4B: What is ‘success’ in guidance and support?

One prison offers extra support to learners with specific difficulties such as dyslexia, and all teachers who support these learners are well qualified and receive relevant specialist training in offering guidance to prisoners with differing needs.

Some teachers have gained qualifications in counselling skills, and all personal teachers receive training to support prisoners’ needs as part of the tutorial process.

Every prisoner accessing education must have a named personal teacher responsible for ensuring that they have access to appropriate advice and support to enable them to complete their programme of study.

 

Lorraine, who is at a women’s closed prison, is making chilli con carne in the cookery class. After some initial reluctance, she called us back to take this picture.

Lorraine says, ‘Since I have come to this class I have learned how to weigh and cook. I have also been to a computer class and I have done some art.

‘Since I have been in here I have done a detox 1. I’d like to educate myself. It’s like I was on drugs outside, but while I have been in here I can use the computer so when I go outside I can find work. I will be able to write on my application form that I can use a computer!’

One institution has produced careers guidelines and support in the form of a staff resource pack. This has ensured that all personal teachers are equipped with useful sources of information, advice and guidance to assist them in meeting a prisoner’s needs in ways that most benefit the individual. The prison has a clear policy for life skills and careers education and guidance.

A named senior manager is responsible for guidance and support within the prison establishment. The policy states that inmates can only realise their full potential when they are empowered to make their own personal and career decisions based on an understanding of themselves, their skills and their aptitudes.

A planned programme of careers education and guidance and social and life skills, including access to relevant, up-to-date careers information, with measurable targets to track individual progression, is offered to all inmates. Strong and collaborative links are maintained with other agencies such as Connexions and the local Careers Service.

Annual reviews and an evaluation of the programme are carried out. Action points arising from these evaluation processes are set to ensure continuous improvement.

In one prison, basic and key skills teachers are increasingly involved in supporting vocational staff in planning assignments that will highlight the basic and key skills elements of vocational programmes. This clearly helps teachers to draw out the underpinning skills they need to teach, and prisoners learn the transferable skills and knowledge they need.

This has meant an effective professional development process for vocational teachers, who are now finding the adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL curricula and Access for All useful resources for supporting the process of teaching and learning. Teachers on vocational programmes have found the integrated activities particularly useful, and are increasingly responding to the prisoners’ spelling, reading, grammar and number needs in context.

All teachers have found that basic skills acquisition is more effective when integrated into prisoners’ main programmes of study. Prisoners also see the relevance of literacy and numeracy to their own learning.