Quality Assurance and Self-Evaluation

1. Purpose

Care Cove sits outside Ofsted inspection because every placement is part time. We treat that as a gap to fill, not an exemption to rely on. This policy sets out how we check the quality of our work, evaluate it honestly, report it to commissioning local authorities and act on what we find, so that learners are safe, make progress and return to school or move on well.

2. Scope

This policy covers everything Care Cove Alternative Provision does: safeguarding, teaching, therapy, behaviour, attendance, plans, reintegration, partnership with families and schools, staffing, records and contract compliance. It applies to every AP learner, whoever commissions the place, and to all staff and partners.

3. Law and guidance

• Commissioning local authorities: the 17 KPIs in section 6.1, reviewed in termly reports, with baseline measures collected from when learners start; and each commissioning local authority's right to carry out proportionate quality assurance, including reviewing policies, qualifications, curriculum plans, supervision and clinical governance, and observation or moderation visits agreed in advance.

• Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 and the DfE Alternative Provision statutory guidance (2013).

4. Roles and responsibilities

5. The quality cycle

We work in a simple, continuous cycle:

1. Measure: collect evidence as work happens, in Connect, against the measures in section 6.

2. Check: test the evidence through the activities in section 7 and the calendar in Appendix A.

3. Evaluate: ask what it tells us, at the weekly case meeting, monthly management supervision, the termly SWMC audit and the annual self-evaluation (section 9).

4. Act: turn every finding into an action with an owner and a deadline (section 11).

5. Re-check: confirm the action made a difference, and tell the people who raised it.

6. What we measure

6.1 Key performance indicators

We also aim for exclusion to be prevented for at least 85% of on-roll children, and for 25% of permanently excluded children to be reintegrated within two terms. We track both.

6.2 Our own promises and measures

We also track our own service standards: contact within 5 working days of referral and a start within a further 5; baselines within 2 weeks; a counsellor matched within 2 weeks and at least 1 hour of individual therapy every week; concerns recorded the same day with a DSL decision within the hour; physical interventions reviewed within 24 hours; complaint timescales; staff training, supervision and Single Central Record compliance; and our social value commitments. Outcome measures are the Boxall Profile, SDQ, reading and numeracy ages, Skills Builder and Mini-PATHs targets. We do not set targets beyond those in our contracts and our service standards; for everything else we look at trends.

7. How we check

7.1 Daily and weekly checks

Each day the Head of AP checks that the register is complete, every absence has been followed up that morning, concerns are recorded and DSL and first aid cover is in place. Each week the multidisciplinary case meeting reviews every learner; the DSL reviews the concerns log, every escalation and low-level concerns for patterns; the Director checks the weekly therapy hour for each learner; and the Administrator reconciles the register.

7.2 Learning walks, lesson observation and work scrutiny

• Learning walks: at least fortnightly, the Head of AP spends a few minutes in each session with one focus, such as relationships and the Respect Code, regulation, phone-free practice or how core lessons are adapted. The Director joins one each half term, and the DSL joins one each half term with a safeguarding focus (transitions, supervision, visitors). Brief notes and actions are recorded on Connect, and staff get feedback the same week.

• Lesson observation: every teacher at least once a half term, and agency teachers in their first week, with written feedback, as the Curriculum, Teaching and Assessment policy sets out.

• Work scrutiny: half-termly, a sample of learner folders in each core subject, checking progress, feedback and stretch.

7.3 Case file audits

• Plan audit: monthly, every learner's plan is checked against the four-week deadline, the monthly progress review and the half-termly formal review.

• Case file audit: monthly, the Head of AP audits at least two full case files, with the DSL auditing the safeguarding section. The audit checks admission (risk assessment, exploitation screening, contextual risk map, consents), the Team Around the Family, baselines, therapy, the plan and learner voice, EHCP alignment, attendance follow-up, incidents, chronology quality and reintegration planning. Each item is rated met, partly met or not met, and actions are re-checked the next month.

7.4 Safeguarding assurance

• SWMC termly audit: safeguarding decisions, concerns and chronologies; physical intervention trends; allegations and low-level concerns; the Single Central Record and a sample of recruitment files; complaints; data breaches; a sample of plans; and social value delivery. The SWMC writes a report with actions and timescales.

• Independent external safeguarding audit: commissioned by the Director every year from an auditor independent of Care Cove. The full report and our action plan, with completion dates, go to the commissioning local authority's contract manager.

