Prison education is under threat from continuous changes to teaching contracts, according to a University and College Union (UCU) and Institute of Education (IoE) report published today.

The study — which surveyed teaching staff working in British prisons — showed that over 60 per cent of the workforce is unhappy about competitive retendering of contracts.

Most of those interviewed thought that the implementation of results-based funding as well as dwindling resources, few opportunities for progression and high workloads were dispiriting for teachers and damaging for prisoner education.