On the 19th - 21st March 2019, the bemix Supported Internships programme had our first ever Ofsted inspection.  

As an organisation that has a strong background in Supported Employment since 2012 and Education as a Special Post-16 Provider (SPI) since September 2017, this inspection was timely, as we have been redesigning the programme for September 2019 and we welcomed Ofsted’s inspection feedback.

Read the full report

We are pleased that our strengths and values were recognised, with the inspector grasping and valuing the co-production emphasis we place on our work. A way of working that we see as key to equipping young people with the independence, responsibility and personal skills required for moving into employment. We have taken on board the suggestions for improvement, and are already working to address these whilst maintaining a focus on our wider values and ethos of the programme.

Strengths include

• Leaders and managers have established a highly effective culture and ethos, so that people with and without learning difficulties and/or autism work alongside each other successfully and equally.
  
  
• Students benefit from employment placements in a wide range of businesses, which match their career aspirations and are of a high quality.
  
  
• Job coaches and employers support students sensitively in the workplace, enabling them to develop confidence and independence quickly.
  
  
• Almost all students who completed their supported internship in 2018 progressed into paid employment, further training or an apprenticeship.

Areas to develop include

• Governance arrangements are ineffective and require improvement.
  
  
• Leaders and managers have not put in place sufficiently strong quality assurance arrangements.
  
  
• The quality of teaching, learning and assessment is not yet good enough.

We are reviewing our governance arrangements and have identified a Quality Monitoring Team. The delivery of Functional Skills English and maths, as well as assessments across the board, are priority for us as we develop the programme.

"Work on all of these areas are well underway and we look at this Ofsted report in a positive light as we now know where to focus our energies. We’re aware of our strengths and now the work has begun to raise all the other areas of our provision so that we can become good across the board" - Helena Jennings, Head of Supported Employment