Latest news from FE Week

Movers & Shakers: Edition 559

Colleges to get flexibility on English and maths hours for NEETs

Colleges will be allowed to reduce English and maths teaching hours for re-engaged students in a bid to tackle the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Education secretary Lucy Powell announced the proposed change this week after pledging to take “immediate steps” to remove barriers preventing colleges from enrolling those at risk. Speaking at the Association of Colleges (AoC) conference, Powell said she would overhaul funding arrangements and reconsider English and maths requirements.

Despite promising to “break down and remove” the barriers, the education secretary set out no specific measures or timetable for delivering the changes, instead asking college leaders to bring her ideas and proposals. Following her speech, however, the Department for Education (DfE) confirmed that more flexibility on English and maths requirements for NEETs is on the way.

Around 40 per cent of students begin post-16 study without a GCSE grade 4 in English and/or maths. The current condition of funding policy forces 16 to 19-year-olds without a grade 4 in English and maths to continue studying the subjects. It is often criticised by colleges for driving repeated resits.

Colleges are required to offer resit students 100 hours each of English and/or maths teaching, to be delivered at any point in the academic year. The DfE said the proposed change will “significantly flex the number of hours that re-engaged NEET young people would be expected to study in college”.

Remaining hours could be delivered “one-to-one or in small groups, making it easier for colleges to re-engage and rebuild confidence up for young people who are NEET”.

No further detail has yet been released, including how officials will define students who can benefit from this flexibility or how many hours will be in scope specifically.

The move would appear in part to mirror the approach taken for students with education, health and care (EHC) plans, where the minimum hours of teaching can be delivered in a different format, such as small group or embedded learning.

For all other students currently, alternative forms of teaching such as small group tuition or online support “should be delivered in addition to the minimum teaching hours”.

‘Unforgivable’ NEET numbers

Powell was speaking days before the release of Alan Milburn’s report into why nearly one million young people are NEET.

She told delegates it was “unforgivable” that almost 150,000 of those were 16 to 18-year-olds, adding that the government needed to act now rather than rely solely on longer-term reforms.

“Instead of sitting at home, we need to get them into college and doing an apprenticeship. I want us to reach them with an exciting and new, engaging offer,” she said.

She cited funding uncertainty as a major obstacle, pointing to the lack of guaranteed funding for every student enrolling during the academic year and how late colleges learn their funding rates for the following year.

She also criticised requirements for high levels of English and maths teaching, which she said could disengage the NEET young people that colleges were being asked to reach, alongside financial disincentives for enrolling students at risk of dropping out.

While English and maths were important foundations, “we cannot let the perfect become the enemy of the good”, Powell argued.

“These kids aren’t doing any English and maths at all if they are at home in their bedroom scrolling on their phones.”

She promised to create “the right incentives, not the wrong ones” to encourage colleges to offer more practical and work-based courses to young people who had “checked out” of education altogether.

However, she offered no other detail on how funding rules would change, calling instead on colleges to provide their own solutions.

“Bring me your ideas, bring me your plans that can make this a reality,” she said. “You know what works, so tell me, and you know what doesn’t, so tell me that as well.

“My promise to you is to put colleges not at the back of the queue, but at the heart of that mission.”

‘Game-changer’

AoC chief executive David Hughes welcomed Powell’s recognition of the funding barriers facing colleges, adding that guaranteeing in-year growth funding permanently would be a “game-changer”.

He said the guarantee of in-year funding for young people made before the start of this academic year had already helped colleges to enrol thousands of additional young people who might otherwise have become NEET.

Hughes added that his team were “looking forward to working with her and officials to improve policies pre- and post-16 to help more young people achieve good English and maths skills and to ensure Ofsted judges colleges fairly for their inclusive learning approach”.

ESOL has been stuck in a literacy straitjacket for 25 years

It is 25 years since the dawn of the Skills for Life strategy. The Blair government was in charge, ‘Education, education, education’ was the mantra and it was a time of optimism. Focus fell on adult education when research identified the impact of low English and maths skills on employment, income and health. Skills for Life was seen as a great opportunity to solve the literacy and numeracy problem.

