a reduction in external scrutiny at service level where possible,
taking account of risk, and provide high quality and robust information for
shared risk assessment.
The VSE process is designed to accord with the principles recommended by the
Crerar ‘Reducing the Burden’ Action Group, in that it is:
•
focused on outcomes;
•
proportionate to need;
•
owned by those carrying out the self-evaluation;
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•
flexible, with the scope to recognise differences in service levels and types;
•
built on existing good practice and relevant existing standards;
•
rigorous and transparent; and
•
designed to secure continuous improvement.
Validated self-evaluation with community learning and development
services in Midlothian Council
HMIE and Midlothian Council agreed to evaluate, in partnership, aspects of the
work of CLD services and their partners, in the Dalkeith area, to deliver and
improve the quality of provision and outcomes they offer for learners and
communities.
Purpose:
•
build the capacity of CLD services and their partners to evaluate their own
performance and improve the quality of services and outcomes for learners
and communities;
•
promote and develop good practice and best value in CLD services and their
partners;
•
provide public information on the quality of provision by the CLD services
and their partners; and
•
offer independent evaluation and validation.
Process and scope of the validated self-evaluation
The self-evaluation activities were designed to answer the following questions:
what key outcomes is the authority achieving for specific groups of learners; how
well is it meeting their needs; and what can it now do to improve things further?
The process involved three main stages. These included an initial engagement,
self-evaluation and validation. HMIE worked closely with senior managers from
Midlothian Council Education and Children’s Services and Community Services to
brief a wide range of staff and key stakeholders on the principles and planned
approaches to be undertaken. Thereafter, during the self-evaluation phase, HM
Inspectors worked with CLD services in the Dalkeith area, and their partners, with
the purpose of supporting, challenging and improving the quality of their
self-evaluation. HMIE also undertook activities to assess the rigour of the process
and the robustness of the evidence, with a view to validating the self-evaluation of
the CLD services and their partners.
2
Midlothian Council chose to create an evidence team for each identified quality
indicator. The role of these teams was to ensure that appropriate evidence
relevant to the evaluation of the identified area was available for review and
analysis. The evidence for the self-evaluation activities came from a broad range
of sources including inspection evidence. Each evidence team then compiled a
report based on the evidence, and handed this to self-evaluation teams.
At the end of the process, HMIE worked with Midlothian Council to report on the
findings of the VSE work to stakeholders and staff and to agree areas for
improvement.
2.
What did we find as a result of the validated self-evaluation?
HMIE agreed with the range of strengths outlined by Midlothian Council. These
included:
•
the development of young people’s participation in community planning and
other council activities;
•
an increasing programme of work with local primary and secondary schools to
support young people in their learning;
•
the development of a range of adult learning that supports family learning and
programmes that offer adults a return to learning through crèche worker
training; and
•
the quality of new facilities to support learning in the Dalkeith area.
What did HMIE learn about the quality of self-evaluation in Midlothian
Council from this process?
Senior managers and staff from Midlothian Council Education and Children’s
Services and Community Services were strongly committed to improving through
self-evaluation and felt that working alongside HMIE on the VSE would further
challenge and support their on-going work. They worked closely with HMIE and
were open and diligent in their approach. They had ensured that staff working on
the VSE had a similar approach and this ensure the process was both rigorous
and transparent.
Groups which led the review of the identified areas approached the evaluation
openly, professionally and rigorously. Staff presented a good range of evidence
which was further improved as a result of reflection, review and further analysis
during the VSE. Approaches to self-evaluation were well thought out. Groups
faced various challenges in the course of their work, particularly in securing the
involvement of external partners in a small authority where voluntary sector
capacity is limited.
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Overall, HMIE found Midlothian’s approaches to self-evaluation of the priority
areas were appropriate and suitably thorough. Senior managers were committed
to ensuring that the VSE work was appropriately rigorous and that it would lead to
further improvements for learners and communities. They had identified
appropriate areas including good practice and areas for further development.
They were open to challenge and suggestions for further improvement.
3.
How has the validated self-evaluation contributed to Midlothian
Councils CLD services and their partners capacity to improve?
What is the CLD services and their partners capacity for improvement?
Capacity for improvement depends upon a range of factors, including:
•
the overall impact and outcomes achieved by the CLD service and their
partners;
•
its focus on improvement;
•
its track record in bringing about improvement;
•
the quality and accuracy of its self-evaluation; and
•
how leadership and management of the CLD service results in improved
outcomes for learners.
