The importance of full participation in school and college life for young people's personal and social development cannot be overestimated. This along with the attainment of the vital skills and qualifications for employment are widely recognised as major protective factors in preventing children becoming offenders, and in reducing the longer term risks of re-offending.

(Youth Justice Board website, August 2005)

THE SCOPE OF PROVISION FOR THE JUVENILE SECURE ESTATE

Since April 2000, the Youth Justice Board has had responsibility for commissioning and purchasing all places in custodial facilities for young people aged between 10 and 17. The Youth Justice Board contracts with 14 young offender institutions (YOIs)¹ (currently providing 83 per cent of placements and contracted largely through the Prison Service), about 15 local authority secure children’s homes (LASCHs), and four secure training centres (STCs) provided by the private sector.

The type and location of the secure facility in which a young person is detained will depend on the age and needs of the young person and the availability of places at the time they are sentenced. Young people who are under 15 will not be detained in a YOI, but in one of the other types of facilities, depending upon specific need.

There are three YOIs that currently cater specifically for young women. Young women make up 6 per cent of the custodial population. The Youth Justice Board also has a responsibility for setting standards and monitoring the performance of the youth justice system, including 155 local Youth Offending Teams (Yots).

In 2004 just over 6,500 young people between the ages of 12 and 17 spent time in custody, with a similar figure predicted for 2005.

The overwhelming majority (over 90 per cent) are aged 15 and over with around 60 per cent being over statutory school leaving age. Most young people in this age bracket are unlikely to return to full-time school settings, and with the changes to the 14–19 curriculum are much more likely to receive provision from FE colleges and community-based training providers.

While this Guide focuses primarily on provision in the juvenile secure estate for 15–17 year olds, it should be noted that the majority of sentenced young people are on detention and training orders (DTOs).

This is where half the sentence is served in custody and half is supervised by Yots in the community. This means that while approximately 1,700 young people are serving the custodial part of a DTO, the same number of young people will be serving the second part of the sentence in the community. The remainder of young people are serving longer sentences or are remanded to custody.

¹Many of the YOIs with which the Youth Justice Board contracts also provide for young offenders aged 18-21. For these people, the learning and skills provision is separate and does not fall within the Youth Justice Board's remit.

CURRENT ISSUES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AT RISK OF OFFENDING OR RE-OFFENDING

There are four main areas where there appear to be significant links between education and offending by young people (Stephenson, 2005):

• educational under-achievement, particularly with respect to literacy and numeracy
• detachment from mainstream education
• the impact of custodial sentences and care episodes
• the efficacy of school organisation.

Figure 2: Inter-related educational risk factors and youth crime

It is likely that these four aspects have complex and negative inter-relationships. For instance, the barrier to learning represented by low levels of basic educational attainment, in particular in relation to literacy and numeracy, is likely to be a significant factor in pushing young people out of formal learning. Once outside mainstream education, of course, a young person’s attainment will tend to fall even further behind and they become more seriously involved with youth offending services (ibid).

Findings from the Youth Justice Board's review of the education and training experiences of young people on DTOs indicated the following:

• Over 50 per cent of young people on DTOs have literacy and numeracy levels below those of the average 11 year old.
• Some 19 per cent were functioning at or below the level of the average seven year old in literacy and 31 per cent below that level in numeracy.
• 80 per cent of young people receiving custodial sentences had no qualifications.

(ECOTEC, 2001)

While this report also found that for some young people the volume of education they received in custody increased, and that for many young people there was a positive shift in attitudes towards formal education, there were some negative consequences. Between one quarter and one-third were not in education, training or employment (NEET) immediately before they went into custody. This figure had risen to nearly 60 per cent by the time of their release into the community, on average only three months later. When young people did continue in education, there was a 70 per cent discontinuity in the courses and materials they followed compared to those undertaken in custody (ECOTEC, 2001).

