Council blames Capita for adult education Ofsted report blow

THE blame for a failed Ofsted inspection of Birmingham’s adult education service has been laid at the door of controversial IT provider Capita.

Students were able to access each other’s computer desktops because they were not password protected, city council jobs and skills chief Councillor Brett O’Reilly (Lab, Northfield) revealed.

He stated IT provider Capita was “less than helpful” when issues were raised and declared the council would now look elsewhere for an IT provider for its adult education service.

It is another blow to the relationship between the council and Capita. Earlier this year their joint ‘Service Birmingham’ IT contract, which had been criticised for its exclusivity agreements and high costs, was wound up three years early. Capita will, however, continue to provide core IT services to the council until 2021.

The outsourcing firm said it was willing to adapt the service it provides for further education, which is a stand-alone contract.

The Birmingham Adult Education Service (BAES) supports more than 13,000 students a year and delivers more than 2,000 courses across the city.

But when Ofsted visited in September last year it rated the service as ‘requiring improvement’ to the surprise of council bosses.

The watchdog said not enough improvement had been made since the previous inspection, managers did not use data effectively, were not held to account sufficiently, and had an ‘inflated view’ of teaching quality. Not enough awareness was raised around internet safety including the dangers of radicalisation.

Addressing the economy, skills and transport scrutiny committee, Cllr O’Reilly said: “It became clear pretty quickly we were not going to be rated ‘good’.

“Students logged on could access each other’s desktops, they were not password protected. We raised this with Capita who were less than helpful.

“We are re-procuring IT services for adult education. While Capita are welcome to bid for it, I suspect they probably won’t.

“But the reality is we need to build our own expertise within the authority. Quite frankly, speaking to the head of IT we didn’t have the expertise to pick up on the detail Ofsted expected.”

A Capita spokeswoman said: “We currently have a flexible arrangement in place with Birmingham Adult Education Service and we are working together to adapt the service to meet their new requirements.”