Prison education update from the Joint Unions Parliamentary Group

The prison education landscape is complex, and this paper will refer mainly to education provision in in England. The Ministry of Justice outsources education provision through a competitive tender process. All publicly run adult prisons have education provided under the Prisoner Education Framework (PEF), which will run until March 2025. There are four main education providers who cover around 100 prisons: Novus, Milton Keynes College (MKC), People Plus and Weston College.

A new tendering process for the much-hyped Prisoner Education Service (PES) closed last November. However, the MoJ has decided that successful bidders will not to be announced until October/November 2024, which is problematic for several reasons, particularly the uncertainty this has on the prison education workforce who UCU represent.

Further Education colleges collectively hold the contract for most prison education - over 80 prisons out of around 120 in England and Wales. The three FE colleges that provide prison education are LTE Group (Manchester College, Novus and Novus Cambria), Milton Keynes College Group, and Weston College. Weston College operates prison education through private subsidiary companies, Weston Restart (HMP Five Wells) and Offender Learning Services Ltd (covering prisons within HMPPS Lot 1).

UCU is recognised in all four providers but, due to the nature of competitive tender, TUPE transfers are a common feature of employment in prison education, with some members moving between providers several times over the course of their employment. This has led to an unequal situation regarding pay and conditions within single providers.

A broken commissioning model

Prison education is probably some people' s first and last chance to engage with education, and it' s a way back for people on the outskirts of a society they feel excluded them. Education opens opportunities within their own family and social life that weren' t available before they entered prison, for instance being able to read to their children and engage with their education, and for some function at a basic level they weren' t able to before - just reading road signs, shopping lists or supermarket prices.

Past that level, we try to get people trained in vocational subjects - hopefully a way to employment. That presents difficulties. Prison education isn' t funded well enough to get people fully qualified to the level they need. It doesn' t fund qualifications past Level 2. Only exceptionally do people partake in Open University courses. But at an economic level, it costs a fortune to have somebody in prison. A small investment in prison education is a massive saving for the taxpayer and the criminal justice system.

UCU' s strategic ambition is for a stable and effectively resourced prison education system that supports prison educators to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum to students in prison. Ultimately, this vision will ensure the best outcomes for students, society, and the economy.

Prison educators have suffered from continued de-professionalisation over recent years. Poor salaries, risk of assault, poor continuing professional development and high rates of attrition are all too common features for staff working in prison education. The result is a loss of expertise, increased over-working practices and rising numbers of attacks on staff.

One of the most challenging features of prison education is linked to the funding model that originates through Government commissioning arrangements. This commissioning model has diverted resources away from the development, design and delivery of truly meaningful education. The process of commissioning education for profit in prisons has created a fragmented, often-ignored workforce who face many challenges, including the erosion of terms and conditions, a lack of career progression and diminishing professional autonomy.

The voice of the profession ignored

The MoJ does not recognise or consult with UCU on the prison education curriculum or pedagogical development, course design or delivery of education provision in prison education settings. The voice of the profession is not considered to have a sufficiently recognisable quantifiable value. Our advocacy on behalf of prison educators and education creates friction with the dominant monetised, unit-cost-driven and transitional nature of education provision as operated in the current PEF or new PES framework.

There is a fundamental flaw at the core of prison education provision, and it starts with the failure of the MoJ to understand the true value of education in prison settings and engage meaningfully with education professionals. This is not the case in other publicly funded education such as schools or Further Education.

From PEF to PES

The shift from PEF to PES will take effect from April 2025, with the stated aim to enhance the quality of education for incarcerated individuals. The new contracts align with the Conservative Party' s 2019 manifesto pledge to create a Prisoner Education Service focused on work-based training and skills. The goal is to improve educational outcomes and better prepare prisoners for reintegration into society.

The Ministry of Justice will oversee these contracts nationally. According to the MoJ these changes aim to create a more effective and collaborative prisoner education system, emphasising both skills development and quality outcomes. In addition, the new curriculum aims to enhance the quality of education for incarcerated individuals, focusing on work-based training and skills. By emphasising collaboration, quality provision and careers guidance, it aims to better prepare prisoners for reintegration into society.

According to the MoJ, learning in jails is to be completely transformed through the introduction of a new PES as part of a renewed push to skill up offenders and protect the public. As part of this commitment the prison service is continuing to forge a closer working relationship with the education inspectorate, Ofsted, who have been delivering education sessions to prison leaders to ensure greater collaboration and clear expectations for prison education.

MoJ is establishing a Prisoner Education Services Panel to call off a range of Prisoner Education Services, including Core Education, Careers, Information and Guidance (CIAG), Libraries, and Physical Education.

At no point in any of the published material relating to the new PES contract is there comment on or evidence of the education profession being engaged with. This is because we have not been consulted. UCU is not part of the Prison Education Service Panel, even in an advisory capacity.

The old and the new contract blind spots

It does not seem that the new PES contracts will be as radical a change from the status quo as might have been expected. We know that they will be structurally similar to current contracts, with the country split into "lots" and an outsourced specialist provider given a contract to provide education in the prisons in that area. These contracts will be managed nationally by the MoJ. Provision will focus on literacy and numeracy, as is currently the case.

In the new PES contract, the Prison Service can take up to 10% of the funding back from the provider if they consider the providers haven' t met their targets. If the providers are driven by targets, staff are driven by targets. It' s all about meeting targets, not improving education. This is currently the case with the extended PEF contract, where providers are being penalised and money clawed back by the MOJ for lost hours of teaching, even if the reason for the loss was outside the providers control, such as a lack of prison officers to escort the prisoner to and from the education block. UCU is grateful to Mary Kelly Foy and other supportive parliamentarians for asking written questions on this topic.