The relationship between low attainment in literacy and numeracy and offending behaviour is unclear, although likely associated links are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Suggested links between low attainment in literacy and numeracy and offending behaviour

The link with employability is an important one in terms of this Guide. Here, we emphasise the importance of developing the functional skills required for long term employability and lifelong learning, fundamental to which is the development of sound literacy and numeracy skills.

Custody itself appears to have some innate weaknesses that reduce protective factors and increase risks in relation to educational detachment and offending behaviour (Stephenson, 2005).

• It curtails decision-making and planning skills in those who need them the most.
• Learning is provided in such an abnormal environment that the subsequent application of this learning in the community is extremely limited.
• By removing from formal education young people who have only a tenuous attachment to it (even if only in a pupil referral unit with part-time provision), further dislocation is caused for a young person, their parents or carers and the relevant professionals.

These difficulties are further compounded by:

• the stigma attached to young people who have been in custody on return to community-based provision
• a lack of information about any learning gains made while the young person is in custody
• the lack of integration between the individual learning plan and the wider sentence planning process, coupled with the poor transmission of key information between custodial and community providers
• difficulties in establishing stable learning groups within custodial establishments due to population churn (roughly ‘turnover’) resulting from a large number of short sentences and the transfer of young people between establishments
• the high turnover rate of staff working in custodial establishments.

A STRATEGIC APPROACH

In recognition of the importance of learning and skills provision in helping prevent offending and re-offending by children and young people, the Youth Justice Board has adopted a strategic approach towards the access, participation and progression of young people in suitable, full-time education, training and employment. The aim of this approach is to counter the potentially negative impact of custody on educational progress made by young people.

The Youth Justice Board has set a series of demanding targets which are incorporated in its Corporate Plan and Business Plan (Youth Justice Board, 2004) for both Youth Offending Teams (Yots) and the juvenile secure estate. The target relating to education is to:

ensure that at least 90 per cent of young offenders are in suitable, full-time education, training and employment during and at the end of sentence by March 2006, and good resettlement plans covering accommodation are in place for young people leaving secure facilities.

There are 13 performance indicators set for Yots, at least four of which are closely related to the effective delivery of education and training to young people on a DTO. These are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Yot performance indicators for education and training for young people on DTOs

The above performance indicators for Yots are paralleled by the Youth Justice Board's eight performance indicators for secure facilities. Four of these relate to education and training, shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Youth Justice Board performance indicators for education and training in secure facilities

In 2001 the Youth Justice Board produced a detailed national specification for learning and skills for young people on a DTO. This document set out the requirements for the delivery of learning and skills in a YOI. The requirements of the national specification have now been incorporated in the Offender’s Learning Journey (Juveniles), which is available on the DfES website.

This document is to be reviewed in the near future, although it is currently the basis for the delivery of the new integrated Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) managed by the LSC and currently being trialled in three areas.

In recognition of the crisis of attainment in relation to literacy and numeracy amongst young people who offend, and its importance as a risk factor in their offending, the Youth Justice Board has also devised and introduced the PLUS strategy ,which is funded jointly with the Offenders Learning and Skills Unit (OLSU) and Arts Council England.

PLUS comes under the umbrella of the Skills for Life strategy, although its remit applies additionally to young people below the school-leaving age. The initial priorities are young people on DTOs and intensive supervision and surveillance programmes (ISSPs).

The aim of the PLUS strategy is to:

raise significantly the literacy and numeracy levels of children and young people in order to prevent crime.

It is underpinned by seven core principles.

• All young people are entitled to access, participate and progress in mainstream education in order to acquire essential literacy and numeracy skills.
• All staff working in the youth justice system, and others working with children and young people at risk of (re-)offending, have a role in identifying those young people who lack literacy and numeracy skills and offering them information, advice and/or guidance as to how to acquire them.
• All educationalists have a role in preventing (re-)offending by assisting young people to acquire essential literacy and numeracy skills.
• The views of young people will be taken into account in the development of all relevant resources.
• Full account will be taken of the diverse learning and cultural needs of the staff and young people participating in the PLUS strategy.
• All developments will be rooted in an evidence-based approach.
• The views of parents and carers regarding PLUS will be taken into account whenever possible, when further developing the strategy.

