Justice Secretary champions tailored prisoner education

Work with offenders on a drive to break down the barriers for prisoners with learning needs

The Justice Secretary Robert Buckland wrote an article in the Times newspaper today sharing his views on the need for tailored prisoner education for the many thousands of people in the criminal justice system with learning needs. The article, which the Ministry of Justice later published as a press release, champions education as a key force in promoting desistance from crime.

In particular he highlights the needs of people in contact with the criminal justice system who have neurodivergent conditions. Mr Buckland has a daughter with autism and has long been a campaigner on the need to diagnose autism and make helping services available. The MP for South Swindon has been a long term member of and past chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism.

Mr Buckland has committed the government to improve the education on offer in prisons, particularly for people with a range of learning needs. People with learning disabilities are massively over-represented in the criminal justice system with approximately one third of all offenders estimated to have a learning need compared with approximately 2 per cent of the general population.

The Justice Secretary may be even more determined to improve prison education at the moment since the House of Commons Education Select Committee is soon to publish its report on its inquiry into prison education which asks whether prisoners are being left behind. This is the first inquiry into prison education for 15 years. Judging by Ofsted’s annual report, published last December, the answer to the inquiry’s question is a resounding yes. Of the 32 prisons and Young Offender Institutions inspected for their education, skills and work provision before the lockdown in March, only nine were judged to be good – and no education, work and skills in prisons was considered outstanding. It is worth comparing this figure with further education in the community, where 8 out of 10 providers are judged good or outstanding.

The Ofsted report follows a year of massive change in prison education – with new ways of funding education, more Governor input, and new contracts. Yet, overall, Ofsted inspectors found that just 16 per cent of prisons had improved their education delivery. Conversely, nearly half (48 per cent) had stayed the same and, even more worryingly, over a third (35 per cent) had got worse.

Mr Buckland used his article to announce that he is planning an overhaul of the education on offer for prisoners with learning needs, which will be led by a team of educational specialists with experience in supporting those with neurodivergent conditions. The Justice Secretary highlighted the fact that the team will seek to identify prisoners with learning needs such as autism and dyslexia far quicker, so that it will be possible to target improved education and training, using new and innovative methods of teaching which better meet the learning needs of prisoners with a wide range of conditions.

At the same time, the Prison Leavers Innovation Challenge which aims to harness innovation from the tech sector to develop new technological tools and solutions that will help prison leavers in their resettlement journey has highlighted as one of its six subject areas the need to assist probation officers to manage prison leavers with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities.

In announcing this initiative, Mr Buckland also drew attention to the needs of victims of crime who have neurodivergent conditions and said that the new Victims’ Code, which came into effect last month, outlines minimum levels of information and service victims can expect at every stage of the justice process and specifically provides enhanced rights for those with impaired social functioning, including special measures to help them to give evidence in court.