Strategic and operational support to help you position the needs of learners in literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) at the heart of your organisation’s activities.

What are the benefits to my organisation of accessing the programme?

Providers who took part in the Improvement Programme in previous years have told us that a whole organisation approach to embedding literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) has led to:

• improved learner retention
• better success rates
• staff teams who are more confident in developing learners’ skills
• learners gaining skills and confidence and who are better prepared for life and work

The benefits include:

• Working with other organisations to learn, share and transfer good practice across your sector 
• Accessing one to one support for self-improvement on specific areas identified through the inspectorate and national research
• Gaining a real understanding of the professional development needs of all your staff in line with the new teacher education reforms using a detailed organisational training needs analysis (TNA)
• Participating in in-house or locally organised continuing professional development for managers and teams
• Enhancing knowledge of how to improve learners' experience and achievement by taking advantage of the specialist expertise of development advisers 

What kind of support is on offer?

Support for Providers consists of five elements tailored to your organisation’s needs and current stage of development of a whole organisation approach:

1.       Initial consultancy visit to define….

• your organisation’s needs and priorities
• the scale and focus of the consultancy support

2.       Ongoing consultancy support

The focus for this could include:

• strategic planning
• development of structures, systems and processes
• professional development planning
• planning and delivering embedded teaching and learning

3.       Peer working

You will be grouped with approximately 5 other local providers from similar settings with shared priorities for development e.g. T2G, offender learning, employability. Meetings will be hosted by members of the group and run by a development adviser who will normally be supporting all 6 providers.

4.       CPD training

A range of in-house CPD courses will be available to providers. You will be supported in your selection by your development adviser.  Sessions will be tailored to individual provider’s needs and delivered in-house or hosted by members of your peer working group.

5.       Final consultancy visit to ….

• evaluate the support, assess impact and identify next steps

Who should get involved?

The programme welcomes organisations where managers are committed to investing the necessary staff time to improve quality systems and processes for the benefit of all learners. The Improvement Programme will prioritise applications from providers who fulfil one or more of the following criteria.

Providers who:

• have recently been awarded LSC contracts and who may be new to Skills for Life
• have identified a need to improve their Skills for Life provision, for example, post inspection
  • Skills for Life within Train to Gain
  • employability skills programmes
  • offender learning
• are focusing on developing their capacity to deliver effective numeracy programmes

Who is the contact in my region for further information and guidance?

How do I apply for support?

To apply please complete the online application form.   Demand is likely to be high and there will be limits on the numbers of providers involved so please apply early.

Case study

Read about Integrating the Health Check for delivering a whole organisational approach to Skills for Life here.....