The sector must ensure that adult learners have greater access to excellent provision for basic skills, training for work and learning for personal development.
When I left school, I thought I’d do something like get a job in a shop, keep a low profile, be a mum. I didn’t think education was for people like me. But I was wrong.
It’s a safe place to make mistakes.
KEY BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Correctional Services Review, published in January 2004, announced the creation of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). Central to NOMS is the principle of offender management. The focus of NOMS is the coherent, consistent and constructive supervision of offenders throughout their entire sentence, whether in the community, in prison, or both. NOMS brings together the National Probation Service (NPS) and the Prison Service to ensure that progress made in prison is continued in the community, and that reducing re-offending is a top priority. An offender manager has responsibility for planning the offender’s supervision, at every stage, so that an offender’s sentence is ‘seamless’ (Home Office, 2005).
There has been a systematic focus on improving the literacy, numeracy and ESOL skills of offenders on community supervision since April 2001. This is because there are clear links between improving offenders’ literacy, numeracy and ESOL skills, and the NOMS’ strategy for improving offenders employability and reducing re-offending. Evidence highlights the relationships between good literacy, numeracy and ESOL skills (McMahon et al., 2004) and being in employment Lipsey, 1995). Evidence also underlines direct relationships between being in employment and desistance from offending. Education therefore can play an important part in reducing re-offending.
In April 2004, a new partnership was formed between the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Unit (OLSU), the NPS and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), to support improvement in the delivery of learning and skills to offenders on community supervision. The OLSU has lead responsibility for policy development for learning and skills provision for offenders on community supervision, and for reviewing and evaluating the progress made towards policy aims (DfES et al., 2004; Home Office, 2004a). The LSC has responsibility for planning and funding Skills for Life for offenders (Home Office, 2004a). The NPS and the LSC have day-to-day responsibility for the delivery of learning and skills to offenders on community supervision in England (DfES et al., 2004). Different arrangements have been made for offenders on community supervision in Wales, as the remit of the DfES and the LSC does not extend there.
The development of the new Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) is consistent with the principles of the NOMS. The OLASS aims to provide an integrated learning and skills service across custody and the community and so to ensure that offenders’ progress in education and training is maximised. The OLASS is led by the LSC. The OLASS is being rolled out in two stages. The first consisted of three development regions: the South West, the North West and the North East. From January 2005, these three regions developed a fully integrated service, which went live in August 2005. It is planned that, in the six remaining regions in England, the new integrated service will be fully developed by August 2006.
The NPS prepares reports on offenders to assist courts in sentencing. These are collectively known as pre-sentence reports (PSRs). The NPS also supervises offenders aged over 18 on community sentences and on licence after release from prison. In 2002, 127,500 offenders started community sentences and 50,500 offenders started pre- or post-release (from custody) supervision (Home Office, 2004b). In any one year, the NPS supervises approximately 200,000 offenders who are aged over 18. In this Guide, ‘community supervision’ and ‘supervised in the community’ refer to offenders on community sentences and offenders on post-release licence.
As a result of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, a new sentencing framework was introduced in April 2005. A single community sentence, known as the generic community sentence or the community order, replaced previous adult community orders (NPS, 2004). Within the generic community sentence, 12 requirements are available to sentencers. Requirements for offenders include, for instance, specified activities, including literacy, numeracy and ESOL, drug rehabilitation, alcohol treatment, and unpaid work (NPS, 2004). All offenders on a generic community sentence should have access to literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision, where appropriate, irrespective of whether they are on post-release licence supervision, or a community sentence.
For 2005-06, the targets for offenders on community supervision are for 40,000 starts on literacy, numeracy and ESOL programmes and 10,000 qualifications in literacy, numeracy and ESOL.
