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We would like to take this time to say that we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic start to 2019. Here's to a successful year for all.

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Welcome to Woodspeen to the following members of staff who have recently joined us;

Michelle Nutbrown (Assessor for Beauty Therapy)

Andrea Swales (Head of Business Development)

And of course a welcome back to Angie Broderick (Head of Quality)

Attached is a copy of Woodspeen's 2019 Organisational Chart.

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We would like to take this time to say goodbye and good luck to Sue Broadhead and Nick Cousins. Woodspeen wish you all the best for the future.

Sue will continue to work with us for four days per month, as an IQA on our IT and Manufacturing programmes so we have not seen the last of her just yet!

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Congratulations to Lewis Foye at Conservatory Outlet who is studying for his Business Admin L2 qualification.

His assessor Lesley commented 'Reasons for Nomination: Lewis started his qualification in September 2018 and is already way ahead of expectations. The quality of his knowledge work, which he often completes in presentation format, is so good that as a team we are using it to support our training sessions. The quality of his work at Conservatory Outlet, linked to the appropriate units to challenge him, is helping him to perform to a high standard at work. Lewis is a polite and respectful young man who always thanks me for his monthly training sessions and asks me to pass on his thanks to the Functional Skills team for their sessions. He is ready to sit his ICT level 1 test and will then continue to up skill to level 2.

In November 2018 he won the value award at Conservatory Outlet after being nominated by one of the senior staff in his team, Carly Rhodes, for “aiming to be better” this is his attitude to everything he does.'

Nominations are now underway for February's winner and the voting will take place before and during the February Operations Meeting.

Can any staff who are not able to attend please speak to Damian and send their nominations/ votes in ahead of this date.

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Woodspeen's extra three P's........Projects!           

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Woodspeen's extra three P's........Projects!           

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Traineeships

Woodspeen's focus over the past month has been on strengthening our traineeship offer, whilst waiting on the outcome of our funding growth case.

We are pleased to announce that we have managed to secure over £100k of additional funding, leaving us in a great position to support just over 50 additional traineeship learners between now and July 2019.

Overall we are ahead of target for Traineeships however, this slipped in January, as we missed our target by 4 learners, due to the emphasis being switched to recruitment on Apprenticeships.

We have a target of 10 starts in February and we would love to recruit 14 so that we remain firmly ahead of our overall target.

Charlotte is carrying out one to one support sessions with staff involved in traineeship delivery and the message disseminated to the Engagement teams is to get as many employers on board with this as possible, in order to support the recruitment of good quality future Apprentices who are equipped for learning and work.

Thank you to everyone involved and if you have any questions or want some additional support then please contact Charlotte Ettenfield

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A traineeship is an education and training programme with work experience that unlocks the great potential of young people and prepares them for their future careers by helping them to become 'work ready'.

Designed to help young people aged 16 to 24 who don't yet have the appropriate skills or experience, traineeships provide the essential work preparation training, English, maths and work experience needed to secure an apprenticeship or employment.

Traineeships can last up to a maximum of 6 months and will include:

work preparation training provided by the training organisation

English and maths support if required, provided by the training organisation

a high-quality work experience placement with an employer

In addition to these basic elements, the employer and the training provider can add flexible additional content to meet the needs of the business and the local labour market.

At the end of the traineeship, each young person will be guaranteed a job interview if a role becomes available or an exit interview together with meaningful written feedback to help them secure an apprenticeship or employment with another employer.

Traineeships: overview for young people

Traineeships are an ideal opportunity for young people, aged 16 to 24, who are motivated to get a job but lack the skills and experience that employers are looking for.

Those who have been unsuccessful when applying for an apprenticeship or other job due to a lack of skills and experience are most likely be good candidates for a traineeship.

Traineeship opportunities are advertised regularly on find a traineeship.

Traineeships: overview for employers

The flexibility of traineeships offers employers the opportunity to help build a pool of high quality future recruits for your sector.