By contrast, though, the future of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) was much less certain: it was a hard-fought battle to get ESOL included into the Skills for Life wrapper.

My ESOL Qualifications and Curriculum Review (2026), commissioned by the Bell Foundation, reviews the impact of decisions made. Two key trade-offs for Skills for Life inclusion were to apply the English literacy standards to ESOL and to use the ESOL core curriculum as the basis for exam setting.

The result? Ultimately an impossible balancing act to squeeze teaching pedagogy and ESOL learners’ achievements into literacy.

Secondly, as Ofqual’s ESOL study (2022) has shown, the ESOL curricula carry an uneven learning load. Entry 3 has a very light learning load, while pre-entry has proportionally far more to cover. This has had a negative impact on exam outcomes, and financial repercussions for providers.

Finally, the core curriculum has not been robust enough to ensure parity between awarding bodies’ qualifications, and indeed levels of language.

In the wider context, the FE landscape may have seen major changes in the last quarter of a century but ESOL has essentially stayed the same. This has been to the detriment of learners of ESOL across the board, from pre-entry to level 2.

And no doubt ESOL is seriously underfunded, but equally time and resources could be much better spent on appropriate teaching rather than having to follow wonky literacy practice.

So, what to do? Clearly, change is needed and it is good news that both the Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are currently undertaking their own reviews of ESOL provision.

In my Qualifications and Curriculum Review, I identify the following key policy priorities:

ESOL standards based on research which reflects the second language learning journey, such as vocabulary learning.
Equal learning loads across the ESOL language levels, including pre-entry.
Exams which measure listening and speaking separately, for the simple reason that they are distinct skills which develop at different rates.
Focus on the contexts in which learners want to use English. Most see language for work as a key priority and arrive with significant prior skills, e.g. 50 per cent have at least tertiary level qualifications (OECD). They are highly employable, provided they can communicate in the workplace.
Data on the number of second language speakers in FE and skills provision. DfE data show that 168,730 adult learners participated in discrete ESOL and tailored learning (2023-24). However, we lack data on learners on non-discrete ESOL provision, such as vocational training, apprenticeships and adult learning. DfE, DWP, strategic authorities, providers and Ofsted need this information to monitor access, participation, outcomes and progression.

What can providers do?

Assess and use the outcomes of diagnostic assessment throughout the learning cycle to plan learning and evaluate progress.
Identify learners’ prior education, skills and aspirations, and use this information to plan language learning and progression beyond discrete ESOL provision.
Use local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) and accountability statements to identify how to make the most of the considerable skills and experience that migrants and refugees bring.

There is much to be done, in my view, but also much to be gained.

ESOL has been under the radar for too long, on the assumption that ESOL up to entry 3 is enough for social cohesion and employment. Better assessment, quality of teaching and progression to mainstream vocational training and education will benefit not just second language speakers but society and the workforce as well.

The college of 2035 must prepare learners for a future we can’t predict

By 2035, the learner experience will undoubtedly look very different. AI will likely be more powerful, embedded and nuanced than it is today. But if there’s one thing we know about the future, it’s that it rarely turns out exactly as we expect.

For FE leaders, that presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

Much of the current conversation around AI focuses on prediction. Which jobs will disappear? Which new technologies will emerge? Which skills will employers demand? Yet history tells us that trying to prepare learners for a single version of the future is a risky strategy. The real task for colleges is to plan for many possible outcomes.

AI is not the only force reshaping society and should not be looked at in isolation. Climate change, economic uncertainty and geopolitical unrest are all transforming how we live, learn, and work alongside technological advancement. The institutions that thrive will be those that help learners develop capabilities that retain their value across a wide range of scenarios.

A shift in our perception of skills

For years, education has focused on teaching learners how to use technology. Increasingly, the more important skill will be learning how to adapt to technology. New AI tools, platforms and workplace systems will continue to emerge throughout our careers, and technical knowledge will have a shorter lifespan than ever before. The learners who succeed will be able to respond quickly, acquire new skills confidently and embrace continuous learning.

