We’re delighted that the new Ofsted inspection report on the WEA confirms a return to strength for the organisation.

The report describes the overall effectiveness of WEA provision as good and identifies provision in the subject area of health, public services and care as outstanding. It also confirms that the WEA has strong capacity to improve further.

The WEA has over 80,000 learners a year of all ages, in every region of England. It works in hundreds of local communities, including the most disadvantaged, with a continued commitment to maintaining high quality learning opportunities for adults at a time when many providers and the general policy direction is thought to have moved away from community based and part-time provision. The report recognises the high proportion of new learners the WEA reaches each year and its excellent links with partners to reach priority target groups successfully. The democratic principles of the WEA continue to make a significant contribution to the Association’s work in local organising, regional and national decision making and governance.

‘Everyone who has been working to support the WEA over the last few years will be delighted by the outcome – even though we entered this inspection with a sense of confidence. From a management and educational standpoint we’re very pleased with the result, particularly the fact that it fully supports our own pre-inspection judgments through self-assessment. I am also greatly encouraged that this report also recognises the contribution of volunteers as a strength of the WEA. This is particularly welcome, given that it is our voluntary movement which makes the WEA unique.’

The report states: ‘Strategic leadership and management of change are strong, particularly through the general secretary and senior managers. They have implemented significant structural and cultural changes successfully over the last four years and led the association through a period of recovery and development, while retaining its core purpose and values.’

The six key strengths identified in the report are:
• good development of learners’ skills and knowledge
• strong leadership
• excellent partnerships
• good performance management to promote improvement
• very good responsiveness to community needs; and
• the role and contribution of volunteers across the organisation.

The report also states that the WEA has, ‘maintained all of its key strengths since the previous inspection and rectified most of the weaknesses.’

Provision in health, public services and care is described as outstanding with ‘very good teaching and learning’, ‘highly flexible and responsive range of courses’, and ‘very strong partnerships to promote inclusion.’

A wide range of WEA work is commended throughout the report including:
• the WEA’s national Helping in Schools programme;
• a Chester-based project helping to rehabilitate adults with alcohol and drug dependency;
• a community fitness and health education group in Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Stoke-On-Trent;
• citizenship courses in Sheffield bringing disparate groups together to find common ground.

The full Ofsted report can be accessed here as a PDF file: Ofsted 2008 Inspection Report on the WEA.