Missed support recovery: put things right when support slips

Every provider misses support sometimes: a tutor is off, a room changes, a workshop runs late. What matters is whether the learner is told and whether it is put right. Inclusion Studio is being built to make recovery a normal step. This page describes the planned design. It is in development for the pilot and not yet available to try.

What problem does missed support recovery solve?

When support slips, the usual outcome is silence. Nobody records it, the learner says nothing, and the gap only appears at review or when something goes wrong. For a disabled learner, a missed adjustment may mean a missed assessment or a lost week of progress.

Treating a miss as an event with a recovery step does two things. It protects the learner by getting the support back on track quickly. And it protects staff, because a recorded gap with a fix is a sign of a working process, not a hidden failure.

How will recovery work, step by step?

1. A delivery item is marked missed. The owner records that the agreed action did not happen. See delivery tracking.
2. They choose a reason. A short list, such as staff absence, room or equipment, learner absence, learner declined, or other, with an optional note. The list is configurable by the provider.
3. They propose a recovery step. For example “run the briefing at the start of next session” or “send the written instructions by email today”. The step has an owner and a date.
4. The learner is consulted. The owner checks the recovery step works for the learner and records the answer.
5. The inclusion lead sees open gaps. Recoveries that pass their date turn up in a list for follow-up.
6. Recovery is closed. When the step is done, the item is marked recovered. If it is not recovered, the item stays open and is raised at review.
7. Patterns are visible. Repeated misses of the same action, course or room can be spotted and addressed as a systems problem.

What counts as good recovery?

• Quick. Recover within the next teaching opportunity where possible.
• Agreed. The learner has a say in how.
• Specific. Who does what, by when.
• Honest. If it cannot be recovered, say so, and consider whether the plan needs to change.

A paper version is in our missed support recovery plan template.

What about learner-declined support?

Sometimes a learner chooses not to use a support. That is not a miss by the provider. The design records “learner declined” as its own reason, so that the learner’s choice is respected and the review can ask whether the support still fits.

Who sees what?

Permissions are enforced on the server by organisation, relationship and field:

See permissions and roles.

What is in the prototype today, and what is being built?

In the prototype: nothing specific to missed support. A fictional learner shows “Awaiting tutor” and a next step, such as confirming a quieter workshop space, which is the kind of item recovery would track. The prototype does not record misses.

Being built for the pilot:

• Marking an item as missed with a reason.
• Proposing and agreeing a recovery step.
• Recovery due dates, overdue alerts and a list for the inclusion lead.
• Missed and recovered items shown at review and in the evidence export.

The production application is in development and uses synthetic data only.

Who is this for?

Tutors and assessors who need a quick way to say “this slipped, here is the fix”. Inclusion leads who want to catch problems early. Learners, who deserve to be told. See tutors and assessors and inclusion leads.

What does this look like in practice? (fictional example)

A fictional tutor is off sick on the day a learner’s written instructions were due to be shared. The cover tutor marks the item as missed, with the reason “staff absence”. The recovery step proposed is to email the instructions that afternoon and brief the learner at the start of the next session. The cover tutor asks the learner whether that works, and the learner says yes. The recovery is marked done the next day. The inclusion lead sees one closed gap, not an open one, and at review the learner is asked whether the delay caused any difficulty. This is a fictional example, not a real case.

Related guides and next steps

• Recording support delivery evidence
• Reviews and evidence export
• Take part in the pilot.