The evidence from the VSE shows that Midlothian Council is well placed to further
develop CLD activities in the Dalkeith area. Whilst there are a number of areas
for further improvement in distributed leadership, community capacity building,
marketing and self-evaluation, senior managers and staff have identified these
areas for improvement and have begun to take appropriate steps to address
these. The work of senior managers and staff has resulted in an improved focus
upon self-evaluation and its role in improvement of learners’ experiences. HMIE
confirms that Midlothian Council now need to focus on developing the distribution
of leadership, improving marketing, extending and developing community capacity
building and addressing self-evaluation processes that will address present
weaknesses in the Dalkeith CLD team. Evidence from the VSE exercise offers
confidence that the Council is committed to continued improvement through
self-evaluation and partnership with other local services.
What does the Council plan to do next?
As a result of the work undertaken within the VSE process, Midlothian Council
and HMIE have identified the following broad priorities for action.
•
Increase the number of learners involved in CLD programmes to match the
numbers in other parts of the authority.
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•
Develop more collegiate approaches to leadership in the Dalkeith CLD team to
distribute leadership to all members of the team.
•
Improve approaches to Community Capacity Building to build skills and
capacities in the local population.
•
Improve and demonstrate the links between CLD’s activity in the Dalkeith area
and wider council objectives in the Midlothian Community Plan and Single
Outcome Agreement through improved self-evaluation.
Phil Denning
HM Inspector
Directorate 5
HM Inspectorate of Education
18 May 2010
Forbes Mitchell
Head of School and Community Learning
Midlothian Council
How can you contact us?
Should you wish to comment on any aspect of validated self-evaluation you
should write to Dr Gill Robinson, HMCI, at HM Inspectorate of Education,
Denholm House, Almondvale Business Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston,
Eh54 6GA. Alternatively, if your query related to this report, you may also
write to Forbes Mitchell, Head of School and Community Learning, Midlothian
Council, Fairfield House, 8 Lothian Road, Dalkeith, Midlothian, EH22 3ZG.
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Appendix: Midlothian Council Self-evaluation – CLD Services and Partners
in the Dalkeith Area.
Context of the area
The Dalkeith CLD team works in the town of Dalkeith, which is the main
administrative and political centre of the Midlothian as well as the associated
communities of Woodburn, Danderhall and Pathhead. Midlothian shows relatively
low levels of deprivation although there are pockets of deprivation in Woodburn,
Pathhead and Danderhall. The area has higher than Scottish and authority
average levels for unemployment, poor health and lone parents.
How well do participants learn and achieve?
Individual programmes in Dalkeith are effectively meeting the needs of some
learners in the area. Effective programmes support adult learning and youth work
and these provide participants with rich, supportive and successful learning
experiences that build their skills and confidence. Many have gone on to
employment. Capacity building programmes have resulted in new facilities and
organisation for the locality such as a skatepark and a Development Trust.
However, numbers on programmes are generally low and below that in other
parts of the authority. The CLD team have begun to re-design their youth and
adult learning programmes, but these still require further development. There is
further work to do on Capacity Building programmes. Staff are still at an early
stage in terms of their professional confidence in talking about trends in
attendance, retention, progression and attainment.
Staff noted that the Dalkeith area was in a period of considerable transition with
the building of new schools, housing and the regeneration of the town centre.
However, they had not yet begun to plan to engage with an increasingly diverse
community. There was further work to do to develop their approaches and
partnerships with local schools to engage with Curriculum for Excellence. As a
result, the learning needs of many in the community were not yet being sufficiently
well met.
Young people
Youth participation in Midlothian is very strong. Young people are actively
involved in the Dalkeith Youth Forum and this is part of the wider Midlothian Youth
Platform (MYP). A significant number of young people are involved in MYP with
the aim of giving young people a voice and making Midlothian a better place to
live. Some young people are involved in the Scottish Youth Parliament. Young
people from Dalkeith have already contributed to a number of major consultations
such as The National Conversation, a Youth Summit on Alcohol and a Midlothian
consultation on literacy. They have positively influenced policy and financial
decisions, for example money spent on youth work in the authority. CLD are
promoting Dynamic Youth and Youth Achievement Awards. Young people are
now more confident and are successful learners. Young people are well
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supported by staff. They have a say in how programmes are developed. They
feel a sense of achievement when they receive their awards.
There are effective arrangements for working with local secondary schools in
partnership with the Dalkeith Integration Team. Recent inspection reports note
that this is leading positive developments on the gathering and recording of young
people’s achievements. There is effective planning by the multi-agency Locality
Forum that ensures that young people without a positive destination are targeted
and supported. As a result, some young people are receiving curriculum which is
more clearly tailored to their needs. CLD staff now support individual and group
work in secondary schools. This results in young people engaging more with the
school. A new recording studio in the Dalkeith campus will further develop this
work. Staff are actively involved in developing new work with young people and
their parents to support family learning. The Play in the Park programme in
partnership with the Library Service focused upon the Woodburn area. As a
result, 20 new members have continued to use Dalkeith library since the summer.
