5A: How to achieve success in leadership and management

Management commitment

Managers must have a clear understanding of what constitutes effective practice in literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision, and a sound knowledge of appropriate criteria against which to judge its quality and its relevance to all learning provision within their establishment. Leadership should be strong and responsive.

Senior management must provide a clear strategic direction. The training needs of prisoners with fragile literacy, numeracy and language skills must not be seen as the sole responsibility of teachers who are sometimes unable to influence change. Senior management support is crucial to success.

The heads of learning and skills have overall responsibility for integrating literacy, numeracy and ESOL into the vocational areas of each establishment and ensuring that learning and accreditation are available in every area of the prison.

They must also ensure that they are responsive to the needs of employers and the economy. They have responsibility for the self-assessment process, and quality assurance. Rigorous analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of education and training provision should lead to continuous improvement. In turn, this should lead to improved grades in the inspection process, which is underpinned by accurate self-assessment.

Quality improvements

The LSC Skills for Life Quality Initiative has been particularly useful in adding an important dimension to quality improvement in the prisons.

The ‘six-stage process for quality improvement’ has meant prison providers using the initiative have well co-ordinated programmes with strong evidence of coherence, strategic planning and leadership.

Good providers use management information, targets and performance indicators as criteria for improving their literacy, numeracy and ESOL provision. Good prison education providers also make full use of the range of materials designed to demonstrate effective practice in teaching and learning, learners’ achievements, guidance and support, curriculum organisation and management, quality assurance and staff development.

The trained facilitators are particularly useful, not only to advise on processes that ensure high-quality basic skills provision, but also to carry out staff training to reduce the ever-increasing workload of prison co-ordinators and managers in this area.

Quality assurance procedures must be well documented and understood by all prison staff, and systems for monitoring the performance of staff should be robust. The procedures should enable managers to identify poor performance and to take appropriate action to resolve difficulties in a sensitive and supportive way.

Challenging targets for recruitment, retention and achievement rates should be set for individual courses, and progress towards the targets should be measured at team meetings. In the best practice, providers’ self-assessment procedures are sufficiently rigorous to allow staff to appraise the quality of their own work and to develop action plans to remedy any problems that are identified through this self-appraisal process.

All prison education providers should put in place similar systems to appraise the performance of staff, reward their strengths, identify areas for development and provide the necessary support to enable them to improve their performance.

Providers must ensure that their Skills for Life action plan is linked to the organisation’s strategic aims. The corporate approach to management is the key to creating a structure that will facilitate the development of a consistent approach to literacy, numeracy and ESOL support across the curriculum.

Lesson observations

One prison contractor has developed rigorous procedures for teaching and learning observations in line with the requirements of the Common Inspection Framework. All documentation relating to teaching observations has been revised to ensure that observers examine closely the basic skills elements in vocational programmes. Schemes of work, lesson plans and tutorial documentation now include a section for tutors to incorporate literacy, numeracy and language development.

Every member of staff is observed annually by a trained observer and comprehensive feedback is given to all observed tutors, orally and in writing.

Prisoners are given the opportunity to comment on the quality of the tuition they receive by completing a learner perception questionnaire. Action points arising from the observations are used to improve the quality of provision.

An appraisal of the observed teacher must take place within 20 days of the observed session. Teachers have commented on the supportive nature of the teaching and learning observation framework.

All prison education providers should put in place similar systems to appraise the performance of staff, reward their strengths, identify areas for development and provide the necessary support to enable them to improve their performance.

Professional development for staff

There must be established procedures for staff training and development in the use of good-quality resources that will support effective practice in teaching and learning. Continuous professional development in this area will ensure that teachers understand how class, disability, gender, age, race and religion affect the development of skills in literacy, numeracy and ESOL.

The Access for All training and guidance documents are proving particularly useful in ensuring that all prison teachers, including those who work part time, are meeting the diverse needs of prisoners.

The learning environment

Effective providers do all they can to ensure that the learning environment in the prison has a positive influence on the teaching and learning that takes place. The classroom atmosphere is friendly and non-threatening to both staff and prisoners. Unacceptable behaviour must be challenged and teachers should maintain a friendly yet professional relationship with prisoners.

Careful attention must be paid to health and safety issues to ensure that the physical environment does indeed enhance learning.

A full range of resources including books, CDs, videos and audio-tapes should be freely available to support prisoners’ learning needs. Effective practice relies upon a well-stocked library, one that is regularly monitored and updated, with adequate study areas for prisoners wherever possible.