The further education arm of Waverley Borough Council is the first local authority to benefit from online self-assessment and improvement planning software to underpin its quality assurance activity.
Waverley Training Services, which employs 20 people at its Farnham office in Surrey, will be using Mesma’s expertise after awarding the Gateshead-based firm a contract for its ‘intelligent’ software.
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The training provider offers a range of adult education and training courses, so the adoption of Mesma will enable its four strong senior management team to improve and record its actions in readiness for future Ofsted inspections.
Pat Pryke, training manager at Waverley, is working closely with the software developer to build the functionality of the system and has been providing feedback since the start on how to develop the system’s capabilities to best meet their needs.
She said that the team was already benefiting from Mesma since its introduction in March this year, and sees it as a valuable management aid, offering a flexible and cost effective resource. We have only been using Mesma for a few months and are still populating it. However, we can already see significant improvements.
“Allowing more then one person to enter information is a bonus as it helps us to keep a clear record of where we are and what we need to improve on with a focus on developments that directly impact on the learner.
“We feel it has definitely improved our readiness for inspection, while it is a more transparent solution for our staff, who can see easily what areas need improving and why.”
The software introduction provides improvements in Waverley’s capacity to undertake self-assessment, delivering superior managerial control and bringing greater transparency and efficiencies to a time intensive process. This will see it developing further a relationship as a key Mesma client as the Gateshead-based firm builds its presence in local government education.
Mesma was set-up in response to changes implemented by education watchdog Ofsted, which led to schools, colleges and independent providers receiving reduced notice of inspection. The software is an adaptable, versatile and cost effective web-based resource, which enables important areas of the self-assessment process and the associated improvement plan activities to be allocated to authorised people within any education institute. Its key purpose is to drive accountability to improve educational provision for students and learners.
Using Mesma, relevant reports, policy documents, quality assurance processes and guidelines and other important documentation can all be stored on line in one place within the system for quick and convenient access and reference from any location. The system can also monitor activities allocated to other staff to track progress and completion.
Louise Doyle, Mesma director said: “It is exciting for us to continue to expand our local government client base. So far this has been in support of further education provision however, Mesma’s capability is also of enormous value to school improvement teams.
“It allows them to see all school self evaluations and development plans in one place, helping them to quickly identify where schools may need further support to improve the quality of education for children.
“We look forward to being able to work with local governments in this way over the coming academic year as a new Ofsted Common Inspection Framework is introduced.”
In the next quarter, the company will release its new Observations Module and has ensured the content is flexible enough to meet the needs of organisations such as Waverley Training Services. Mesma is available through an annual subscription and is tailored to meet specific requirements and individual needs.