The value of human skills in a digital world

Digital transformation should not be seen as an end goal or a finishing line, but as a means of helping institutions create better outcomes for learners. AI has enormous potential to personalise support, enhance accessibility and reduce barriers to learning. But technology alone is never the answer. The real value comes from how it is used to support human development, confidence, inclusion and opportunity.

That distinction matters because intelligence and wisdom are not the same thing. AI can process information at extraordinary scale, but it cannot determine purpose, value, or what matters most to people. As educators, our role is not simply to help learners access powerful tools. It is to help them develop judgement, resilience, and the ability to make informed decisions in a complex world.

In fact, some of the most valuable workforce skills in an AI-infused economy may be the most human ones.

Communication, collaboration, empathy, decision making, and relationship-building continue to hold their value in almost every future scenario. Yet there is a risk that an increased enthusiasm for personalisation could lead us towards increasingly individualised learning experiences. Personalised AI support can be transformative, but learning remains fundamentally social.

Colleges must balance the benefits of technology with opportunities for learners to work together, solve problems collectively, and develop the interpersonal skills that employers consistently tell us they need.

Recognising the growing importance of resilience

AI is already changing recruitment and career pathways. Young people are entering a labour market where standing out is becoming more difficult and expectations continue to evolve. The ability to adapt, persevere as roles evolve, and respond positively to change is no longer a desirable extra. It is becoming a core employability skill.

Inclusion and opportunity are a leadership challenge

Our approach to student experience should not be shaped solely by those who can afford the latest technology. If we are serious about creating inclusive learning environments, we must ensure everyone can benefit from the digital tools that can help them succeed, or risk limiting opportunity.

That may mean focusing less on access to general purpose AI tools and more on how we can ensure equitable access to advanced technologies such as agentic AI systems that remain beyond the reach of many learners.

None of us have a crystal ball to help us plan for the challenges ahead. But the colleges that will see the most success over the next decade are unlikely to be the ones that try to predict the future most accurately. They will be those that create adaptable learners, strengthen human capability, and ensure that no one is left behind as technology evolves.

AI will help shape the student experience of 2035. But it is people, not technology, who will determine whether that future is inclusive, empowering and full of opportunity.

Call me old-fashioned but I’ll keep marking essays myself

It seems to nearly always be the marking load which wears down even the most dedicated and enthusiastic teachers. It doesn’t take very long before the words start to swim and swirl in your vision, meanings blending and student names converging into some kind of bland assessment blancmange. That’s Essay Brain. And so the empty-eyed thousand-yard stare of a tired teacher just before coursework deadline day is something one has to behold to believe.

I know I could train an AI model to mark for me. I’ve been shown the ways. The druids of the new age have shared their secrets. I have heard the wide-eyed promises of the true believers. So I know I could feed the AI the specification, upload some already-graded exemplars and just set it off running. Then the students could even mark their own work, the machinery of Palo Alto swallowing their words whole and spitting out an uncomprehending but apparently sensible mark.

The time I saved could then fruitfully be used elsewhere. I’d be unburdened of the part of the job that most wears me down. And the students would be satisfied too. No turn-around time to wait for your marks, no sad imploring for feedback. Gone the desperate impatience when the teacher still hasn’t marked it yet. It would be instant. And accurate. Students would learn and the world would at last be great.

But I’m still not sure. People used to keep and treasure letters because the personality of the writer was somehow sealed inside the lines they wrote. There was an intrinsic value in the thing itself, which was important and mysteriously essential. Then emails and texts came along, their insubstantiality their boast, their speed and ease a promise and lure. Life was undoubtedly made easier. But nobody saves emails or texts in the same way these days. The deeper meaning has gone.

I don’t think I’m guilty of romanticism when I say that in learners’ work, their sweat and tears is caught and somehow held. Their tussling with concepts shows on the page and leaves its mark on them too. Maybe naively, I believe I can see into my students’ learning minds, trace the outlines of their thoughts, like a surgeon or explorer searching out meaning and misunderstanding in the darkness within. Sometimes when I look deep into my students’ essays, I swear I can see their minds.