7.5 Learner and family voice

Learners give their views through the learner voice interview at entry, the half-termly survey, the termly pupil forum, the weekly Respect Circle and the Student app. Parents give theirs through the half-termly survey and review conversation, the parent SDQ each term and the Family portal. Each term we tell learners and families what we changed because of what they said.

7.6 Schools and partners

Referring schools complete a feedback form each term and when a placement ends, through the Partner portal. Feedback from local authority officers at monthly progress meetings, and from partners such as My Solution Wellbeing, is recorded and reviewed.

7.7 Staff voice

Staff views come through supervision, monthly group reflective practice, the weekly case meeting, post-incident debriefs, an anonymous annual staff survey run by the Director, and a conversation with anyone who leaves. Staff can always raise concerns through the Whistleblowing policy, including directly with the SWMC Chair.

7.8 Complaints, incidents and equality

The Head of AP reviews the complaints log monthly. The DSL and the SWMC review incidents and physical interventions each term by learner, staff, time, place and technique. Each term the Head of AP analyses attendance, incidents, physical interventions and outcomes by ethnicity, sex, SEND, disadvantage, looked-after status and English as an additional language, so we can check our practice does not disadvantage any group.

8. Accurate data

Our reports are only as good as our records. KPIs and the monitoring pack are generated from live Connect records, which have an append-only audit trail. Corrections are linked entries, never overwrites. The Head of AP checks each report and the Director signs it off before it goes to a commissioning local authority. Falsifying any record, register or KPI is serious misconduct and a whistleblowing matter.

9. Annual self-evaluation and improvement plan

Each summer term the Director leads a written self-evaluation with the Head of AP, the DSL and the Clinical Advisor, drawing on all the evidence above. It covers: safeguarding and welfare; quality of education; therapy and wellbeing; behaviour and attendance; plans, reintegration and destinations; partnership with families, schools and commissioning local authorities; leadership, staffing and supervision; and contract compliance and social value. For each area it states what we do well, what the evidence shows and what must improve.

The self-evaluation produces an improvement plan of a small number of priorities, each with actions, an owner, a deadline and a success measure drawn from section 6. The SWMC challenges both before they are agreed. The Director and Head of AP review progress monthly in management supervision, and the SWMC checks it termly. The first full self-evaluation is completed in the summer term 2027, after an interim review at Easter 2027 alongside the RESET curriculum review. Its findings are shared with commissioning local authorities.

10. Reporting to commissioning local authorities

The first monitoring pack is generated from real records within the first half term, by 18 December 2026. Any KPI at risk of falling short is raised at the next monthly contract meeting at the latest, with the reason and a recovery action. We welcome commissioning local authorities' own quality assurance visits and audits and give them the records they ask for. Schools that commission places receive the same information for their learners in the format we agree with them.

11. Turning findings into action

• Every finding, from any source, goes onto the improvement action log on Connect with an owner, a deadline and the evidence needed to close it.

• Anything affecting a learner's safety is acted on immediately under the relevant policy, not held for the next review.

• The Director reviews open and overdue actions monthly. The SWMC checks completion each term, and actions still overdue are escalated to it.

• Learning is shared at the weekly case meeting, in supervision and training, and through policy updates.

• Any formal performance concern from a commissioning local authority goes to the SWMC with a recovery plan.

12. Monitoring and review

The SWMC reviews how well this policy is working each term through its audit, and in the summer term as part of the self-evaluation. The annual external safeguarding audit tests our assurance. This policy is reviewed every year, or sooner after a serious incident, a change in law or guidance, or a contract change, and is available to the commissioning local authority at any time.

13. Related policies

• 01 Safeguarding and Child Protection
• 04 Whistleblowing
• 07 Behaviour, Rewards and Restorative Practice
• 08 Positive Handling and Physical Intervention
• 11 Attendance and Children Missing Education
• 13 Curriculum, Teaching and Assessment
• 14 Therapeutic Practice and Clinical Governance
• 17 Data Protection, Retention and Information Sharing
• 18 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• 19 Complaints
• 30 Referrals, Admissions and Ending Placements
• 33 Staff Supervision, Appraisal and Training

Appendix A: Quality assurance calendar

Document control and ratification

This policy is signed off by the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the Head of Alternative Provision, and ratified by the Social Work Management Committee. It is reviewed every year, or sooner after an incident or a change in law, statutory guidance or contract requirements, and it is available to any commissioning local authority on request.