Criteria for success
To ensure a whole organisation approach, the following points should be addressed:
- Ensure that all managers who can influence change in the organisation understand the potential impact of embedding.
- With key staff and managers, develop a vision statement and strategic plan for embedding throughout the organisation.
- Use the business case to support necessary investment in curriculum, resources and staff development.
- Take advantage of all national or regional initiatives and partnerships that support embedding.
- Revise all policies and procedures to reflect the strategy. In particular, prioritise embedding functional skills in the human resources (HR) policy and in your staff development programme.
- Ensure that all recruitment, promotion and appraisal procedures recognise the skills required by staff to embed.
- Bring specialist staff from key areas of the organisation to work together on embedding, such as staff from Skills for Life, key skills, learning support, IT, English, mathematics and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL).
- Enable your quality improvement processes to drive embedding across the organisation through self-assessment reporting and programme observation.
- Develop your management information system (MIS) to capture essential data needed by embedded programmes.
- Develop all your information, advice and guidance processes to reflect the embedded approach.
- Ensure that your policies to embed are understood and implemented by learners’ support services.
- Use your marketing department to raise awareness and to promote embedding across the organisation.
- Support and celebrate successes of all effective embedding in your organisation, however small scale.
- Use coaches and mentors to spread good practice in embedding.
