AN education provider which has most of its provision based in Bradford city centre has been told it requires improvement.

Ofsted claims pupils are not supported to understand British values and risks of extremism and radicalisation at Aspire-Igen Group Ltd.

Aspire was last rated Good by Ofsted six years ago but has since been demoted to the second-worst rating.

The group provides education programmes for young people across the region.

The latest inspection, completed between February 15 and 18, urged the provider to improve overall effectiveness, the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, leadership and management, education programmes for young people, and provision for learners with high needs.

Improving learners’ attendance and punctuality on directly delivered courses was also raised.

The report said: "Tutors on too many programmes do not support learners to develop essential skills for employment such as attending their programmes and being punctual. Too few learners attend regularly enough, many are often late.

"Leaders and those responsible for governance have a clear overview of their provision and have taken action to make improvements in the quality of education and learners’ attendance. However, these have not had a significant enough impact.

"Too many learners do not make the progress in mathematics and English they are capable of due to poor attendance. Learners who do attend their lessons make expected or better progress."

At the time of the inspection, there were 608 students on programmes from entry-level to level 3, including 40 learners with high needs.

Half of all learners are on health and social care and child development programmes. The remainder are on construction, motor vehicle, public services, hair and beauty, learning support, administration, hospitality and catering courses.

Most learners progress to higher-level courses, employment or apprenticeships.

The provider must enable students to gain an understanding of British values.

The report added: "Many learners cannot articulate their understanding of how these values relate to their lives. However, tutors at subcontractors provide effective development and reinforcement of the importance of British values.

"Too many tutors do not support learners well enough to understand local risks, including the risks of extremism and radicalisation. Consequently, learners are not fully aware of the potential risks in the communities where they live.

"Staff benefit from useful annual safeguarding and ‘Prevent’ duty training that enables them to gain a good understanding of how to identify signs of abuse and radicalisation."

The Telegraph & Argus did contact Aspire-Igen Group Ltd's Bradford centre but they did not provide a comment.