How Decoded impressed Ofsted by using Bud

In October 2022, the team at Bud were extremely pleased to hear that our long-standing customer, Decoded, had achieved Ofsted Good. This article was written following an interview with Decoded’s Head of Quality Improvement, David Matthews, to explore how Bud had supported them to achieve this result.

During the interview, key comments from the Ofsted report (listed below) were discussed, and David kindly explained how his team had achieved each item and where Bud had supported them.

During our visit, the inspectors looked at Bud. The capability from Bud and its data warehouse, visualised in Power BI, provided greater insights into measurements like learner progress, learner engagement. Programme build and design, plus how we are able to link Articulate and Canvas in each Bud activity, are also managed in Bud, making the learner journey seamless.

All of this is reflected in the way Bud enables us to build and customise our programmes and give the learner a robust training plan, this then feeds into the visibility the Senior leadership need to see from Bud. Inspectors were shown the Bud reports, I look after quality improvement, MI and data and I showed them the reports I’d built in Power Bi from the Bud’s data warehouse. I was able show a data journey, whereas previously we had little data and reports and not the right information.

I worked with Bud’s Datawarehouse team to create and build the report, if it wasn’t for the Bud team I couldn’t have done it. Kevin, Bud’s data expert, helped me out and was very quick to respond, alongside Katy our amazing account manager. We were a great partnership and we made sure the reports were accurate and built. Ofsted saw the reports and had confidence that this area had improved greatly since our inspection in May 2021, they commented on our visibility and the insight Decoded’s leadership team now have.

I also showed inspectors Bud’s operations dashboard, which meant they could see from a coach’s perspective what information and data is available to them, to help them better manage their learners. I think inspectors would have also liked Bud’s new employer reports, but they weren’t available at the time.

Read more: What are Ofsted inspectors looking for?

Catch-up plans created by the IQA team have been driven by the functionality and data in Bud. By capturing all the information on learner progress, outstanding activities, skills scan, progress reviews, Bud has given our IQAs the ability to work with coaches to implement detailed and robust catch-up plans. Bud has given us the tools for early identification of any areas of concern, we use a mix of skill scan and in-depth progress reviews, broken down into employer and coach comments. The Bud team did an amazing job in helping me to customise the progress review, by giving me a template and helping me to amend it, making reviews more robust and more detailed, which then feeds back to the IQA to create catch up plans, and identify where the learner is on OTJH and outstanding activities. This was pivotal functionality that helped us achieve this comment from Ofsted.

All our delivery is now remote, coaches started meeting remotely due to Covid, we’ve stayed with a remote model will look to blended in future. In the report, Ofsted referred to progress reviews, this is a great feature in Bud. Our coaches conduct progress reviews every 6 to 12 weeks, in-between there are Coach calls, which is a catch up between progress reviews and an opportunity to discuss assessment and feedback. We create these as an activity within Bud which means it’s captured within the training plan and is a touch point with the learner. This functionality means we can add in additional requirements, for example, additional calls with the learner, as an activity.

Bud pre maps competencies when we design and build the programme so that it’s done at the outset, during the design phase. When the learner submits work the coach has indicators on what the learning should cover against the competencies. They can then agree or disagree and tick off other competencies which may be covered under other areas, they can expand all competencies in Bud, ensuring nothing is overlooked. This means coaches can efficiently and effectively mark competencies and provide feedback against those competencies that are met or not met. Ofsted really liked this, seeing the activity with the related comments, and having the ability to revisit, action and expand. Four inspectors spent a full day deep diving into Bud, they spent time with our coaches who were prepared to show them this area of the platform.

Ofsted like the process we follow in Bud to create additional support plans for learners with needs. We have a learner services manager, Bud gives her the ability to identify declared learners, at onboarding or later. We can trigger the plan by opening it in Bud which shows in the data that the learner services manager sees, she can then reach out to that learner. Inspectors liked how we capture the additional support from the manager and evidence it in the plans. They were impressed by the way we capture all the measures, requirements and support we provide. They spoke to our Learner Services Manager and to a learner, they looked in Bud for the evidence and were very impressed. We couldn’t do this without Bud. The ability to record the plans, the interventions and next steps in Bud are a great feature.

We have a high distinction rate because of the way Bud helps us support learners.

The ability to have everything in one place was a key benefit for us regarding preparation for Ofsted, for example, prior learning, skills scan, and other compliance docs, e.g., Marriage certificates, Passport ID, are all contained within the evidence pack in Bud. Bud is our central location for all documentation, which means we’re always ready for audit.

Inspectors were taken through Bud’s reporting and enrolment, they were really impressed and said, ‘it is very clear that you have got Bud to work exactly how you need it to work’, Bud is providing us with the ability to follow compliance processes. The Inspector said we are very detailed with how we collect the start point information; Bud has helped us to make this work. Everything we need is possible in Bud, without it we wouldn’t be able to fulfil the processes that Ofsted really liked.

Bud really is a great platform for having everything in one place and to quality assure the entire learner’s journey.

This really did support our Ofsted inspection, or any other external audits in the future, as everything is evidenced, recorded and available in one place without having to dig around multiple platforms or spreadsheets.

With a very supportive and responsive team, you really can not go wrong with Bud.

Find out more about Bud

As pioneers of technology, Bud Systems can support with many aspects of training delivery.

For example:

• Create a consistent, easy-to-use digital learning environment that learners, employers and trainers will love.
• Capture real-time business intelligence giving training providers a complete overview of every aspect of an organisation’s performance.
• Quality check programme delivery, identifying areas for improvement in real time.
• Automatically collate evidence needed to demonstrate learner outcomes and hit compliance targets to release funding.

Get in touch with the team to learn more about how we can help you maximise your training performance or book a demo now.