How the Framework will be used

Learning and Skills Council

• The Framework for Excellence (the Framework) will define the level of interaction between the LSC, other agencies and colleges and providers
• The LSC will use the outcomes from the Framework, together with other findings, to support assessment of risk to local and regional delivery
• The Framework will assess value for money and the return on public funds
• From spring 2009, the LSC’s financial and wider intervention policy will take into account the publicly available elements of the Framework, by means such as Notices to Improve, contract withdrawal and removal of funding. Other actions are identified in LSC guidance on managing performance
• The LSC will expect all providers in scope to use the Framework’s scores as part of the evidence for self-assessment from the academic year 2008/09 and refer explicitly to the Framework’s performance indicators in the self-assessment reports submitted to the LSC in December 2009.

[NB: From 2009/10, the LSC will incorporate the requirements of the Framework into the ‘Quality Assurance’ section of the Financial Memorandum and the Contract for Services – Education and Training.]

Ofsted

Within the single framework for provider performance assessment, the Framework for Excellence and inspections are strongly linked and complement each other:

• Ofsted will use risk assessment to determine the urgency/priority of a provider/service for inspection, and also the degree of the inspection’s intervention
• Ideally, Ofsted’s criteria for risk assessment will use the Framework’s scores, paying particular attention to ‘inadequate’ levels of performance. The LSC and Ofsted are working together to harmonise the two processes
• The revised inspection handbook for September 2008 will include information on how inspectors should begin to take account of performance scores from the Framework 
• The Framework for Excellence score for the overall quality of provision will be based on the current inspection view of overall effectiveness. This will be derived from the most recent inspection judgement.

[NB: The use of Framework indicators to produce an Overall Performance Rating (OPR), and Ofsted inspections that come to an overall judgement, will not necessarily yield the same overall grades in every case.]

LSIS

The new LSIS (formerly the QIA) will use the Framework’s data to underpin the development and targeting of its programmes and services:

• The LSIS will provide support for colleges or providers that require it to improve their performance on the basis of Framework ratings
• Learning and Skills Beacons: the LSIS will use the Framework to consider both the conditions under which Beacon status is awarded and those under which it may be withdrawn.