employers / partners

The Northumberland Quality Standard for Careers Information, Advice and Guidance - a self evaluation framework

The self evaluation framework has been commissioned by the 14 -19 Partnership and developed by Connexions Northumberland (igen Ltd). This electronic tool is designed to support learning providers across the county to assess and develop their careers IAG provision. The framework is extensively cross referenced against key measures such as Ofsted and includes hyperlinks to useful documents and information.

There are 8 elements for learning providers to self assess against:

Element  1 :     Leadership, Management and Commitment

Element  2 :     Accessible and Impartial Information

Element  3 :     Accessible and Impartial Advice and Guidance

Element  4 :     Diversity of Information Advice and Guidance

Element  5 :     Responsiveness of IAG to Individual Needs

Element  6 :     Parents and Carers

Element  7 :     Training and Development

Element  8 :     Review and Evaluation

Use these links to access the SEF document most suitable to your organisation.

SEF Mainstream (738.5Kb)

SEF LDD (733Kb)

SEF middle schools (715.5Kb)

The framework also includes a Good Practice Guide to aid completion. The SEF is also available via the Northumberland County Council website www.northumberland.gov.uk (14-19 Partnership, IAG page).

Quality Standards for Young People's Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)

From April 2008 responsibility and funding for commissioning information, advice and guidance (IAG) services for young people was devolved from the 47 Connexions partnerships to the 150 Local Authorities in England. New Quality Standards for Young People’s IAG Services were launched in October 2007 to support the development of consistently high quality and impartial IAG services across the country and set out the DCSF's expectations of the IAG services that local authorities will commission and manage. They provide a framework for planning, managing and reviewing IAG services in a locality, in a co-ordinated way. There are 12 quality standards.

They are also for use by:

• learning providers (including schools, colleges and work based training providers),
• external IAG providers (i.e. Connexions services, voluntary and community service organisations and all other private organisations working under contract to the local authority), and
• users of IAG services, to check that the expected standards are being achieved.

The standards can also be used to support external assessments of the quality and impartiality of IAG services.

A User Guide and Good Practice materials, including a leaflet for young people, are available to help organisations to deliver information, advice and guidance in line with these standards. They provide more detail about evidence indicators, and give examples of how the standards are being met in practice. They are available at http://www.cegnet.co.uk/

Information is also available at www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/youthmatters/connexions/qualitystandards/