1. Peer Review and Development Group East Midlands Independent Specialist Colleges June Murray and Norma Curtis 20 May 2009

2. Linkage College RNIB College Loughborough Participating Colleges

3. Overview Established 2006 – prior to funding One college identified to hold budget – small budget devolved to each College Initial meetings to establish working practices and culture – outcomes of initial activities identified the need for clearer aims, objectives and key performance indicators

4. Activities Undertaken Individual Learning Plan reviews (2 sub- sets of 3 Colleges) LNC embedding (consultancy support) Observations – initially a moderation exercise – has matured into peer observation between Colleges Learner Conference SAR validation

5. Learner Voice Learners created DVDs prior to a Conference focused on,’What do you like about your College’, ‘What have you learnt’, and ‘What other activities would you like to see offered’ After the Conference, Colleges analysed learners’ comments against an evaluative framework suggested by a consultant Action plans resulted These fed into individual Learner Involvement Strategies and College Self Assessment Reports

6. SAR Validation SARs shared electronically Meeting – SARs validated against the learner voice This ensured learner voice was not lost and had been used to influence whole organisational change SARs ‘signed off’

7. Additional Benefits Sharing best practice Increase in level of trust Sharing data including benchmarking (H & S, Equal Opps, LNC achievements, survey results) Peer benchmarking opportunities AMV support Advice over the telephone Policy sharing

8. What next? Peer observations between staff including Key Workers and other support staff Shared external training - Foundation Learning Tier Shared internal training – Emotional Intelligence, Databridge Next learner conference Introducing more rigour Hosted visits

9. Any questions?