European Social Fund in England

Ofsted praise for Objective One projects

Three Objective One European Social Fund (ESF) projects in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly have won praise from an Ofsted inspector who said it was evident to him that the investment was "really changing peoples’ lives".

Ofsted, a government body inspects care, education and learning and skills facilities and projects. Ofsted now inspects co-financed ESF projects in the same way as it does other adult learning providers.

In September 2007 Ofsted inspected nine Learning and Skills Council and Jobcentre Plus contracts across the South West, three of which were Objective One co-financed projects in Cornwall. These were CPR Works, Pentreath Ltd and the Learning Partnership for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

All three projects received very positive feedback from the Ofsted Inspector who also said he had not seen partnerships working so well anywhere else in the UK.

Carleen Kelemen, Director of the Objective One Partnership, said: "I welcome this national endorsement of the dedicated and unique partnership effort that is making the Objective One investment more effective for people in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Congratulations to all those involved."

Mark Williams, Skills Development Director – ESF of the Regional Learning & Skills Council, said: "It is incredibly rewarding for all the partners involved in these projects to get external endorsement from Ofsted. The dedication and commitment to the people of Cornwall, achieved through working together, has been inspiring and we must make use of this success to further drive our aspiration through the new ESF Convergence Programme to achieve our goal of social, economic and sustainable prosperity for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly."

And Carolyn Webster, European Programmes Manager for Jobcentre Plus added: "Our co-financing programme has been a real success with over 5320 people supported into work. We have taken pride in developing a partnership approach to delivery and it is great that this has been recognised and praised by an independent external evaluation."

In the report, good success and achievement rates were identified across most projects, with good progress into jobs. The Inspector said: "Partnership working is identified as particularly strong in this region which has incredible spin off and benefits both staff and learners. There is good collaboration amongst partners resulting in a widening of participation.

"Projects are well managed with some good strategic planning, they are being managed and delivered by dedicated, enthusiastic people who have a good knowledge of local training and the labour market and are pro-active in identifying appropriate training and employment for their learners. The learners themselves are enthusiastic and have developed a good range of social and employability skills."

The main area identified for improvement was around quality assurance. The Inspector said there was too much reliance on informal communications and poor tracking of learner progress. This was an issue across the entire South West and an area where training may be needed.

For more information contact Clare Morgan - Objective One Partnership. Tel: 01872 223439 or Email: cmorgan@cornwall.gov.uk