Education, Training and Employment
Custodial Education
With the small proportion of young people who go into custody we have the opportunity to carry out a thorough educational assessment and use intensive programmes to address deficits that may have developed while they have been out of school.
The messages in the audit conducted by the YJB in 2001 were reinforced by a report produced by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons. (To view, see the report Second Chance - A Review of Education and Supporting Arrangements within Units for Juveniles managed by HM Prison Service [opens in new window]).
There was clearly a great deal to be done to improve custodial education when the YJB took on its commissioning role in 2000. In 2002, the YJB produced the National Specification for Learning and Skills, which requires that the service provided in custody matches that which young people would be entitled to in school or college provision.
The additional investment the YJB has put into prison education has enabled the prison service to improve provision to the point where most young people now receive a full-time programme serviced by an Individual Learning Plan.
Evidence of the improvements in prison education brought about through the YJB's investment programme is contained in a report first commissioned in 2003: Progress Report on the Implementation of the National Specification for Learning and Skills for Young People on the Custodial Phase of a Detention and Training Order (DTO) (2003) [opens in new window, 419Kb PDF].
This report highlights the positive impact being made by some of the new roles introduced through the National Specification for Learning and Skills, such as the head of learning and skills, the special educational needs co-ordinator and the learning support assistants.
The report was updated in 2004. The new version can be downloaded here: Progress Report on the Implementation of the Board’s National Specification for Learning and Skills in Juvenile Prison Service Establishments 2003–04 (2004) [opens in new window, 384Kb PDF].
The Offenders’ Learning and Skills Unit (OLSU) [opens in new window] at the DCSF, working closely with the YJB, takes an overview of education policy issues as they relate to offenders.
In order to ensure consistency of service in the other custodial sectors – secure children's homes and secure training centres (STCs) – the YJB has developed adapted specifications appropriate to these contexts, which will remain in use following the recent developments around the delivery of offender education in the Prison Service. The two specifications can be accessed below:
National Specification for Learning and Skills (STC) [opens in new window, 600Kb Word document]
National Specification for Learning and Skills (SCH) [opens in new window, 645Kb Word document]
The current arrangements for the delivery of offender education within YOIs is undergoing a process of change following the LSC taking responsibility for the delivery of all offender education within the Prison Service. For further information on this development see our OLASS web page.