inTERVIEW


This September saw the introduction of the new Education Inspection Framework (EIF), promising to transform provider inspections. Alan Thomson met Ofsted’s deputy director of further education and skills, Paul Joyce, to find out what the EIF will mean on the ground for FE, and its teachers and trainers.


t is heartening when those who run things in the world of education and training really seem to ‘get it’. And, while it is early days, this would seem to be the case with Ofsted’s new Education Inspection Framework (EIF). There has long been frustration with


Ofsted’s historic focus on outcomes data – qualifications and grades gained – and the partial, even unfair, picture this can paint of the real value added to students and apprentices by colleges and independent training providers. Under the EIF this looks set to change. “We are not going to ignore data or belittle the value of qualifications,” says Paul Joyce, who started his working life as an apprentice plumber before spending many years in FE, as a teacher and then a manager. “But whilst data is important, it is not the be-all and end-all. We are recalibrating and we are looking at qualifications and achievement in the round. “The beauty of this framework is that because the data will carry less weight, inspectors are more interested in what that story is around the knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) that learners need for their progression. “We are able to give inspectors more freedom to use their professional judgement.” It is what Ofsted wants its inspectors to do with this new-found professional freedom that promises to deliver a step change in the nature and purpose of inspections under the new EIF. Ofsted has said it hopes to become a force for


improvement – a partner actively engaged in helping the FE sector improve quality. “It’s certainly my experience that the best way


to inspect, and the best way to look at things in the round, is to actually talk to the classroom practitioners,” Joyce says. “Whereas, under our old framework, institutions


probably could, to an extent, manage who inspectors were going to speak to and what they were going to talk about, there is far less opportunity to do that under the EIF.


10 ISSUE 37 • AUTUMN 2019 inTUITION


GREAT EXPECTATIONS FOR NEW INSPECTIONS


“We will conduct some deep dives into subjects or aspects of provision, and that’s going to involve inspectors talking to far more staff, and probably staff at a less senior level, than has been the case under the old framework.” Inspectors will look at four categories under the EIF: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management. In forming their judgements about the quality of education, inspectors will assess the three Is: intent, implementation and impact. Intent is a particularly interesting concept as inspectors will be looking for the reasons why a provider has decided to run a particular course or provision. “An example might be that you have just started to


offer engineering courses,” Joyce says. “The inspector will ask: ‘Can you talk us through the rationale as to why you have decided to do that?’. If it’s just a pot of money and 120 students get enrolled on the courses with no, or limited, benefit to learners, then we are going to seriously question the rationale for putting on those courses.” Joyce admits that some principals have raised concerns about this as further education provision has often been determined by available funding streams. “I certainly hope that the new framework will cause senior managers to think about their curriculum offer more,” Joyce says. An EIF transition year will give providers time to


make changes, if necessary, to areas of provision likely to fall foul of Ofsted’s new test of intent. Beyond intent, inspectors will examine the way courses are implemented, including how all the course or programme components are sequenced, in order to assure themselves that teachers and managers have thought through how to maximise the impact of the learning. “An example would be where you’ve got a particular


vocational subject or apprenticeship where the learner is developing lots of knowledge and skills on the job,” Joyce says. “We will want to know how the


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