INCARCERATED young offenders are being failed by a “tick-box exercise” education system that needs a “complete overhaul,” Prison Officers Association (POA) general secretary Steve Gillan said today in response to a damning report.
A joint review by education watchdog Ofsted and HM Inspectorate of Prisons found that the quality of lessons in young offender institutions (YOIs) has been in decline over the past 10 years.
It warned that some children are spending only half an hour per day outside their cells as institutions struggle to cope with the complex behavioural problems of youths in care.
Prison Officers Association (POA) general secretary Steve Gillan said the YOI education “isn’t fit for purpose. It is no more than a tick-box exercise to say it is being done.”
He added: “I find it incredible that the teaching staff are being blamed as well.
“They are there to teach, not control unruly individuals. That isn’t their job.
“The whole curriculum needs to be overhauled to move away from traditional lessons to something that stimulates these damaged individuals and perhaps then we will see improvement in standards in education.
“I’m amazed that inspectors just identify the problem but never seem to have solutions.
“YOIs are not schools. They are clearly different and there needs to be a total rethink, with union involvement, as to what works in future education in our young offender institutions.”
Howard League for Penal Reform chief Andrea Coomber KC said children in prison are “being failed, time and time again.
“Nowhere is this more evident than in the failure to provide a decent education.
“Rather than supporting children to thrive, the system is instead inflicting significant harm on them. This is yet further evidence that prison is no place for a child.”
Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said that he was “deeply concerned” by the findings of the review and that correctional facilities in Britain were “failing” young offenders.
The report recommended that appropriately qualified and competent teaching staff should be recruited to work with YOI inmates.
He added: “These children deserve to access a full education through a purposeful and productive day taught by experienced and able teachers. Anything less would be an injustice.”
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said: “Children in custody are among the most troubled and challenging in society.
“But we continue to report on very poor provision [of educational standards], particularly for those children separated from their peers in response to conflict.
“Education in our YOIs needs to be prioritised and its delivery transformed if we want to see less youth crime and more children going on to lead successful lives.”
The government said it was determined to tackle the issues raised in the report “head on.”
