An inspector calls – inside a college link inspector visit
What’s a link visit?
Once a year, our inspectors make an informal visit to each college or training provider. Each college has their own dedicated link inspector. This is a chance for us to build relationships with the colleges, gather up-to-date evidence about their work and support quality improvement. We also carry out similar visits to training providers and providers of adult learning in the community.
Each visit takes two to three days. We meet with senior leaders and a selection of other key staff, depending on the specific focus. We also look at key documents and may do some learning walks or talk to students.
At the end of the visit, we have a discussion with leaders about what we’ve found to help with the college’s ongoing improvement.
What is the focus?
The topics that we focus on change from year to year. At the moment, we’re exploring:
- Self-evaluation and future priorities for improvement
- Post-16 consistent performance measures
- Professional learning and the new standards
- 14-16 provision
- Site access, security and emergency procedures
- Learner engagement – learner voice and learner complaints
There’s also an opportunity for colleges to share any current issues. Likewise, we discuss inspection developments with college leaders.
If a college has been recently inspected, we discuss their progress against any recommendations in the inspection report.
How do the visits support improvement?
College leaders value the opportunity to talk to an inspector outside of a formal inspection. The link inspector can help colleges reflect on and refine their strengths and areas for improvement, and are able to highlight national effective practice that might be helpful.
The evidence we collect during these visits is used to inform the advice we provide to the Welsh Government through HMCI’s annual report, thematic reports and our contributions to national working groups.
The visits also help us to recognise how we can strengthen our own inspection guidance. For example, link visits have highlighted how colleges carry out their new duty to help prevent people being drawn into terrorism. This supported us to develop our supplementary guidance on inspecting safeguarding in post-16 provision. It also helps colleges to improve and share their practice in this area.
The discussions we have during link visits can help to identify topics that might benefit from a more in-depth thematic inspection across Wales.
How can colleges make the most of the link visit?
It’s an opportunity to reflect on practice within the college and consider how it could be further improved. There’s no expectation for college staff to do anything to prepare beforehand. The link inspector shares broad areas for discussion with college leaders and asks for any relevant documents and the names of staff to talk to.
The discussions are most beneficial when leaders are open and honest about the quality of their work. If a college only tries to showcase the very best of their work, they miss out on an opportunity to have a reflective discussion with their link inspector about their current challenges. We provide an independent perspective that can help leaders reflect on their students’ experiences.
The visit is also a chance to build the relationship between the link inspector and college leaders so that they know there’s someone in Estyn they can call if they have any questions.
College leaders should embrace the opportunities that link visits provide, and make the most of discussions with inspectors to find out about best practice and challenge your college to keep going from strength to strength.