4A: How to achieve success in guidance and support

Information, advice and guidance

There must be well-established procedures in place to advise, guide and support prisoners with literacy, numeracy and ESOL needs. Rigour must be applied to entry, advice and induction arrangements to enable prisoners to access suitable programmes of study within the prison establishment. Advice offered to prisoners must be given with utmost sensitivity and care, as these learners are likely to feel the stigma of their particular circumstance, in addition to that associated with literacy, numeracy and ESOL needs. At induction, prisoners must be given clearly stated entitlements, including a detailed description of the range of support that is available to them.

Prisoners must also be given appropriate advice and guidance to prepare them for release. Information on progression opportunities and advice on appropriate courses should be made available to prisoners.

Prisoners should be given the opportunity to reflect on their learning and discuss possible progression routes. Aspirations and personal circumstances should be examined sensitively. Opportunities that can be explored include voluntary work, further education and self- or other employment. Arrangements must be made for prisoners to attend interviews on release, as part of the release on temporary licence (ROTL) procedure. This should be recorded in the Resettlement File.

Assessment and induction

The processes of screening, initial and diagnostic assessments must be effective and thorough. The interview stage is particularly important in offering prisoners the opportunity to highlight their perceived needs and concerns so that the necessary support can to be put in place. Attitudes to reading, writing and number skills, including previous learning experiences, will be established at this stage.

Specific barriers faced by prisoners whose first language is not English are usually highlighted in the interview. Extra value needs to be placed on prisoners’ perception of their strengths, as building on learners’ strengths is easily the most effective key to skills and knowledge development. Teachers must also spend time exploring prisoners’ goals, aspirations and ambitions, giving accurate, impartial advice as appropriate. This can only happen if teachers themselves are clear as to the range of support services available and properly understand prisoners’ entitlements to them. Teachers must also be aware of partnership links with other agencies. Prisoners must feel valued throughout the assessment process.

All prisoners should take part in an induction programme on arrival in prison. This may include input from staff from various departments in the prison, such as health care staff, drugs workers, the chaplaincy, staff in vocational workshops and teaching and support staff. Information is given to prisoners about the opportunities that exist for them to improve their skills while they are serving their sentence.

Specialist services

While it is acknowledged that access to a wide range of specialist services, in a place and at a time appropriate to prisoners’ individual needs, may sometimes be restricted by the constraints of the regime, best practice should strive to ensure that all prisoners have access to specialist support services. These would include, for example, Carats (that is, Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice, Throughcare, Service), the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (Nacro), the Careers Service, the chaplaincy and The Samaritans.

Entitlement

All prisoners must be made aware of their entitlement to high-quality literacy, numeracy and language support that is suited to their particular needs. Following screening, initial and diagnostic assessments, any prisoner identified as needing support must be offered an individually planned programme of learning which offers them the possibility of progress. The ILP, with clearly defined targets for skills development, is a key dimension of any planned programme of learning. The literacy, numeracy and ESOL curricula will enable teachers to reference targets effectively, adding rigour to the review process.

Feedback

Prisoners must be offered regular, prompt and constructive feedback, which will contribute to the recording of achievements. In reviewing ILPs with learners, sensitive, relevant feedback and encouragement is needed to enable prisoners to improve and extend their skills. Teachers must aim to raise prisoners’ self-esteem and confidence in preparation for release.

Staff training

The use of skilful and well trained support staff is particularly effective for prisoners with very poor literacy, numeracy and language skills, who may benefit from one-to-one support. Raising awareness of teaching and learning styles must be supported through staff development for teachers in the prisons. Teachers must be aware of the implications of the range of learning styles for curriculum planning and delivery. Models used must be simple and meaningful to all staff and prisoners alike. Models should match the skills, expertise and knowledge of those using them. More information on staff training appears under CIF Question 2.

Learning styles

All staff need to be trained to translate the messages which prisoners give them about their learning, as they are unlikely to be able to define their learning styles from the outset. Teachers must recognise that their preferred style of teaching may not match a prisoner’s preferred style of learning, and they must be prepared to offer a variety of teaching styles so that no individual prisoner is significantly disadvantaged. There is a balance to be achieved, however, and teachers must appreciate, that while learners may have preferred learning styles, they will need to obtain information using a variety of styles in order to be prepared for lifelong learning. The Skills for Life learning materials and the Access for All training both offer useful ideas for helping teachers understand the different learning styles, by interpreting the comments made by different types of learners.

Vocational literacy, numeracy and language

In offering support, teachers in literacy, numeracy and language need to work creatively and collaboratively with vocational specialists to ensure that the literacy, numeracy and language needs of learners on occupational programmes of study are met. This will increase literacy, numeracy and language teachers’ knowledge of vocational courses, giving them increased confidence and credibility.

Multiple gains occur for all staff and learners when vocational staff work in partnership with basic or key skills specialist staff to plan courses and assignments.