Women in Prison (WIP) is a charity working with women at risk of going to prison, in prison and after release to promote their resettlement, personal development, education and training.

They educate the public and policy makers about women in the criminal justice system and promote alternatives to custody.

Offenderlearning.net supports the Offender Learning and Skills sector. It provides information, advice and guidance to those working in the sector, and is designed to complement the roll-out of effective e-learning and related support.

The site includes news, e-learning resources, communication tools, technology factsheets, support materials, funding and training information, designed to meet the needs of sector practitioners and managers.

The Public Accounts Committee report highlights failures with the OLASS service. Their report summarises the conclusions and provides recommendations. Here are their conclusions.

1. Tensions between the objectives of meeting the learning and skills needs of offenders and occupying prisoners in purposeful activity have prevented resources being reallocated so that they better meet needs.



2. The Learning and Skills Council and HM Prison Service disagree over what can be delivered to those on short sentences and what priority this group should be given.



3. A quarter of prisoners have no screening or assessment for learning and skills needs, despite this being a requirement of OLASS.



4. The quality of learning plans is poor and, without improvement, OLASS cannot hope to support offenders effectively.



5. The lack of a core curriculum means offenders' learning is unnecessarily disrupted when they are transferred between prisons.



6. Learning providers are paid regardless of attendance or course completion rates.



7. Offenders' learning records are frequently not transferred when offenders are moved, making it harder for them to carry on courses, and difficult for the LSC and providers to measure the impact of interventions.



8. The LSC does not collect information to show whether or not offenders gain employment following completion of their sentence.



9. Offenders are more likely to gain a job when they are released if they are equipped with skills relevant to local employers.

To find out more about their recommendations, please click on view link below.

An executive agency of the Ministry of Justice bringing together the headquarters of the Probation Service and HM Prison Service to enable more effective delivery of services. The two bodies remain distinct but have a strong unity of purpose to protect the public and reduce reoffending. Both services ensure the sentences of the courts are properly carried out and work with offenders to tackle the causes of their offending behaviour.

They are responsible for commissioning and delivering adult offender management services in custody and in the community in England and Wales. We manage a mixed economy of providers. Decisions on what work is to be done and who it will be done by will be based on evidence and driven by best value.

Responsibility for delivering a reduction in reoffending and the management of offenders is devolved to ten regional offices in England and one office in Wales. Each is responsible for:

• commissioning services
• developing a reducing reoffending delivery plan
• coordinating partnerships

London Probation works with a number of training services and colleges to equip offenders under our supervision with the skills needed to gain employment.

Not being able to get a job or sustain employment is a key factor that drives offenders to crime. Evidence suggests that offenders who gain sustained employment are far less likely to re-offend than those without a job.

They help offenders with key skills such as literacy and numeracy, and give them the opportunity to work towards NVQ awards that will be recognised within their chosen industry.

Alongside the training provided to offenders, we also help them into employment. They work with employers to match their vacancies with suitable offenders under their supervision - and assist the offenders further offering advice and guidance on things such as CV writing and interview techniques.

Who we are
London Probation is a law enforcement agency. It is part of the National Probation Service and works with the police and prisons to protect the public and reduce re-offending. It is the largest of the 42 probation areas in England and Wales, employing over 3,000 staff and dealing with over 60,000 offenders a year.

What we do
London Probation staff work with offenders from first court appearance to completion of sentence to protect the public and reduce re-offending. They deliver sentences of the courts through credible and effective community punishments including programmes to change offending behaviour.

Their pledge to Londoners:

• Reduction of re-offending
• Proper punishment of offenders
• Rehabilitation of offenders
• Proper care of victims

Do you have clients who have recently been released from prison and/or are serving a sentence in the community? Then you may be interested in a pan-London OLASS/ESF project called "Getting Ahead".

It comes under the umbrella of OLASS: the Offender Learning and Skills Service, managed by the LSC, designed to meet the education and training needs of individual offenders either in custody and/or under supervision in the community.

Under OLASS, The London Advice Partnership (LAP) provide pan-London delivery of appropriately tailored Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG), to support the offender''s progression at every stage of the learning journey and to increase the likelihood of gaining employment.

To ensure integration of the Offenders' Learning Journey (OLJ) "through the gate" and into the community, the IAG component of OLASS is actually delivered via three inter-linked projects:

• "Core" OLASS provides IAG within 8 London prisons for prisoners at any point during their time in custody and is complemented by two ESF funded projects



• "Moving On" (ESF Measure 1.1a) provides IAG, just prior to resettlement, within the last 3 months of a prisoner's sentence



• "Getting Ahead" (ESF Measure 3.1b) provides IAG for offenders in the community, either post-release, or for those serving community sentences

This 'Next Steps' document was launched on 13th December 2006 by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Alan Johnson, and other ministers from DfES, DWP and Home Office.