To find out more about offering traineeships and the benefits they can bring to a business, contact the National Apprenticeship Service. The National Apprenticeship Service offers free, impartial advice and support to employers. This includes simplifying the process of finding a trainee through the support of employer focused teams and find a traineeship, where employers can advertise their opportunities for free.

Traineeships: overview for training providers

Training organisations have a key role in co-ordinating the traineeship, engaging local employers to offer the work experience placements and encourage young people to participate.

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A traineeship is an education and training programme with work experience that unlocks the great potential of young people and prepares them for their future careers by helping them to become 'work ready'.

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Thank you to everyone for all your continued hard work in supporting learners to use the system. In January we have had a decline in the number of learners who have engaged with interventions, please can you ensure learners complete at least 1 per month to ensure they get the best from the platform and we are supporting them in the best way possible. Please can I remind you all that all learners should be completing the initial assessments as part of their sign up or  indication, we still have a large number of learners who have yet to complete this.

We are currently completing a learner survey on the use of CognAssist, the learners have been picked by CognAssist and links have been sent directly to the learners. Please can you support any learner who has received the link to complete this. It is only a very small sample of 15 learners. Once the survey is completed CognAssist will share the results of the survey with us.

As always if you require any support please feel free to contact Georgia or Claire.

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We now have approval to deliver the following courses and we are excited to market these and begin to fill the cohorts:
ESOL
Mentoring
Counselling Skills
Mental Health Awareness
IAG
Beauty
Setting up your own business

Can all staff please mention our offer to their existing employers and explain that short courses are available in a wide range of areas, many of which are funded. We are currently reviewing our course and marketing materials and new versions will be coming soon.

Meetings are being held with the Jobcentre Plus and a range of employers to engage in new opportunities. We have had 63 new starts across the organisation: 26 in BE and FSkills, 9 Health and Social/ Mental Health and 28 in Hairdressing and Beauty .

Another super huge well done and thank you to all the teams for your dedication and hard work in making these new programmes a success.

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The turn of the year brought a belated gift from the ESFA, a new funding monitoring report, FRM18 and in the words of the ESFA,

‘We, the Education Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), monitor the data reported to us as part of our assurance work. We monitor data from the individualised learner record (ILR) and other sources, such as the earnings adjustment statement (EAS), the Apprenticeship Service (AS), Student Loans Company (SLC) and the Learning Records Service (LRS). This desktop review of how the funding system and funding rules are operating allows us to identify possible errors in funding claimed that require further investigation. As part of this process, we also aim to improve the overall quality of the data reported.’

These words could have come from alien species in the 60’s and 70’s portrayed on TV series such as Captain Scarlet or the Twilight Zone. We are being watched!

The suite of reports now comprise a total 24, covering such items as ‘Repeat Learning’ through to ‘Loans Prior Attainment’ with a number persistently recurring, that usually hog our top three slots, namely:

2. Breaks in Learning (exceeding 365 days) 35 queries (up from 32 last month)
3. Recording co-investment payments 15 queries (up from 14 last month)
4. Small Employer Waiver 12 queries (down from 13 last month)

Straight in at number one this month, with 42 queries is FRM18, Level 2 Local Flexibility. Having gone straight to the top of the hit list, it’s now under contention as to the veracity of the report and the ESFA have drawn a veil of obfuscation around it claiming that it could be due to using old LARS data.

What it means for us is that AEB funded 19-24 year old learners without a full level 2 qualification can only do a level 2 qualification from the list of ‘legal entitlements’ and not a level 2 qualification from the list of ‘local flexibility’ and this seems to be, from FRM18, regardless of them being unemployed, or on the low wage trial or indeed undertaking ESOL at level 2.

What is clear though, is how difficult it is to not only interpret the funding rules but also to get them right. The Sword of Damocles is indeed very finely tethered by a thread but we should remember to take the opportunity, enjoy the meal and fully live life for now.

