Governors to be held to account for prison education
23 May 2016
The Ministry of Justice has accepted all the recommendations in a wide-ranging and independent review of education in prisons.
Unlocking Potential sets out Dame Sally Coates’ recommendations for a transformation of prison education in England and Wales, as part of the government’s wider prison reform programme. The report’s proposals tackle the questions of responsibility and accountability for the quality of education in prisons.
The recommendations include:
- giving governors complete control of their education budgets and the freedom to tailor a curriculum to help prisoners secure employment on release and reduce re-offending rates
- creating tailored Personal Learning Plans for each prisoner with governors held to account for the progress of each offender against their plan
- giving governors greater discretion over prisoner access to ICT and digital technology to facilitate learning while keeping important safeguards in place
- introducing a new, stand-alone Ofsted judgement on the standard of education in prisons
- improving the quality of teaching with a new scheme to attract high-calibre graduates to work in prisons for an initial two-year period.
The report recommends that Exam Boards should work together to agree a core basic skills curriculum for all prisons which would include English, maths and ICT. It is hoped that this would lead to consistent standards and support materials to help with prisoner progression. The report also calls for "a flexible 'adult' modular GCSE" in English and maths as part of the curriculum.
Other areas for education include high quality vocational training, employability skills, personal and social development, enterprise and self-employment training.
Implementation of the plans will begin immediately and continue to August 2017 and beyond. It is recognised that the recommendations will need to be aligned with wider reforms to the prison system, Further Education sector, and the introduction of new devolution arrangements, particularly for the adult education budget.