If students succumb to using AI to produce their work and teachers give in and ask AI to mark that work, then we are surely all lost in an infinite loop of technological madness. AI marks AI and learning is eternally outsourced, just as resources and knowledge are entrusted to online platforms way beyond the printed page.

I am unsettled and feel like none of it really satisfies me. Where is the full-fat learning and meaty education we need? I want to know what my students know. I want to see where they’re making their mistakes. Then I can do some proper adaptive teaching.

Yes, I hate marking. Deeply. But I hate vegetables and exercise sometimes too. But I know they’re both good and I also know I cannot pay someone else to eat my greens or jog for me instead. There’s just no way around the facts and no earthly replacement that works. So I still cannot bring myself to mark with AI. I’d rather suffer with Essay Brain and grumpily sweat my way through yet another class-set of written work. Meanwhile, my AI-savvy colleagues have left me far behind, several sets of essays for their classes already all graded and returned.

When it comes to AI, I am way behind even the latest of late adopters. I eye it all with an eyebrow raised. Not because I am a luddite but because it feels to me like we are feeding the very beast which will feed off us. The original saboteurs were workers caught in the swirl of the Industrial Revolution who threw their wooden clogs into the machines they saw stealing their jobs. If I could fit my tatty old size 8 brogues down a fibre-optic line, I would happily join them in the fight.

But we all know the saboteurs didn’t win. Resistance was futile and you cannot outpace progress. AI is here to stay and everything is going to change. AI’s growing influence in education is even more certain than the jobs we currently enjoy. We were the last pre-AI generation of teachers. The shadow was falling over us and we didn’t even see.

And so the future ahead of us now is bound to be a Brave New World. But if we still read the real books, then we might already guess what that might mean.

I thought I understood FE. Then I joined a general FE college

I spent three happy years as vice principal (business services) at a very large and outstanding sixth form college.

Sixth form colleges are good at what they do. They are focused, academically ambitious and typically well run, and they have a clarity of purpose that many organisations would envy. When I moved to City of Portsmouth College, a merged general FE college across four campuses, I thought I understood the sector I was joining. I was wrong, and I say that with real affection for both.

Sixth form is not easy, and I want to be clear about that. Leaders there deal with tight funding, rising demand for student support and the constant pressure of results. But the curriculum model is relatively coherent. Most students are 16 to 18, most are on level 3 programmes, and most follow a familiar rhythm of A Levels or applied generals across a two-year cycle. Timetables, staffing models, estates and data systems can all be built around that shared shape.

In a very short space of time, I have come to learn that general FE has no single shape. On any given morning our campuses host level 1 learners building confidence and basic skills, level 2 students preparing for progression, and level 3 students heading for university or employment.

Academic and vocational routes sit side by side. The curriculum runs from construction to beauty, from catering to engineering, from automotive to chemistry. Each comes with its own equipment, health and safety requirements, awarding body rules and industry expectations.

Then add the cohorts. Alongside a large 16-18 population we serve apprentices, whose learning is split between the workplace and the college and governed by its own funding rules and inspection expectations. We serve adults, many returning to education after years away, often studying part time around work and family. Each group has different needs, different funding streams and different definitions of success.

For an operational leader this, changes almost everything, and for me personally, it provided a different level of operational challenge in many areas.

Estates

A sixth form needs good classrooms, science labs and study space. An FE college needs commercial kitchens, motor vehicle workshops, salons, construction bays and engineering facilities, each with specialist ventilation, utilities, fire and compliance requirements.

A capital decision in FE is rarely just about space; it is about whether a whole curriculum area can operate safely and to industry standard.

More complexity comes when you then consider which campus, or where in the building these curriculums belong. Not to mention whether you own the buildings or lease them…that’s an entirely separate piece.

Funding and data

Instead of one dominant funding model, FE leaders manage several, each with its own rules, audit risks and reporting cycles. Data quality is not a back-office concern. Errors in learner records can have direct financial consequences, so systems and processes need to be robust across very different types of provision.

Timetabling and staffing

Roll-on, roll-off adult courses, apprentices attending on block or day release and full-time study programmes do not fit neatly into one timetable. Staffing has to reflect industry expertise as well as teaching skill, and recruiting in areas like hairdressing or construction means competing directly with employers. These are the very employers that we want to work with.