Incidentally, the Apprenticeship Contract for Services has been enhanced to provide greater assurance when employers/directors claim the small business waiver with a schedule 3 declaration that needs to be signed by the employer for each applicable apprentice. Please use the latest version from the shared drive.

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Well done to all the teams on the starts and achievements for January.

Although we ended up below our start target, we managed to get a combined total of 29 new Apprentices.

Our three top performing Apprenticeship programmes (based on our P5 uploaded data) were:

Joint 1st place: IT Web and Telecommunications

2nd place: Health and Social Care

3rd place: Management

Well done everyone. Let's aim to raise this further in February 2019.

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This month the management team have been continuing to explore and self assess where we are with the following:

How good are we at recording evidence of 20% off the job training?

How effective is our tracking of progress?

To what extent do our learners understand how to keep themselves and others safe from radicalisation and extremism?

Feedback has now been shared with the SMT and your line managers have shared/ will share this with you all in your next team/ Operations meeting.

A new step by step guidance has been issued to support you with planning and documenting off the job training. Please see below and this is also stored on the shared drive in a folder called guidance.

The Management teams have been instructed to spot check and quiz learners on the above so please don't worry if one of us pops in to your session.

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Quality starts with listening to the views of our staff therefore, we will be running a staff feedback survey in the coming months!

All staff members are encouraged to take part please.

Watch out for further updates in February's newsletter.

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Sometimes it’s good to go back to basics…

A reminder to all delivery teams to make your learner actions SMART!

Setting SMART targets increases the likelihood of your learner progressing through their learning in a timely way and helps us to keep learners on target to achievement. A good SMART target will focus your learner on the task and  motivate them to achieve.

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Level 2 Certificate in Awareness of Mental Health Problems 

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Level 2 Certificate in Awareness of Mental Health Problems 

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A massive thank you to Craig who is doing an amazing job at teaching the Mental Health qualification. Well done to everyone for taking part and we hope you are enjoying the qualification!

If anyone has any questions don't hesitate to contact Craig who is happy to help you :)

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Firearms and Weapons Attack......Run, Hide, Tell Advice

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Firearms and Weapons Attack......Run, Hide, Tell Advice

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Thank you to all staff who attended the sessions throughout November and December

Please provide your feedback and any suggestions about further training needs to the SMT.

We have now purchased emergency packs for our training centres and all staff have the Citizens Aid app on their phones.

It is great to see the impact that this training has had on you all and to see you using the resources with your learners. Thank you and keep up the great work.

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Run, Hide, Tell: Firearms and Weapons Attack

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Reminder: Can all staff who attended the Dyslexia training at the Huddersfield centre on Wednesday 7th November 2018 please complete the attached survey on Survey Monkey by 20th February 2019, so that we can analyse how effective the session was.

Initial comments from staff were very positive and Woodspeen would like to thank our external specialist Caroline for her hard work and making the session fun and interactive.

If you missed the session then please speak to your line manager to catch up on what you missed.

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Web survey powered by SurveyMonkey.com. Create your own online survey now with SurveyMonkey's expert certified FREE templates.

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Depression is more common than you think. In fact 1 in 4 adults, and 1 in 10 children experience some sort of mental health, from anxiety to bipolar. The rates are constantly growing and suicide  rates in both men and women are dramatically growing.
Mental health is often a 'Taboo' topic and people don't often like to talk about it but if we can talk about it openly, it might not be as scary.

If you or anyone you know is suffering from any sort of mental health or depression (or showing any signs) please don't hesitate to talk to us, or contact any of the numbers listed below-

-Samaritans 116 123
-Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) (for men) 0800 585858
-The Silver Line (for older people) 0800 4708090
-Childline (for people under 19) 0800 1111
-Papyrus (for people under 35) 07786 209697
-Your GP
Remember they are here to help

If you are concerned about anyone then please follow our Safeguarding policy and call the Safeguarding team on 07931719351.

