The Access and Participation Plan Leadership

Programme

Waiting list open

Join the waiting list for the February / March 2024 programme here:

Programme Content

  • Mission

    After this session you will be able to:

    explain your APP's social value

    craft a mission statement that aligns all staff on what you are trying to achieve

    articulate who you aim to serve, the change you will bring about, and how you'll do this

    demonstrate how your APP contributes to your institution's wider mission

  • IDENTIFYING Target Groups

    After this session you will be able to:

    Identify who specifically falls into your target group, how this relates to EORR and wider institutional priorities. Clarify how your APP target population delivers the outcomes you want to achieve. Develop approaches to maximising your impact through targeting resources effectively.

  • setting targets

    Targets are the basis for accountability in your APP. In this session you'll identify the meaningful changes that your institution can deliver in the lives of the people in your target groups, and how to show in your APP that they will be significant, enduring, measurable and directly linked to your interventions.

  • designing impactful interventions

    This session covers programme design. You will learn how to effectively pinpoint which specific elements of your programmes are critical to make changes in the lives of people in your target groups, so you maximise your impact. We'll also explore how outsourcing some of your activity, or delivering through partnerships, can be the best approach.

  • EVALUATION FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

    In this session you will learn to:

    design a measurement and accountability system for your APP

    track the needs and characteristics of the people the institution is working with, and their outcomes, so that you can demonstrate impact, manage delivery and achieve your APP's mission

    develop effective and proportionate approaches to evaluation of your APP activity

    use this to improve your outcomes, including which activities to grow and which to stop

    use evaluation to effectively manage partnership arrangements.

  • theory of change

    Our final session will bring together all you have learned so far and focus on putting it into the APP format. You'll finish with full confidence that you can create a meaningful theory of change for successful submission to the Office for Students.

  • six 90 minute live sessions

    Live and interactive sessions will be delivered virtually over two weeks. Interact with participants and Rae to get the most out of the programme. Share your progress with your team between sessions so they are engaged in your journey.

  • build your leadership community

    The programme is ideal for anyone involved in leading or contributing to an APP submission. Particularly of value for Heads of Team. 

    The interactive sessions will build strong, supportive relationships that can continue outside the programme through a closed Whatsapp Group. .

  • Meet your trainer

    Rae has over 20 years of experience working with senior leaders in Higher Education to deliver widening participation and fair access. Rae was Head of Strategy and Change at the Office for Students and led on strategy, change, evaluation and effective practice at the OfS' predecessor, the Office for Fair Access. As Chief Executive of the access charity Villiers Park Educational Trust, Rae supported multiple successful APP phase one institutions, and worked with the OfS to improve the process.

Individual PARTICIPANT

One place on the programme

Ongoing access to recorded sessions, materials and worksheets.

Membership of the APP Leadership Community.

£495

Institution participant

Up to five participants from a single institution

Ongoing access to recorded sessions, materials and worksheets.

Membership of the APP Leadership Community.

£995

Institution partnership

Up to five participants from a single institution

Ongoing access to recorded sessions, materials and worksheets

Membership of the APP Leadership Community

7 hours of ongoing, bespoke one to one support to be drawn down between the beginning of the programme and APP submission.

£1995

Deliver an outstanding APP that:

meets regulatory requirements

•

supports your institutions wider strategic priorities

•

drives positive social change

•

makes best use of resources

•

is achievable

•

meets regulatory requirements • supports your institutions wider strategic priorities • drives positive social change • makes best use of resources • is achievable •

THE REPORT

Higher education providers are now in the process of developing their new access and participation plans, to meet regulatory requirements. We worked with one of the universities that took part in the first wave of this work, the University of Bath, and Impetus, a third sector organisation that finds, funds and builds high impact charities, to explore how a clearer understanding of their Theory of Change can lead to better programmes and better outcomes for people facing disadvantage. This paper sets out our lessons, both for universities preparing their plans, and for policymakers in the higher education sector.

January 2024

THE webinar

Find out more about the development of The APP Programme, and how it impacted on wave 1 institutions. Speakers include Dr Andrew Ross, University of Bath, Gino Graziano, University of Southampton, Steve Haines, Impetus.

The Slides

Gino Graziano, Director of Widening Participation and Social Mobility

Steve Haines, Director of Policy

Dr Andrew Ross, Head of Access and Participation