Culture

This is perhaps the biggest shift. A sixth form can often move as one organisation. A general FE college is a federation of distinct professional communities, each proud of its own identity. I have already concluded that change only works when leaders take the time to understand those communities and the way they work, rather than imposing a single model on them.

So why would anyone choose FE? Because the breadth that makes it so complex is also what makes it so powerful.

I am a Portsmouth native, and I was once a student and later a teacher at this college. I have seen firsthand what it means for a young person who struggled at school to find their place in a workshop, or for an adult to retrain and change the direction of their family’s life. FE is where a city’s economy and its people meet.

My advice to anyone making the move is simple. Bring the discipline and focus that sixth form teaches you, because it is invaluable. But arrive ready to listen. Spend time in the kitchens, salons and workshops before you redesign anything. FE rewards leaders who respect its complexity rather than try to simplify it away. The true enjoyment in my role comes from the complexity, the diversity and the challenge.

Both sectors matter. Both do remarkable work. But if you want to see the full reach of what education can do for a community, there is nowhere quite like a general FE college.

16-19 devolution is a ‘knife-edge policy’, AoC president warns

Devolving 16 to 19 education funding is a “knife-edge policy” that risks creating a postcode lottery unless colleges help shape how it is implemented, the new president of the Association of Colleges has warned.

Gerry McDonald, CEO of New City College, said the reforms have the potential to deliver a long-needed structural shake-up of further education, bringing curriculum and local economic needs closer together and ending “unhealthy duplication and competition”.

But he warned that poorly designed devolution could instead create “hard borders” between neighbouring areas and different rules and entitlements across the country.

Delivering his first speech at the AoC’s annual conference since becoming the organisation’s president last month, McDonald said: “The opportunities ahead of us are considerable, but so too is the peril.

“If it isn’t top of our agenda already, then devolution of funding for young people certainly will be very soon. In my view, it’s a knife-edge policy.

“Devolution could be the structural change we have long needed, strengthening the connection between curriculum and local economy, ending unhealthy duplication and competition, integrating 16 to 18 and adult budgets, creating a new era of local prosperity, with colleges right at the centre, or not.

“It could all too easily go the other way. Hard borders on the central line between London and Essex, different rules and entitlements across Yorkshire’s four strategic authorities. The postcode lottery cliché becomes the description of the system we create.”

Embrace the uncertainty

His warning comes a week after education secretary Lucy Powell told MPs that the transfer of 16 to 19 funding powers to mayoral strategic authorities – a plan announced by prime minister Andy Burnham over the summer – would be gradual rather than a “big bang” across the country.

Powell acknowledged concerns that devolution could create a postcode lottery, saying ministers were working out how to establish clear lines of accountability across a “very patchwork and fragmented” system of local government.

She said the government wanted to link local delivery more closely with employers and labour markets, while maintaining national expectations, outcomes, qualifications and pathways.

Further details on exactly how mayors will be handed control of 16-to-19 funding is expected to be included in the ‘Rewiring the State’ delivery plan, due to be published before the end of the year.

McDonald called on colleges to work collectively with civil servants to design an “adaptive and forward-looking” blueprint for devolution.

“We need to have white papers with green edges,” he said.

“We need to be bold in saying this might work in Havering, but good luck in Kirklees. In other words, we need to embrace the uncertainty that comes with new design. We must have the courage to say we don’t know.”

He said the sector needed to “build slowly”, adding that there “can be beauty in a jigsaw designed by all of us”.

AoC chief executive David Hughes also acknowledged during his conference speech that the prospect of devolving significant powers to local politicians was causing anxiety among college leaders.

He said concerns included the capabilities of mayoral strategic authorities, the risk of parochial decision-making and the possibility of a postcode lottery.

But Hughes urged colleges to view the reforms as an opportunity to secure a stronger strategic role in their local economies.

“There’s such an opportunity for us to secure a much better position for colleges, with better accountability, with much more appropriate oversight than we’ve got at the moment,” he said.