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Our ambition is to support CCGs to work with partners to build effective mental health services for children and young people.

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As most of you will know by now, Woodspeen are opening two beauty salons and are soon to be running Beauty Therapy and Holistic qualifications!

We will have one salon in Huddersfield and one in Bradford. The beauty team are hoping to have this up and running by the end of February and the Engagement teams will be relocating to the new Huddersfield premises, to free up more space for delivery at Kingshead Buildings!

Further updates to be shared as soon as we have them!

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What resources have you used this month with your learners?

Have you found any naturally occurring ways to embed British Values learning?

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Please read the information below about child grooming.

Please make sure that your learners and employers are aware of the indicators. It is so important that we are all aware of the signs and red flags of child grooming

This is on the rise and normal Safeguarding procedures should be followed if you have any concerns please.

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Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse or exploitation.

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Thank you to Hannah who provided this very handy document! :)

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To maintain our Matrix accreditation we have to complete an annual Continuous Improvement Check. This takes the form of a written report on all improvements and developments we have carried out during the year in the delivery of our IAG which is reviewed by our matrix assessor.

Angie Broderick will be submitting the report shortly and will then have a phone call with our Matrix assessor, to discuss our progress. If he agrees that we have made the required progress, our accreditation will continue, or he may set us additional actions to ensure we are continuing to improve our IAG provision.

The IAG we provide has a huge impact on our learners’ progression in their learning and careers. Getting the right learner on the right programme at the right time for them can set that person on a journey to success.

Understanding our learners’ work and life aspirations and goals and providing them with the learning opportunities to achieve these is a privilege.

When providing IAG at any stage of the learning journey, please remember the impact it can have.

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Please can we remind all staff that they need to familiarise themselves with the latest version of the Ofsted handbook which has been released.
Thank You.

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We currently have over 20 Apprenticeship vacancies that we are trying to fill.

If you know of anyone who may be suitable then please pass on their details to the Engagement team.

A One Tools – Brighouse - CS
B and L – Wakefield – BA
Brilliant Minds – Dewsbury – Ba/DM
Buy It Direct – Hudds – BA/IT
Kings Medical – Wakefield – BA
Eagle Care Homes – Elland – BA
Firstnet – Leeds – IT Prac
Firth Carpets – Brighouse – BA
Flawless – Leeds – DM
Kingswell Watts – Dewsbury – CS
Landmark Homes – Leeds – BA
Londis – Huddersfield – CS
NAC – Wakefield – CS
Pacific Lifestyle – Hudds – BA
QBC – Hudds – IT/DM
Reynolds – Sevenoaks – DM
Smart Buildings – Leeds – BA
Metal Store – Cleckheaton – WH
Toad Diaries – Brighouse – BA
Trinity Lettings – Wakefield – BA
Viking Products – Keighley – DM
West Riding – Wakefield - BA

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Happy Birthday to the following staff who have their birthdays this month

Alison Greenwood (January)
Charlotte Ettenfield (February)

We hope that you all had/ have a wonderful birthday.

Important note: If you do not wish for your birthday to be included in future editions of this newsletter then please contact Charlotte Ettenfield or Grace Morgan.

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Woodspeen in the Community-Food for thought campaign

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Woodspeen in the Community-Food for thought campaign

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We did exceptionally well at the end of last year and were very proud to improve on our donation amounts from 2017!

Thank you to everyone who contributed, let's see if we can beat it again in 2019!

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At the last Operations meeting several staff asked about if we could support particular charities this year.

We are happy to support as many as possible so please can you send your ideas to the SMT and let us know what you would like to do.

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This year Woodspeen decided to support the 'Make a Difference' campaign that supports hospital staff, in remembrance of a young boy called Elliott Lamb who sadly died at the age of 10. On December we collected 15 chocolate oranges and distributed them to hospital staff, to give back to the hard working doctors, nurses and surgeons, who save lives on a daily basis.