The document sets out the way in which the Government will take forward the strategy set out in last year's Green Paper Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment. It responds to the many constructive comments made in consultation, reports on the good progress already being made, and sets out a programme of reform which will take us beyond 2010. The agenda taken forward will be through three important strands of work:

• A strong drive to engage employers through the Reducing Re-offending Corporate Alliance, linked to the Skills strategy and the outcome of the Leitch Review of Skills. Working with employers to design and implement new models of training and preparation for jobs



• Building on the new offender learning and skills service through the development of a campus model, which has among its key features: a focus on employers' needs; an employability contract as part of the sentence plan, to motivate offenders and focus resources where they will have most impact and more flexible access to skills and employment support, with effective use of ICT.



• Build a new emphasis on skills and jobs in prisons and probation using unpaid work in the community, work opportunities in prisons, with a particular focus on developing the workforce to deliver this, and using the new commissioning role of the Regional Offender Managers.

The document describes the elements of the new service in the sequence an offender will experience them on their "journey" to improve their personal learning and skills:

• information, advice and guidance, in a form appropriate to the individual, to support the choice of learning programme and provide continuous guidance throughout their learning to maintain commitment



• an individual diagnostic assessment to inform the content and delivery of their learning programme



• an individual learning plan that identifies the skill development required and increases employability



• a programme which is designed to enable each person to realise their potential, to provide opportunities for personal development and a chance to change behaviour and make a more positive contribution to society



• guidance throughout an offender''s learning programme to ensure relevant progression routes are pursued in custody and the community

Each area of the learner's journey is prefaced by an introduction describing the background to, and objectives for, that part of the learning and skills service. Within each section, there are references to key policy documents and guidance documents, details of which can be found under our Offender Learning section.

As of 1st August 2006, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) assumed responsibility for offender learning throughout England in a scheme called the Offenders Learning and Skills Service (OLASS).

The LSC hopes to improve the quality and quantity of offender education. For this, the LSC has secured a £30 million grant from the European Social Fund (ESF), over a period of three years, as well as its annual £130 million funding from the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Youth Justice Board.

Having already had responsibility for three development regions in the Northwest, Northeast and Southwest since 1 August 2005, the LSC now manages the planning, funding and delivery of the scheme to all nine regions.

By integrating offender education within mainstream academic and vocational provision and ensuring offenders experience seamless provision in both custodial and community settings, the LSC hopes to contribute to breaking the cycle of failure that drives re-offending. This service aims to help to drive down the re-offending rate by 10% by 2010.

The development of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) presents a significant opportunity to improve skills and employment outcomes for offenders. NOMS will mean offenders being managed increasingly coherently, according to the needs and requirements of their individual sentence, throughout their contact with the Criminal Justice System.

The development of NOMS creates a framework within which it will be easier to deliver the benefits of learning and skills, and improve employment for offenders.

Alongside the changes to offender management being introduced by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), the roll out of the Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) across England from 31 July 2006 has put learning and skills at the heart of the sentence management process. These changes are on the back of significant investment and provide a firm foundation for the ongoing process of transformation set out in the Green Paper ''Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment'', published jointly by DfES, Home Office and DWP in December 2005.

This Green Paper sets out the strategy to help reduce re-offending by improving skills and employment opportunities for offenders. It outlines a radical vision to make a step change in four main areas:

1. To focus strongly on jobs for offenders, with employers driving the design and delivery of programmes, and new approaches to get offenders into work.
2. Increasing the quality and effectiveness of learning and skills delivered to offenders, to improve their skills in prisons and when released.
3. Promoting greater coherence in the ways in which offenders are trained and prepared for employment within prisons and probation services.
4. Motivating and engaging offenders, including through a new 'employability contract', with a strong emphasis on rights and responsibilities.

The public consultation on the ''Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment'' Green Paper generated a large and diverse response encompassing learning providers, employers and their representatives, criminal justice institutions and agencies, voluntary organisations and many others, as well as offenders themselves.

There were 95 responses to the Green Paper, with the majority coming from education and training providers, followed by “others” (defined as Institutes, Trade Unions, Jobcentre Plus, monitoring boards, business groups and non-specified respondents). Respondents included the CBI, the National Employment Panel, City and Guilds, NACRO and The Prince''s Trust. Offenders'' views were missing from the formal written consultation but this summary also includes some comments gleaned from officials'' visits during the consultation period.

The great majority of respondents fully supported the premise that re-offending could be reduced by improving the employability skills of offenders, and endorsed proposals for strengthening and extending existing arrangements for assessing, training and placing offenders into jobs. The consultation generated a large number of specific, practical suggestions for implementation.