“[We need] to be able to become the very best partner to mayors, a strategic partner, not just a delivery organisation, and give colleges the agency to be able to design and deliver and to get on and lead.”

He added: “We’ve got to see devolution as that opportunity. So when the Milburn report comes out, let’s step in. When the mayors come asking what you can do, let’s step up.”

‘We have ignored adult education to our shame’

McDonald also used his presidential address to call for a renewed focus on adult education, arguing that the country had neglected its national responsibility to adult learners.

He highlighted the role adult learning had played in his own family, revealing that his mother returned to education in her mid-30s after leaving school at 15, studying for O levels in English and maths before going on to complete an Open University degree and master’s.

She then enjoyed a long career as a social worker, he said.

“This is the power of adult education, and we have ignored it to our shame,” McDonald said.

He made a special mention of institutes of adult learning, describing them as “the jewels in the FE system” which should be “cherished” as they are in the “eye of the adult funding storm”.

He called for colleges and providers to work together to design a system built on the sector’s “history of innovation and adaptation”, not “written complete and sufficient by any one of us”, but is “rather a glorious patchwork of ideas from all of us”.

FE Commissioner warns colleges over early learner dropouts

Colleges are losing too many learners in the first six weeks of the academic year, the FE Commissioner has warned, as she prioritises student experience in keeping colleges out of intervention.

Ellen Thinnesen told the Association of Colleges annual conference today that early dropouts were “just simply much too high” at some institutions her team is working with.

In her first speech to the conference as FE Commissioner, she announced new apprenticeship improvement packages, qualification reform planning support and new training programmes for finance leaders and governors.

“We are seeing a number of colleges with pre-42-day attrition that is just simply much too high,” she said, with “several hundred” learners dropping out before the milestone.

With the current focus on reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), this should be “an area of interest and reflection” for college bosses, Thinnesen said.

The 42-day point is an important funding milestone for colleges. Learners aged 16 to 19 on full-time study programmes who leave before then do not count as a funded start.

Thinnesen also urged colleges to sharpen safeguarding processes when vulnerable learners miss classes.

Preventative measures

Outlining her plans for the next year, Thinnesen said she would continue to prioritise keeping colleges out of intervention and would increasingly focus on “the student experience”, curriculum, quality and student protection.

Prevention activity forms part of the commissioner’s “targeted support” offer.

She said this would involve more tools to help colleges improve learner attendance, inclusive practice, qualification achievement and improvement planning.

College corporate services, including HR, management information systems and estates, will also be included in pre-intervention support.

“Fundamentally, if an HR department doesn’t succeed, it impacts the student experience,” she said.

Thinnesen said five colleges had entered intervention since she took up post in January.

Her team had also carried out 10 health checks and five improvement reviews, and its national leaders had supported more than 30 colleges.

She said the number of colleges in intervention “remains thankfully low” and the sector was “in good shape”, with around 10 per cent of colleges forecast to have ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ financial health in 2025-26.

Governance gaps and reform risks

Thinnesen warned that weak board oversight, poor financial forecasting and unresolved staffing problems could undermine colleges’ ability to manage major reforms.

Her powerpoint slides highlighted cash reporting and restricted cash use among recurring risks, while she said some boards were not receiving information that gave them sufficient “grip” on their colleges.

“Too often we are seeing colleges rich in data but struggling with effective insight and analytics,” she said.

She said qualification reform would bring “considerable workforce and curriculum priorities”, while devolution would require stronger relationships with local authorities.

Colleges should also begin planning progression routes with schools as technical pathways extend to younger learners, she added.

Thinnesen stressed that the concerns were not universal, but warned against allowing persistent problems to drift.

“Even the strongest colleges can be faced with these risks,” she said. “The strongest colleges are often the ones that spot the issues early and tackle them at pace before they become entrenched.”

New support packages and leadership programmes

A newly developed apprenticeship support programme will allow governors and leaders to “pick and mix dedicated support packages” to improve training quality, funding compliance and income.

From early 2027, support will also expand to cover back-office efficiency, estates utilisation, and qualification reform planning and implementation.

Six colleges are already working with the commissioner’s team to model the financial impact of qualification reform three and five years after implementation.