There are five strands that comprise the PLUS strategy, shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Five strands of the PLUS strategy

• Resources: high-quality paper- and ICT-based resources that are accessible and engaging for learners and relevant for teaching staff. Enrichment materials for use by any practitioner in the youth justice system.
• Learning and development: training and staff development programmes to support all relevant staff in the implementation of the PLUS strategy.
• Information and advice: assisting managers to plan and review the effectiveness of their implementation of the PLUS strategy within secure and community settings throughout the DTO, in ISSP and preventative programmes.
• Research and evaluation: development of the evidence base through continuous assessment of the effectiveness of teaching and learning resources, interventions and learning and development programmes.
• Promotion and advocacy: encouraging a clearer understanding of issues related to literacy, numeracy and language, re-offending, participation and progression.

(ECOTEC, 2004)

THE SCOPE OF THIS GUIDE

This Guide is designed to help providers achieve excellence in their literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision for learners in the juvenile secure estate. By taking each of the five questions in the Common Inspection Framework in turn, it is designed to help providers interpret the requirements of the Common Inspection Framework and the adult basic skills curricula for provision in communication, reading, writing and numeracy.

The Guide also sets out the characteristics of promising approaches² in literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision, in particular by drawing on real examples. The examples are designed to give staff practical help and ideas for improving their literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision. It also makes reference to Skills for Life and PLUS strategy documents that providers might find useful in improving their practice.

We wanted this series of guides to offer practical help to providers and practitioners – a ‘How to’ guide that would really focus on what works. For that reason, as well as providing sample materials that can be adapted for different learning environments, the guides illustrate what success might look like. For example, how do we know when a learner has made an important new step in their learning? What might be the outcomes of a successful initial assessment?

The short descriptions of the progress made by real learners in real situations help to answer such questions.

Finally, the guides all highlight comments from inspectors on this area of work in inspection reports and other documents. These extracts are included to help readers gain an insight into how Ofsted and the ALI evaluate and report on this context for learning.

²Within the Youth Justice Board effective practice strategy, the terms 'best practice' and 'good practice' are not used. The evidence base is currently inconclusive with regard to what could be termed 'effective practice' in relation to learning and skills provision. Reference is therefore made to 'promising' approaches to practice.

WHAT IS SUCCESS IN THE JUVENILE SECURE ESTATE CONTEXT?

In research terms what is known, as revealed by meta-analyses, is that the most effective intervention programmes for reducing (re-)offending are those that help young people who offend to enter and sustain themselves within the labour market (Lipsey, 1995).

Success in the juvenile secure estate context, therefore, depends on equipping young people with the skills they need in order to access, participate in and make good long-term progress in suitable, full-time education, training and employment (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Relationship between attainment in literacy, numeracy and language and preventing offending

Within custodial establishments catering for juveniles, this means ensuring that:

• each young person receives the volume of literacy, numeracy and language input required to ensure learning gains across all courses and programmes
• there is a robust assessment and individual learning planning process that spans custody and community with the timely transmission of essential information about literacy, numeracy and language attainment levels, learning gains and barriers to learning to those who need to know it
• all learning programmes reflect a young person’s educational history before custody and their aspirations and long-term aims on release
• there is continuity and consistency of literacy, numeracy and language programmes, approaches and materials between custodial provision and that based in the community
• there is sufficient learning support for those young people who need it, but this fosters greater planning and independent learning skills
• all staff – teachers, vocational tutors, prison officers, learning support assistants – working in support of a young person understand their role in raising the attainment levels of individuals and are suitably knowledgeable and skilled to do this.

In short, success in the juvenile secure estate context would mean realising the vision laid out in the national specification for learning and skills (Youth Justice Board, 2001) which is:

to establish high-quality centres of learning where the young people are held in secure conditions – YOIs.