New plans for delivering Offender learning and skills

TLJ Occasional Paper, Dominic Murphy 19 December 2006

MINISTERS LAUNCH NEW OFFENDER LEARNING AND SKILLS PLAN

On Wednesday 13 December the government launched its new plan to reduce re-offending: "Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills & Employment: Next Steps".  This plan is the outcome of consultation following the December 2005 green paper on reducing re-offending.  In an all-day event four ministers gave presentations to an audience of some 200 employers and offender learning and skills professionals in Westminster. 

ALAN JOHNSON MAKES SKILLS FOR JOBS THE CENTRAL FOCUS

Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Education and Skills, started the speeches by stating that the government embraces a thoughtful and constructive approach to reducing re-offending.  The objective is cutting the estimated annual bill of £11bn resulting from the reconviction of those who have already got a criminal record.

The focus of prison life must be preparation for successful resettlement.  The order of a prisoner’s day will get more like a civilian working day, to help offenders acquire skills that will enable them to get and keep worthwhile jobs after release.  He wants to: “move the end of the rainbow closer to the prisoner.”

PHIL HOPE SETS OUT THE PLAN

Phil Hope, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Skills, detailed the main provisions of the plan.  The objective is to get ex-offenders into jobs.  The basic strategy is similar to mach-making between potential partners. 

The two sides are employers on the one hand and ex-offenders on the other.  Both must be motivated to engage.  There must also be a framework or context in which engagement can be tried out.

The plan envisages close cooperation between local employers and their Learning and Skills Councils to shape learning and skills programmes appropriate to the needs of the local job market.  This will be facilitated by new Job Developers to prepare the way for employing ex-offenders. 

For their part, offenders will be encouraged to agree an employability contract that will be central to their sentence plan and drive their acquisition of skills and privileges.  Offender Mangers will facilitate this. 

The new Offender Learning And Skills Service will provide a coordinated environment in which the stakeholders can interact.  This is called the Campus Model, which draws together employers and ex-offenders in a context of support from service providers and mentors. 

Phil Hope reinforced the message that work in prison will get more like “the real world” to turn out ex-offenders that will hold down a job because they are motivated, punctual, collaborative and responsive to instruction.   He said that the Train to Gain programme for learning and skills might be applied in the offender sector.

Perhaps the most important news was that this new plan would not be rushed into operation.  The programme will roll out over the years till 2010.  Right now regions are asked to bid to become one of the two path-finding regions to fashion and assemble the elements of the plan.  That will happen early in 2007.

BARONESS SCOTLAND EMPHASISES TEAMWORK

Baroness Scotland celebrated the collaboration and partnership that has brought the resettlement agenda thus far.  She welcomed the employers present at the launch and focused on the efforts to create a network of organisations at a local level engaged in resettling ex-offenders.  She highlighted the work of the Corporate Alliance for Reducing Re-offending, which assists the take-up of ex-offenders in the private, civic and the voluntary sectors of the economy.

JIM MURPHY PRESENTS THE DWP PERSPECTIVE

Jim Murphy, Minister of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, said that some 100,000 people a year go from prison to support on social benefits.   He observed that learning and skills acquisition is a key need in the effort to get this group into work.  Four out of five of the prison population have the writing skills of an average eleven-year-old or younger and seventy percent are reported to have some form of mental health problem.

He observed that social benefits alone will not address this problem successfully.  Offenders need the opportunity to improve their skills in working environments with a demand-lead purpose and the attention of mentors to help them through the transition to permanent employment.  He cited good practice in vocational training in the brickwork shop at HMP Wandsworth as an example of what can be done, even in a busy local prison.

MINISTERS CONSIDER THE OBSTACLES TO PROGRESS

The effort to reduce re-offending will need all the support it can get.  The targets for reducing re-offending are demanding.  The objective is to reduce the rate of re-offending by 5% in 2007-8 and by a further 10% by 2010.  These objectives must be viewed in the context of a currently rising trend in reoffending rates.

In an interesting panel session Baroness Scotland and Phil Hope discussed the barriers to achieving the targets.  Phil Hope observed that they are largely “inside our own heads”.  The problems are cultural and to be addressed by changing attitudes.

The focus was not so much on public reluctance to offer major support to offenders.  It concerned more attitudes within the criminal and justice system and of employers.

A can-do attitude is needed within the offender leaning and skills system to create more realistic working environments preparatory for resettlement.   This requires the encouragement of enterprising projects in prisons.   This needs to be accommodated within the predominantly command and control oriented management culture of the prison system.

In a rounding-up speech Baroness Scotland spoke of beating down the fear barriers in the minds of employers, by making an effective business case for employing ex-offenders.  It is necessary to demonstrate monetary benefits to employers before appealing to social conscience.

Perhaps referring to a vision of the Campus Model in operation, she envisaged a “dynamic and interactive” environment where partners in the resettlement effort must give up a bit of their power to enhance the collective outcomes.  She envisaged the challenges as needing courage to reap the rewards.

WHAT ABOUT SELF-EMPLOYMENT?

The emphasis of the plan is mainly on getting ex-offenders into jobs.  But there is also encouragement for those of us focused on offering enterprise skills to offenders seeking self-employment. 

On page 11 of the plan there is a commitment to “explore the use of different forms of work from Work Trials to self-employment packages”.  This is expanded in section 24 page 14, where it is envisaged that the test bed regions will explore “a greater focus on self-employment, with access to finance, advice and skills development.  As part of this package, we will investigate the possibility of a ‘business incubator/enterprise rehearsal’  for those looking to start a business.  This will build on the work of the Business in Prisons project.”

Work of a similar nature is reported under the headline “Lives changing for the better at HMP Wandsworth” in the news section of www.thelearningjourney.co.uk.

GETTING THE DOCUMENTATION

The policy document “Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment: Next Steps” is available from www.dfes.gov.uk/offenderlearning.   This includes plans for young offenders, which are not dealt with in this report. 

The launch day was well managed by Nick Ross.  The audience was able to participate by using computer terminals on every table to add their comments about key issues.  Nick Ross promised that this valuable information would be made available in its entirety through the above DfES website.  At the time of writing this has not happened.