New layers of management are being appointed to manage the contract rather than develop and deliver teaching. Prison education is one of the most highly reported and information-driven educational settings, creating several new roles focused on extracting value from the contract and minimising claw back and the loss of income, both in the MoJ and providers. The system is being gamed at the expense of the delivery of a rich and varied curriculum.

Under both PEF and PES, prison governors have commission and spending autonomy through the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). Prison governors consider what gaps they have in their service provision that could be filled by using the DPS. The scope and quality of DPS courses isn' t subject to the same level of quality control that exists with the main contract, which is very tightly managed by the Prison Service. Most people involved in that contract spend their time providing contract compliance material to the managers, not benefiting students.

Under DPS and the annual delivery plans, there' s a creeping short-termism developing in the provision of prison education. This creates more job insecurity for prison educators as courses can be decommissioned at short notice, driven by short-term cost and quality considerations. The contract has an annual delivery plan agreed between the prison governor and the provider. The governor can say "I don't want that course next year". That teacher is then redundant. Even with a full-time contract, prison educators are only guaranteed work for a year at a time. That' s down to the whim of an individual governor. You can lose your job at the end of the year - but also your pension when things are restructured.

No Fair Deal for prison ed staff

UCU has grave concerns that the new PES contract will replicate the same problems for prison educators as exist in PEF. The bidding process for PES has ended, but we won' t know who the providers are until October or November 2024. We know that Weston College will not be bidding for PES. The MoJ is not going to confirm who the providers will be and what 'lots' that have secured before the announcement. Prison educators are on tenterhooks until then.

As part of the bidding process, providers had to submit two bids - one that factored in the price of Teachers' Pensions (TPS) and one that did not. This is because prison education staff employed by Novus, Milton Keynes College and Weston College are now public-sector workers due to the reclassification of Further Education back into the public sector in November 2022.

We know from experience of how the contracts operate that providers must compete to re-bid for the contracts. To compete, they have reduced the terms and conditions of their employees over the years to the point that it' s unsustainable - they can' t recruit or retain. Private providers have a commercial advantage over the college providers because they don' t need to pay into the TPS. Private companies are outside that scheme. Their costs are 16% less than the colleges because they pay a lower level of staff pension contribution.

HM Treasury is still refusing to confirm the application of Fair New Deal for prison educators' pensions as part of PES.

We want to get the same public sector pension protection to apply to prison education staff as applies elsewhere in the public sector. It unacceptable that HM Treasury is still refusing, and I ask parliamentarians on behalf of prison education staff to continue to raise this issue as a matter of urgency.

Prisons are not safe

The Joint Unions in Prisons Alliance (JUPA) 2019 report highlighted a prison system that is failing to meet the basic health and safety needs of the workforce. If staff do not feel safe in prisons, then in turn neither will people who are in prison. As such, the rehabilitation process breaks down and prisons are unable to perform their policy intent.

It is appalling that two-thirds of staff in prisons report feeling unsafe in their workplace, and that so many (57%) say their concerns aren't being dealt with properly. We urgently need much tougher action from the Government and prison employers to improve the safety and working conditions of staff in our prisons.

Recent incidents linked to the lack of prison officers indicate the growing risks to prison educators of harmful substances use in prisons, where vaping laced with spice, ketamine and even Fentanyl is not uncommon.

Prison officer wins payout over exposure to inmates' drugs - BBC News

The lack of sufficient prison officers has in some circumstances led to expecting educators to undertake some of the responsibilities that officers should carry out, such as pat down and counting of prisoners. This development is problematic in practice as the roles and responsibilities are very different. It creates a confused learning enrolment and reduces the level of trust and confidence that' s needed in any shared endeavour between educator and learner.

Undermining not enhancing

Prison educators have suffered from continued de-professionalisation over recent years. Low salaries, high risk of assault, poor continuing professional development and unsustainable rates of attrition are all too common features for staff working in prison education. The result is a loss of expertise, increased over-working and rising levels of attacks on staff and violence in prisons. The indicators are that PES will continue rather than reverse this trend.

Our Hidden Voices report jointly published with the Prisoner Learning Alliance found that over seven in 10 (70.8%) respondents indicated that they intend to leave prison education in the next five years, with many respondents drawing attention to a lack of progression and stagnating pay as key issues.

The recent Ofsted report is both insightful and concerning regarding the quality of provision and service within prison education. Many of its key findings align with UCU' s views on the issues that need to be addressed, but in our opinion these cannot be done via tinkering with the current commissioning model.

Summary

UCU would like:

• to see a comprehensive review of the current operation of Prison Education Framework and the prison education curriculum before PES is rolled out
• to be consulted by the MoJ on this and other prison education matters
• a prison education service that is overseen by the DfE as a national prison education service and on a not-for-profit basis
• to see a comprehensive review of the recommendations from the Coates Review in order to inform these current proposals
• to see the implementation of the Joint Unions in Prison Alliance "Safe Inside" recommendations for safer prisons
• to see a national contract for prison education staff, professional respect and parity of esteem with FE
• HM Treasury to confirm the application of Fair New Deal as a matter of urgency.

Please read the following piece in FE News for more information about UCU' s concerns: Prison Education unlocked: The system that' s failing its learners

Paul Bridge, UCU head of Further Education