Parental involvement in the library has also increased. Staff had identified that
the summer transitions have not been effective and that more work is required to
improve marketing and engagement with young people, particularly
disadvantaged groups and people with learning disabilities.
Adults
There is a strong focus on family learning programmes that engage with
disadvantaged adults. Where the CLD service and its partners engaged with
adults, this resulted in positive learning experiences. Programmes such Monday
Mums, Midlothian Families and programmes delivered by Midlothian Adult
Literacy and Numeracy Initiative (MALANI) effectively encouraged parents to
re-engage with learning and support their children. These programmes also
addressed important educational and health issues for families, including literacy
and numeracy, diet, mental health and stress. There was a strong link between
the family learning programmes and entry to employment through the Crèche
Worker Training Scheme. Parents with young children were able to gain
employment and new friends through involvement in this programme. CLD staff
has productive partnerships with Midlothian Library service to offer classes in arts
and crafts, family history and using computers and the internet.
Staff acknowledged that numbers of participants in this part of the authority were
low, however a new summer programme, Play in the Park, had brought in new
learners. CLD staff had identified that the marketing of adult learning
programmes required further work. Although the Progress through Learning
offered opportunities to progress to the next stages of accredited learning, there
are insufficient opportunities for learners to progress to other learning
opportunities such as further and higher education. Links to local colleges could
be further developed.
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How well does the community develop and grow?
Community groups and organisations within the Dalkeith area have systems in
place to allow them to articulate their views and concerns. CLD staff involve
members of the community and develop the capacity of activists. Positive links
and good levels of communication exist between local authority CLD practitioners
and the voluntary sector. The Working for Families, Employability Project
developed an effective process to track participants who have progressed through
their programmes into employment. While the Progress through Learning Project
supported participants into higher or further education. The Planning for Real
event offered groups an opportunity to set a local agenda for action.
CLD staff recognise that the range and diversity of organisations operating within
the area needs to be expanded. While staff have recognised some of the reasons
for this, there has been limited support within the community to address the
issues. Approaches to community capacity building are too varied. CLD staff
now recognise that they need to develop the skills and competencies of the
community to support their future development. The ‘Working with Communities
Thematic Plan’ provides some examples of impact assessment and evidence
requirements. However, contributions by the voluntary and other sectors are
targeted across the local authority and there is a lack of detail on the uptake of
programmes by people resident in the Dalkeith area.
How effective are providers in improving the quality of services?
CLD staff in the Dalkeith area use self-evaluation for individual projects. They are
beginning to become more confident in self-evaluation systems and how these
are linked to improvement for learners and communities. Staff are committed to
refresh their practice and to learning from best practice both locally and nationally.
Tutors involved in adult learning and youth workers make effective use of learner
feedback to improve and develop their programmes. However, while individual
areas of work are progressed and evaluated, staff acknowledge that the
conclusions are not always acted on. CLD staff need to more effectively plan and
review their work collectively. They need to ensure a clear focus on impact so
that resources are used most efficiently. Staff should develop a consistent
planning process which embeds mature self-evaluation into improving practice
against identified priorities. The work of CLD staff needs to more directly link to
community priorities contained in the Midlothian Community Plan and the Single
Outcome Agreement. CLD staff would benefit from applying a consistent
approach to marketing their programmes and reporting regularly to stakeholders
on actions taken to address issues and provide detail on the impact of these
actions.
Does the learning community have a clear sense of direction?
CLD staff in Dalkeith are clear about their role in delivering the corporate vision of
Midlothian Council. They provide good leadership in a number of partnership
activities in the area. At other times, they make effective contributions to other
partnerships in the area such as the Locality forums. Where team members were
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given the opportunity to lead an individual area of work such as Play in the Park,
they were most effective and built strong partnerships with other services that
attracted new learners to the service and provided much needed benefits.
CLD staff recognise that the team have shown diligence and commitment to their
work in a period of upheaval and change. Senior managers provide effective
guidance and monitoring of the teams’ work. However, while staff showed strong
individual leadership qualities in individual areas of expertise, there is now a need
to develop better and more effective opportunities for distributed leadership and
responsibility. There is too much focus on bureaucratic process and resources
and not enough on learning. As a result, there is not enough support, challenge
and development for every team member. The present team management
structure is not serving the talents and needs of the staff or the area effectively.
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