CURRENT ISSUES IN PROVISION FOR OFFENDERS ON COMMUNITY SUPERVISION
Offenders supervised in the community are one of the Skills for Life priority groups. A higher percentage of offenders have literacy and numeracy needs, than the percentage of adults with literacy and numeracy needs in the general population (McMahon et al., 2004). Many offenders have other risk factors potentially linked to social exclusion. Many are unemployed or in low-skilled employment. Many have problems with drug, substance and/or alcohol misuse. Lack of accommodation and lack of stable family relationships can also be issues. Most offenders have had negative experiences of school. These include leaving school with no or low qualifications, truancy and temporary and permanent exclusion from school (McMahon et al., 2004). When considering how effectively to improve offenders’ literacy, numeracy and ESOL skills, there is therefore a range of potential barriers to learning for providers to take into account.
This means that motivating offenders on community supervision to take up and regularly attend learning programmes needs careful consideration. Where to base provision is a key issue. Provision for offenders can be at a range of locations, including probation offices, probation hostels, the workplace, further education (FE) colleges and other community settings. Where provision is not on probation premises, offenders may be in groups with learners who are not on probation supervision. To re-engage offenders in learning, it is sometimes appropriate for provision to be initially on familiar probation premises, before supporting them in moving to community-based provision. Providers need to consider carefully how they can create a learning environment in probation offices, which were not designed for educational purposes. Many offenders find going into a college daunting. They therefore usually need particularly careful support to bridge the gap between probation-based and college-based provision. Offenders may also need support to ensure they attend their learning programme regularly.
Individual learning plans (ILPs) should take into account the range of potential issues which can impact on offenders’ learning, yet at the same time set challenging, engaging learning goals and targets for offenders. Skilful providers can use the potential barriers offenders face as motivational tools. If offenders understand that improving their literacy, numeracy and ESOL skills can help them to address other problems in their lives, gain employment and stop offending, they will be more likely to engage purposefully in learning.
It is important that there is a range of learning opportunities for offenders to meet Skills for Life needs at different levels. The Skills for Life developments in embedded learning are important in demonstrating to offenders that learning can be relevant to, for example, their employment goals. The Move On approach is appropriate for learners who need to brush up on their skills to obtain the national tests at Levels 1 and 2. Other learners will make small steps, such as learning to fill in a form or write a letter. These steps may enable learners subsequently to work towards and achieve national qualifications. To maximise learning gains during community supervision, structures should be in place to enable offenders to take up learning at the start of supervision. Where feasible, there should also be opportunities for offenders to continue learning after the supervision ends.
To enable providers to address effectively the literacy, numeracy and ESOL needs of offenders on community supervision, it is important that teaching and support staff receive appropriate continuing professional development (CPD). This should include not only Skills for Life issues, but also relevant aspects of the NPS and the effective management of offenders, including managing challenging behaviour.
To maximise offenders’ progress in literacy, numeracy and ESOL, there must be effective, structured liaison between providers and relevant probation staff, such as the offender manager, at strategic and operational levels. Careful strategic planning should ensure that provision appropriately caters for offenders at a range of skill levels. Providers should regularly analyse data on offenders’ attendance and progress, at group and individual offender level, and share this with relevant provider and probation staff, such as the offender manager. Providers should inform probation staff immediately about non-attendance at literacy, numeracy and ESOL classes, so that the offender manager can follow up issues with offenders promptly. There should be effective mechanisms to transfer information between prisons, probation, providers and other relevant organisations, so that offenders can build on previous learning.
The Learning and Skills Advisers from the OLSU, relevant staff from the National Probation Directorate (NPD) and the LSC and Regional Directors from the Skills for Life Strategy Unit have important roles to play in supporting providers in the continuous improvement of literacy, numeracy and ESOL for offenders on community supervision. Provider organisations should ensure that appropriate connections are made with relevant regional representatives.
There is a range of Skills for Life initiatives for offenders on community supervision. These include an OLSU-led project on embedded learning for offenders. This has focused on research and developmental activity on how non-specialist staff in the criminal justice system use their speaking and listening skills in work with offenders. There are plans to publish a range of modules on different aspects of speaking and listening, targeted at staff working in a wide range of roles with offenders, including Skills for Life tutors. Within the DfES-funded Maths4Life project, there has been an Institute of Education pathfinder which has explored how practitioners use their speaking and listening skills to motivate offenders on community supervision and in custody to take up numeracy provision (www.nrdc.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_727.pdf pp.12-13).
There are many other Skills for Life initiatives that are relevant to offenders on community supervision. These include the learning difficulties and/or disabilities pathfinder and the findings from other Skills for Life pathfinders, both led by the Skills for Life Strategy Unit (for example DfES, 2002, 2003). Those involved in delivering Skills for Life to offenders on community supervision should draw upon Skills for Life developments to improve the quality of literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision for offenders.
In November 2003, the Home Office commissioned the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) to review literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision in a sample of probation areas. ALI inspectors visited 15 probation areas in England and 2 in Wales. The review (ALI, 2004) concluded that, although in some probation areas offenders had achieved qualifications, overall there was insufficient consistency in the standard of arrangements for literacy, numeracy and ESOL for offenders on community supervision. The Government published its response (OLSU/NPS, 2004) to the ALI review, outlining its planned actions to address the ALI’s recommendations.
The ALI is currently developing its plans for the inspection of learning and skills for offenders on community supervision. For providers, the ALI inspection toolkit is a very useful document. It sets out in hardcopy and on CD everything a provider can expect to happen pre-, during and post-inspection. It is available at the ALI website: www.ali.gov.uk/htm/excalibur.htm
THE SCOPE OF THIS GUIDE
This Guide is designed to help providers achieve excellence in their literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision for learners on community supervision. 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 best practice in literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision for family learning, 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.
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.
The other guides in this series also highlight comments that have been made in inspection reports. At the time of writing this Guide, the ALI was in the process of developing its plans for the inspection of literacy, numeracy and ESOL for offenders on community supervision. For this reason, this Guide does not include extracts from inspection reports. Providers may find the extracts published in the other guides useful until more specific examples become available.
WHAT IS SUCCESS IN THE CONTEXT OF OFFENDERS ON COMMUNITY SUPERVISION?
I know I shouldn’t say this but I’m glad now that I offended, to get this specialist help.
Skills for Life can have a very positive effect on the lives of offenders on community supervision, in a range of ways. Skills for Life can increase offenders’ self-confidence and sense of achievement. Through Skills for Life, offenders can gain qualifications, sometimes for the first time in their lives. Improving literacy, numeracy and ESOL skills can help offenders gain and stay in employment. Employment can in turn help prevent offenders re-offending. Offenders can learn to communicate more effectively with others. This can reduce their frustration and help to improve their relationships with family, friends, and, while they are on community supervision, with probation staff. Through Skills for Life, offenders can re-engage successfully in learning, and be motivated to continue learning, after the supervision ends.
Offenders on community supervision, managers and teachers have many success stories to tell of offenders’ experience of literacy, numeracy and ESOL. One offender told us:
I’ve just finished my Level 2 numeracy. I’m going to go to college when I’ve got my English. And when I’ve got it, I’m going to hold my head up, because I’ll know that I’m as good as the rest of them.
An offender on community supervision was working on drawing a door to scale. He said:
Everyone says I’m thick. I’m measuring the door, and doin’ me sums. I’ve got me English [certificate at Entry Level 2]. It’s in a frame on my wall at home. It’s the first thing I’ve ever got.
His ETE manager added:
To him, [the certificate] is an achievement - like getting a degree might be for someone else.
Another manager cited the case of an offender on a community rehabilitation order with an ETE condition attached. The offender had been excluded from school. At the beginning of his sentence, the offender was at Entry Level 3. Nine months later, he had taken the national test at Level 1 and was almost ready to take the national test at Level 2.
A literacy and numeracy teacher commented:
I had one student who, over a 10-month period, achieved all four qualifications in the OCR [the Oxford and Cambridge RSA] literacy Levels 1 and 2 and numeracy Levels 1 and 2. The great thing about this client is that he is now working for a neighbourhood agency. He had helped them to write to their MP over a local issue. This shows that we had given him his confidence back and the skills to be able to help others.
