Staff have been described as “devastated” after a council adult education service was rated as overall inadequate.

Education watchdog Ofsted levelled a number of criticisms at the service run by Redcar and Cleveland Council and operated from the campus at Redcar and Cleveland College.

“Swift action” was needed to improve the quality of education with several recommendations being made.

The council said staff were devastated by the outcome, but confident that necessary improvements could be implemented in order to achieve a good outcome following Ofsted’s next visit.

Ofsted said leaders did not have a clear oversight of the quality of the education provided since rigorous quality assurance arrangements were not in place.

A more rigorous process for reviewing the quality of teaching had recently been implemented, but actions set for tutors following reviews were not monitored, so leaders did not know if they had improved their teaching practice.

Students on information and communication technology (ICT) courses were described as working independently on assignments without receiving sufficient teaching about basic concepts, such as word processing and internet searching.  As a result, too many cannot recall what they have previously learned and make slow progress, Ofsted’s report said.

Students enrolled in this discipline also followed the same learning and completed the same projects and assignments, regardless of their starting points, with programmes not planned to meet individual and specific needs.

Meanwhile, tutors did not check carefully enough that business administration apprentices understand and remember what they have learned in their on and off the job training.

Ofsted said: “They do not identify what apprentices achieve in their workplace and, consequently, do not help them to recognise what they need to improve and refine.”

It said while most tutors held the relevant qualifications needed to teach their subjects, a few did not, nor did they have experience in the subject they taught, meaning the teaching provided was not of a high enough standard and limited the progress of students.

Ofsted said when it inspected in December there were 158 learners enrolled on adult and community learning courses, while 33 apprentices were completing various programmes including business administration, customer service, horticulture and construction.

The inspection said students were polite, respectful and courteous, behaving well, and demonstrated positive attitudes to learning, while they benefited from a calm and respectful learning environment provided by tutors.

However it highlighted particular shortcomings in terms of provision for those with special education needs and/or disabilities.

Ofsted said: “Too many tutors are unaware of the additional needs that learners and apprentices have.  “Consequently, timely and appropriate support is not put in place.”

Careers and advice and guidance was also not routinely provided for all learners and apprentices, meaning some were unaware of the next steps to take after achieving a qualification.

Ofsted did praise aspects of English courses operated for speakers of other languages, along with maths, with content being adapted and learning sequenced based on needs and starting points.

The report also addressed safeguarding stating that arrangements were effective and learners and apprentices felt safe and knew who to report concerns to.

The council said it fully understood what changes needed to be made to the service to achieve a good outcome and would “implement a robust action plan immediately”.  Staff were also “committed to driving changes to ensure no learners are disadvantaged going forward”.

A council spokesman said: “We are disappointed by the outcome of the Ofsted inspection,  but fully appreciate that the issues raised do need to be addressed and we are determined to implement the required changes to get back to a good outcome for all learners.   “Action was already being taken in relation to the issues identified by the Ofsted inspection, including drafting in additional support for current learners, as well as dealing with staff issues in the team prior to the Ofsted inspection.

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“Whilst Ofsted noted this intervention and that progress had been made, it was judged to be not timely enough and therefore at the time of inspection inadequate progress was made.

“We are confident that we can continue to implement the required changes and improvements to get the service back to good and make sure that all learners have a good experience and achieve positive outcomes.”