CURRENT ISSUES IN PROVISION FOR PRISON INMATES
Many prisoners lack basic skills, so the Skills for Life strategy is central to education in a prison context. For too many prisoners, education has been a negative experience, so motivating them to learn by making learning relevant is crucial. The resettlement needs of prisoners are central to prison life, with emphasis placed on the basic skills that prisoners will require on release to cope with everyday life and find employment. Skills for Life is therefore integral to education in prisons, whether this takes place in the gym, vocational workshops, kitchens, estates, farms and gardens, offending behaviour programmes or in the education department.
The needs of the individual learner must be at the heart of learning programmes. This is particularly necessary for prisoners, many of whom may have opted out of institutional learning at an early age. The Skills for Life strategy has enabled teachers to identify and address specific and individual needs more effectively. This initiative, with its corresponding investment in resources, has raised the profile of basic skills across the prison estate. Prisoners now have greater access to opportunities for improving their basic skills. This may be achieved in an education department, in a work situation or at an appropriate educational establishment, whilst released on temporary licence.
The context in which prisoners are held varies according to different degrees of security. Prisons hold remand, convicted or sentenced prisoners in high-security, closed or open prisons. Local prisons serve the courts, and many prisons offer the opportunity to acquire specific vocational skills. Particular prisons cater for those who have committed a specific type of crime, for example sex offenders. Adults, young offenders or juveniles, both male and female, are educated within prisons.
Even though a number of factors may impact on the achievements of inmates within prisons, good-quality provision takes account of these issues. Learning may be particularly difficult within a prison context as some prisoners may be experiencing withdrawal symptoms from substance abuse, or may have learning difficulties or disabilities. In addition, there are the human problems of being separated from family and friends, and the emotional problems relating to a loss of freedom. The broader prison service requirements have to take precedence and security is paramount. The prison population is transitory by its nature, caused by security issues, over-crowding or movement according to prisoners’ sentence needs.
The education process can be disrupted by establishment requirements, for example, by the timetabling of legal or personal visits, access to gym, library, religious activities or offending behaviour programmes. In addition, access to education is denied to some prisoners because they are assessed as being too great a security risk. In such circumstances, efforts are made to provide education in the interests of equality of opportunity. However, recent inspection reports have identified that this is an area for the development of good practice.
Since 2003, the Prison Service has recognised the need for integrating education and training throughout the prison establishment by creating the post of head of learning and skills. These post-holders have responsibility for self-assessment and quality assurance for all training and education, wherever it takes place in the prison. Skills for Life has been central in providing a cohesive framework for the development of good practice.
The creation of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) in 2004 integrated the Prison Service and the Probation Service. The focus of the new service is to ensure a seamless transition from custody to successful resettlement in communities. The individual learning plan (ILP) which has been formulated for the offender transfers with him or her, either between prisons, or on release. It informs the sentence plan for the offender, and therefore the throughcare plan, which maps the offender’s longer term goals and the steps contributing to those goals. When an offender is due for release, his or her sentence plan, individual learning plan and other records are sent to the prison resettlement unit. The resettlement unit prepares offenders for release, through risk assessment, jobsearch advice, referral to specialist support and assisting them towards employment. Staff from the resettlement unit liaise with probation staff to ensure onward transmission of the records.
The Skills for Life strategy has been crucial in raising the awareness of Prison Service personnel to the central role that basic skills play in enhancing life chances. New initiatives have been piloted throughout the Prison Service to raise standards, enhance student opportunities and improve employability. For example, the Plus Project aims to improve individuals’ life chances. The project adopts a holistic approach, and deals with the issues of accommodation, offending and addictive behaviour, and mentors are support individuals into employment. Another example is the Pathfinder Project, which aimed to embed the Skills for Life strategy in a prison context. In addition, for those who have not been committed to prison, but placed on a community service order, Skills for Life is central to informing personal development plans to address offending behaviour and education and training needs.
In order to support the more integrated approach to developing education and training in correctional settings, funding for it is being transferred to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). There are currently three pilot projects running in the North East, North West and South West to explore how contracts can be let to supply particular needs. From August 2006, all funding for offender education and training in England and Wales will transfer to the national LSC. This work will be devolved to local LSCs who will oversee and manage provision. The LSC will play a lead role, drawing together the Prison Service, Probation Service, Youth Justice Board, Jobcentre Plus and other partners to put offender education and training on the same footing as the rest of post-16 education.
THE SCOPE OF THIS GUIDE
This Guide is designed to help providers achieve excellence in their literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision for learners in prisons. By taking each of the five questions of the Common Inspection Framework for Inspecting Education and Training 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 prisoners, in particular by drawing on real examples. The examples are designed to give staff in colleges 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.
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 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), Ofsted and the ALI evaluate and report on this context for learning.
INSPECTION IN PRISONS
HMIP uses the Common Inspection Framework to make judgements about the quality of education and training provision in individual establishments. Inspections may be announced in advance, or unannounced. Prison inspection reports can be found at the Home Office website.
WHAT IS SUCCESS IN THE PRISONS CONTEXT?
Skills for Life can have a dramatic impact on prisoners’ lives, and contribute to a reduction in recidivism. Some prisoners gain a qualification for the first time, leading to an increase in self-esteem, confidence and personal effectiveness. Such developments can improve family relationships, and help break the cycle of crime. Teachers can give examples of how improved basic skills have changed people’s lives for the better. For example, at one local prison for men, prisoners have recorded story tapes for their children to listen to at home. Better basic skills also increase the possibility of prisoners gaining employment upon release. One male prisoner, who had served more than one custodial sentence, was encouraged to improve his basic skills in an open prison, subsequently gaining employment on release as a facilitator working with students with learning difficulties and disabilities. Prisoners have said:
Without having basic skills support, I wouldn’t have tried to get my dumper truck qualification, because I wouldn’t have thought I could do it.
When I came in here, I couldn’t read; now I can write home to my girlfriend and she’s proud of me.
Doing the City and Guilds 9282 qualification has helped me to focus on other people’s problems instead of being stuck in my own.
I couldn’t read when I came into prison, and now I have passed my Entry Level 2 test with the help of another prisoner who had done a teaching qualification in this education department.
