Manor Green College

Provider Access Legislation (PAL) Policy

Provider Access Policy Statement

(To include The Department of Education, July 2021: “Baker Clause” and the Provider Access Legislation, January 2023)

Rationale

High quality careers education and guidance in school or college is critical to young people’s futures. It helps to prepare them for the workplace by providing a clear understanding of the world of work including the routes to jobs and careers that they might find engaging and rewarding. It supports them to acquire the self-development and career management skills they need to achieve positive employment destinations. This helps students to choose their pathways, improve their life opportunities and contribute to a productive and successful economy.

As the number of apprenticeships rises every year, it becomes increasingly important that all young people have a full understanding of all the options available to them post-16 and post-18 including wider technical education options such as T-Levels and Higher Technical Qualifications.

Commitment

Manor Green College is committed to ensuring there is an opportunity for a range of education and training providers to access students, for the purpose of informing them about approved technical education qualifications and apprenticeships. MGC is fully aware of the responsibility to set students on the path that will secure the best outcome which will enable them to progress in education, work or training and give employers the highly skilled people they need. That means acting impartially, in line with the statutory duty, and not showing bias towards any route, be that academic or technical.

Manor Green College endeavours to ensure that all students are aware of all routes to higher skills and are able to access information on technical options and apprenticeships (The Department of Education, July 2021: “Baker Clause”: supporting students to understand the full range of education and training options, and the Provider Access Legislation, January 2023).

Aims

The Manor Green College policy for Access to other education and training providers has the following aims:

To develop the knowledge and awareness of our students of all career pathways available to them, including technical qualifications and apprenticeships.
To support young people to be able to learn more about opportunities for education and training outside of school before making crucial choices about their future options.
To reduce drop out from courses and avoid the risk of students becoming NEET (Young people not in education, employment or training).

Student Entitlement

Manor Green College fully supports the statutory requirement for students to have direct access to other providers of further education training, technical training and apprenticeships. The school will comply with the new legal requirement to put on at least six encounters (where appropriate) with providers of approved technical education qualifications or apprenticeships. This will be done in assemblies in National Careers Week, in addition to providers attending careers events at the college, as part of our annual Next Steps event.

Development

This policy has been developed and is reviewed annually by the Careers Leader and Line Manager (Nick Pritchard, Deputy Head) based on current good practice guidelines by the Department for Education.

Links with other policies

It supports and is underpinned by key school policies including those for Careers, Child Protection, Equality and Diversity, and SEND.

Equality and Diversity

Access to other providers is available and promoted to allow all students to access information about other providers of further education and apprenticeships. MGC is committed to encouraging all students to make decisions about their future based on impartial information.

Requests for access

Requests for access should be directed to Gareth Court, Careers Leader. The Careers leader may be contacted by telephone or email, gcourt@mgcollege.co.uk or 01293 520351

Grounds for granting requests for access

Access will be given for providers to attend during school assemblies, timetabled Careers, QUEST or Life skills lessons, and Careers or Raising Aspirations events that MGC is arranging. Students may also travel to visit another provider as part of the trip to be organised in partnership with local mainstream and specialist education or day care providers.

Details of premises or facilities to be provided to a person who is given access

Manor Green College will provide an appropriate room or assembly hall to be agreed. All rooms have computers, projectors and screens provided. Computer rooms can also be arranged. The Careers Leader or Careers Adviser will organise this, working closely with the provider to ensure the facilities are appropriate to the audience. Appropriate safeguarding checks will be carried out. Providers will be met and supervised by a member of the Careers Team who will facilitate.

Live/Virtual encounters

Manor Green College will consider live online encounters with providers where requested, and these may be broadcast into classrooms or the hall. Technology checks in advance will be required to ensure compatibility of systems.

Parents and Carers

Parental involvement is encouraged, and parents may be invited to attend the events to meet the providers.

Management

The Careers Leader coordinates all provider requests and is responsible to his/her senior management line manager.

Complaints Procedure

Any complaints about this policy should be raised to Gareth Court, Careers Leader email: gcourt@mgcollege.co.uk

The Careers Leader will raise the complaint to Mr T Smith, Head teacher at Manor Green College

Monitoring review and evaluation

The Policy is monitored and evaluated annually via the Senior Leadership Team & College governing body

Policy Coordinator: Samantha Bryant, PA to the Head teacher / Clark to the governors

Policy Reviewed: September 2023

Appendix

Providers who have been invited into Manor Green College to date include:

Crawley College

Brinsbury College

St Piers College

Northbrook College

The Oaks Specialist College

Team Domenica

St Johns College

West Sussex SENDIAS

Autism Support, Crawley

Reaching Families

Carers Support

Skills Builder Partnership

National Citizenship Service

Tilgate Youth Rangers

Surrey Choices

Supported Employment, West Sussex

Employ Crawley

Masterclass Education

Clarion Futures

Coast to Capital

Ixion (Inclusive Apprenticeships)

Jubylee Bakes

The Butterfly Project

Springboard

YMCA

Independent Lives

Grace Eyre

Little Gate Farm

Plumpton College

Haywards Heath College

University of Sussex

Orpheus College

East Surrey College

DFN Project Search

Thales

Tesco

Red Cross

Lloyds Banking Group

Creative technology

Hampton by Hilton

Whitbread

Brain in Hand

Destinations of previous pupils from Manor Green College Name of School include: