Meeting Minutes

Attendees

Discussion

• Matthew presented the architecture, as proposed in the original tender — Architecture & Data Flow.
• Matthew also presented the setup and access, as proposed in the original tender — Access & Permissions.
• Discussed whether WYCA has an existing Microsoft Fabric capacity the dashboard could be deployed into. What WYCA needs to provide depends on the answer:
  • If WYCA has a Fabric capacity we can use — see Requirements: Existing Capacity.
  • If WYCA does not have a Fabric capacity — see Requirements: New Pay-As-You-Go F2.
• Discussed how Learning Providers will access the dashboard — each provider signs in with a guest account and sees only its own learners (row-level security), and each provider user needs a Power BI Pro licence to view it, unless the capacity is F64 or larger (where viewing is free). We also discussed how providers without a Pro licence could still receive reports — PDF exports, or embedding Power BI in a custom app (Power BI Embedded).

Actions

• WYCA Confirm whether there is an existing Fabric capacity we can use (and its SKU) — this determines what is required.
• Matthew Denison Provided the requirements for both scenarios, linked above: an existing Fabric capacity, or a new pay-as-you-go F2.

Attendees

Notes

• Awaiting notes…

Attendees

Discussion

• Pippa is keen that we (collectively) do everything we can to make it easy for learning providers. Courses start in September and providers will be exceptionally busy.
• There are 8 learning providers; the largest (Luminate ESOL) has around 3,400 adult learners. The biggest three are Luminate, Bradford College and Kirklees College.
• Learners may take several courses at once (e.g. Maths, English and Construction). The London Learner Survey approaches an individual up to three times and no more, so they would be surveyed about Maths, then English, then Construction; a 4th course would not be surveyed. Agreed: an individual will receive no more than 3 surveys.
• Enrolment data: providers gather a set of mandatory questions all providers collect, including name, postcode, Date of Birth (DOB), and whether the individual is on benefits. Enrolment may occur on paper and is then entered into the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) database, which is sent to the Department for Education (DfE) every month. The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) receives an anonymised copy of the ILR (no personal records).
  In plain English: when someone signs up for a course, the provider writes down their details — name, postcode, date of birth, and whether they're on benefits. It is sometimes written on paper first, then typed into a national record system. Once a month, providers send this to the government's education department. The combined authority also gets a copy, but with the personal details taken out.
• Options discussed for issuing the baseline survey:
  • Option i — ask tutors to get learners to complete the first survey in the classroom (Pippa expects the highest response rate).
  • Option ii — learning providers send us an extract from the ILR database and we send a survey link (email, SMS or WhatsApp).
  • Option iii — for Summer 2027, get learning providers to use our intent survey when enrolling students.
  Stefan, Pippa and Amy are keen for us to try options i and ii as part of the pilot.
  In plain English: they discussed three ways to get learners to complete the first survey. Option 1 — tutors ask learners to fill it in during class (Pippa expects the most responses this way). Option 2 — providers send us a list of their learners and we send each one a survey link by email, text or WhatsApp. Option 3 — later on (Summer 2027), get providers to build our survey into how they enrol learners. Stefan, Pippa and Amy want us to try options 1 and 2, as this is a pilot.
• Pippa noted that another firm they heard from would email the questionnaire, and if there was no response would issue a WhatsApp asking the most crucial questions (so at least some information was gathered), then WhatsApp would ask if they could send a link to the full survey.
  In plain English: Pippa mentioned another company's method: first email the survey; if there's no reply, send a WhatsApp asking just the most important questions, so at least some answers are collected; then the WhatsApp asks whether it can send a link to the full survey.
• Stefan is keen that we try issuing the survey through WhatsApp — the actual questions in WhatsApp, not just a link.
  In plain English: Stefan would like us to try running the survey through WhatsApp — asking the actual questions inside WhatsApp, not just sending a link to a survey.

Actions

• Pippa Share our draft questions with Local Authorities and learning providers.
• Chris & Eddy Write the PID with the proposed approach.
• Chris Consider a leaflet that can be issued to learning providers.
• Amy Set up the next meeting.