The colleges will be named in early 2027, and their work will inform support to help other colleges forecast finances and mitigate risks. Thinnesen said she hoped participants would share their experiences through a national webinar.

Thinnesen’s team is developing its first financial leadership programme for chief financial officers and senior finance staff who are new to FE or in their first senior role.

Governance professionals from FE and higher education are also helping to develop resources covering governor induction, risk, succession planning and strategic oversight.

A new programme of regional symposiums will run over the next three years, led by colleges sharing effective practice. More institutions are being sought to take leading roles.

Prisoners leaving high-risk jails more likely to reoffend because of education cuts, inspectors warn

Prisoners leaving some of the country’s highest risk jails are potentially more likely to recommit crimes because of deteriorating education provision behind bars, two chief inspectors have warned.

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor and Ofsted chief inspector Martyn Oliver today published a stark letter to justice secretary Alex Norris outlining the government’s failure to transform prison education since the landmark 2016 Coates review.

The most recent overall reoffending rates are now higher than those seen prior to the pandemic – reaching 28.8 per cent between January and March 2024.

Both chief inspectors said they “feel that it is reasonable to assume that poorer quality provision has contributed to this picture”.

Ofsted grades for prisons across England and Wales have plummeted from 44 per cent ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in 2017 to “just 18 per cent” in 2025.

The inspectors warned that the “significant real-terms cuts” to prison education in October 2025, resulting in some prisons losing more than 50 per cent of their education hours, “risks making an appalling situation even worse”.

They specifically highlighted the impact of cuts on the long-term high secure estate, warning that prisoners could leave jail no better equipped to turn their lives around than when they arrived – and in some cases, even more likely to commit crime.

At HMP Manchester, inspectors found that cuts had resulted in the loss of “many” education staff and a “severe curtailment” of learning opportunities. The prison was rated ‘inadequate’ across all Ofsted judgments at its inspection earlier this year, repeating its previous performance.

At HMP Norwich, much of the vocational training at its category C site has ended. The inspectors said the few prisons maintaining good provision were doing so through the “tenacity and innovation” of staff – achieving results “despite” the funding environment.

The letter added that prison governors across the country have reported the loss of vocational courses that equip prisoners with practical skills and boost employability, including construction, catering, cycle mechanics, engineering technology and electrical installation.

Ofsted has also found numbers of available spaces in essential core subjects such as maths, English, and English for speakers of other languages being reduced “significantly”, as well as cuts in support for those who need to improve their reading.

The letter comes six months after justice minister Alex Norris acknowledged that at least 79 prisons had suffered education budget cuts of up to 58 per cent under the Prison Education Service contract introduced in October 2025.

Ministers have faced accusations of downplaying the impact of the cuts since the contract was approved.

The intervention marks ten years since Dame Sally Coates’ independent review of prison education called for high-quality teachers, improved funding to support “ambitious” curriculums and digital systems to enable flexible learning.

Taylor and Oliver said: “Rather than the transformation Dame Sally called for, with good-quality education and training at its heart, too many prisons are characterised by a lack of education, skills and work activity and limited regimes.”

Dame Sally told FE Week that the letter made her question the value of carrying out the review in the first place, describing it as potentially little more than a “dusty review on a shelf somewhere”.

“We just park things by saying let’s do a review, and everybody thinks something’s happening,” she said. “But actually, what action happens as a result of the review? Perhaps they should ask me to do a review of my review.”

Dame Sally, now executive principal at Holland Park School, said prison education was the “biggest driver” of reducing reoffending.

She pointed to the estimated £59,000 annual cost of an adult prison place, against Ministry of Justice data from 2020 showing that 57 per cent of adult prisoners had literacy levels below those expected of an 11-year-old.

But she warned that the long-term benefits of investing in prison education were often overlooked.

“I just think a lot of governments don’t think about long term. Also, putting lots of money into education in prisons is not necessarily top of the public agenda either.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “This government inherited a prison system in crisis and is working at pace to fix it.

“We are focused on delivering high-quality prison education that supports rehabilitation, improves employment prospects on release and ultimately helps reduce reoffending.”