A big step backwards

Last Monday evening (22-05-06) I got some shockingly bad news.  I went to the annual lecture and evening reception of the excellent Forum on Prisoner Education (FPE). 

Graham Stewart (Exec. Director of the John Howard Society of Canada) gave a well measured and penetrating speech about prison education in Canada.  It was a powerful endorsement of the effectiveness of traditional liberal educational values in the fight against re-offending.

Then Prof. David Wilson stood up and announced that FPE had gone into liquidation.    It's director, Steve Taylor, had resigned.  It is reported that the organisation got into insurmountable financial difficulties.

I'd like to say: "The Forum is dead, long live the Forum".  It has done a lot of very good work to champion the cause of excellent educational practice in the field of Offender Learning and Skills.  In these turbulent times, when there is so much to gain, and lose, in achieving effective resettlement of offenders, we can ill-afford the loss of momentum which the demise of FPE may cause.

It is a sobering reminder that operational effectiveness cannot be sustained without effective enterprise skills.  You have got to look after the cash as well as pursue the vision.  All the more reason to pay attention to the information and materials held in www.thelearningjourney.co.uk (TLJ).

Those who are refugees from the wreck of FPE will find an open door to our website to continue their efforts without charge.  I very much hope that TLJ can play a role in ensuring that, after this step backwards, there is a rapid return to advance by those who have powered the excellent work that FPE has done.

CARPE DIEM.

The Editor TLJ.