Prisoners will
receive a boost to their chances of finding employment after their
release, with intensive ‘military style’ maths and English
classes, Business Secretary Vince Cable announced today.
The pilot will be carried out in six prisons in the North West,
and will be based on the successful approach used for training new
recruits in the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.
An example of an Army intensive programme consists of 35
hours of lessons in a one week block but with additional training
for those who need it. The teaching makes literacy and numeracy
relevant to the recruits’ day-to-day work and has been shown to
boost their confidence and career progression, including those who
had poor experiences of learning at school.
Skills Minister John Hayes, following an examination of the
Armed Forces scheme, ordered that it be adapted to the prison
environment - for example, by making lessons a compulsory part of
popular courses like construction, and painting and decorating.
John Hayes said:
"This pilot is about ensuring prisoners are more
likely to work than commit crime when they leave."
The programme will show offenders how important basic skills
are when trying to get a job and stay in work. It will be taught
at the start of their sentences so their studies are less likely
to be disrupted.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said:
“Crime blights lives, both for the offender and the victim.
That is why we are piloting this programme in prisons, so we can
give prisoners the basic skills they need to get their lives on
track and bring down re-offending rates.
“This shorter but more intensive approach means that it is
less likely that their studies will be disrupted and by linking
lessons to other vocational courses, prisoners are more likely to
attain the skills that are needed to get a job and progress in life.”
Skills Minister John Hayes said:
“Breaking the damaging cycle of re-offending and
re-imprisonment will not only turn around the lives of countless
prisoners, it will also prevent the suffering of their potential
victims and reduce the burden on the taxpayer.
“We are determined to make prisons places where people learn
skills to build lives beyond crime. That is why we are piloting
the successful Armed Forces’ maths and English programme so
offenders can attain the core skills needed to secure a job after
their release and go on to lead honest and productive lives.”
Justice Minister Crispin Blunt, said:
"The basics of English and mathematics underpin
almost all other learning and skills. Assessing
prisoners' learning needs, so they can better address the
causes of their offending behaviour is at the heart of the reforms
set out in the new offender learning strategy published jointly
with BIS last year. The trials of the Army's approach to
delivering these skills could particularly assist those with short
sentences to emerge from custody better equipped to be positive
citizens rather than return to offending.
“If we can improve prisoners' literacy and numeracy
levels it will improve their chances of getting a job following
release. Keeping employment is a key factor in helping to reduce re-offending.”
The pilot is part of the Government’s drive to cut
reoffending, which costs the public purse between £9.5 billion and
£13 billion a year (Source: NAO report). Research has shown that
the vast majority (97 per cent) of offenders say they want to stop
offending, and that the biggest factor in helping them to do so
(68 per cent) is having a job.
Prisons taking part in the pilot include Manchester, Garth,
Kirkham, Lancaster Farms, Styal and Altcourse.
Notes for Editors 1. The pilot will be a joint BIS and
National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE)
initiative to explore the feasibility within the secure estate of
adopting elements of the successful Armed Forces’ intensive model
of English and maths provision, and is being delivered through a
successful local collaboration between Governors and prison
education providers. Many prisoners have maths and English needs
and many serve short sentences. It is thought that the intensive
training over a shorter period will be an effective way of
improving their basic skills, either at the start of a longer
sentence or as a key element of a short sentence. The overall aim
of such a model would be to enable prisoners to achieve
qualifications and impact on their vocational training in order to
support prisoners to get a job on release.
2. The Armed Forces Longitudinal Study was undertaken by the
National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and the
National Research and Development Centre (NRDC) over three years
between 2008 and 2011. It focused on recruits assessed with low
levels of literacy and numeracy skills levels at the start of
their first two and a half years of training and service. The full
study with executive summary can be found at http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/further-education-skills/research-and-statistics.
The aims of the study were to assess the impact of literacy and
numeracy skills on the personal and professional development of
Service personnel and on their operational effectiveness, and to
make recommendations for the most effective way for the Armed
Forces to support their staff in their first two years of service.
3. The Ministry of Justice’s longitudinal study entitled
“Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction” aimed to track the progress
of over 4,000 newly sentenced prisoners. It specifically aimed to
assess prisoners’ problems and needs on reception into prison, how
those needs were addressed during and after custody and the
combined effect of any interventions on offending and other
outcomes, in light of prisoners’ background characteristics, after
release from prison. The first wave of the study quantified a
number of important characteristics about the cohort and sought
their perceptions on a range of subjects. When asked about what
intervention prisoners would need help with to reduce the
likelihood of reoffending, most prisoners valued assistance with
finding employment (48 per cent), getting qualifications (42 per
cent) and work-related skills (41 per cent) ahead of other help
such as finding accommodation. The results from the Surveying
Prisoner Crime Reduction survey can be found at: http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/research-and-analysis/moj/results-from-the-surveying-prisoner-crime-reduction-spcr-survey.
4. The Government undertook a review of adult literacy and
numeracy provision in 2011 focused on making this provision more
effective. The outcomes were published in New Challenges, New
Chances
http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/further-education-skills/docs/f/11-1380-further-education-skills-system-reform-plan.pdf
5. The Government’s economic policy objective is to
achieve ‘strong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more
evenly shared across the country and between industries.’ It set
four ambitions in the ‘Plan for Growth’ (PDF 1.7MB) , published at
Budget 2011:
· To create the most competitive tax system in the G20
· To make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and
grow a business
· To encourage investment and exports as a route to a more
balanced economy
· To create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible
in Europe.
Work is underway across Government to achieve these
ambitions, including progress on more than 250 measures as part of
the Growth Review. Developing an Industrial Strategy gives new
impetus to this work by providing businesses, investors and the
public with more clarity about the long-term direction in which
the Government wants the economy to travel.
6. BIS's online newsroom contains the latest press
notices and speeches, as well as video and images for download. It
also features an up to date list of BIS press office contacts. See
http://www.bis.gov.uk/newsroom
for more information.
Contacts:
BIS Press Office
bispress.releases@bis.gsi.gov.uk
Victoria Heath
Phone: 020 7215 5950
victoria.heath@bis.gsi.gov.uk