College pauses ‘stop and search’ security checks after student protests

“Stop and search” knife crime security checks at a London college have been paused after students staged a mass walkout, saying the measures left them feeling “violated”. 

Some 150 to 200 students attended the protest on Monday at City and Islington College, and a student governor resigned over the issue. Leaders at the college have now stopped the searches while they plan discussions with students to try and address their concerns. 

“We have paused the searches at that centre and we are going to be in further discussion with students with a view to finding a way of doing these searches that works for people and helps reassure them,” a spokesperson for City and Islington College told FE Week. 

“We want to do the right thing and we realise that we need to bring our students with us. That’s why we want to have these discussions and find out a bit more about what their concerns are.” 

City and Islington College started conducting random security checks at the entrance to its sixth-form campus on February 28, something leaders said was necessary because of a rise in knife crime. 

The policy change was met with strong opposition from both students and staff, who say that the measures amount to the “stop and search” tactics used by the police – a term the college disputes. 

A campaign against the policy has been ongoing since its introduction. But students said that following the scandal around Child Q, where a 15-year-old black girl was strip searched, they decided to stage the walkout.

Some 150 to 200 students attended the protest, according to the college. FE Week has also learnt that a student governor on Capital City College Group’s quality oversight committee – the parent group of the college – resigned over the issue. 

Justifying the college’s decision at the time, Kurt Hintz, City and Islington College’s principal, said: “There have been incidents resulting in injury or the death of young people, including students of our colleges in London. 

“As one of London’s largest sixth-form colleges, our duty is not only to educate and inspire our students, but to do whatever we can to keep them safe while they are in our care.” 

However, students told FE Week that the checks were unnecessary, and that they ended up making them feel less safe. 

“For me, personally, I don’t feel safer if, when I come into college, I have to be searched. I’ve never felt unsafe in college before,” one student at the college said. 

“The college is really welcoming. The teachers are really lovely. And the college has been great throughout Covid and throughout the two years I’ve been there. 

“I’ve never felt unsafe inside the college. But as soon as they started to introduce stop and search, I started to feel unsafe, because I felt like at any point I could be pulled up and I could be searched and my personal space could be violated.” 

Speaking about the fact some students said they had felt criminalised by the security measures, the college’s spokesperson said: “We are just really sorry that some students felt like that… We don’t want anyone to feel like that. That’s why we want to sit down calmly with students to get to the bottom of what it is that we have done so far that’s made them feel that way, and see if we can make it right.” 

The spokesperson did not say that the security measures would be abolished altogether, but that the situation would be addressed following discussions with students. 

He made the point that the security measures have been in use for three to four years at other sites in the college group. 

The decision to extend them to City and Islington sites this year was made due to increased risks regarding knife crime.

In 2019/20 Islington recorded 554 knife crime offences, which was a 19 per cent reduction compared to 2018/19. However, levels are still higher than five years ago. 

“According to intelligence we receive from local police sources, including the Violence Reduction Unit, they are seeing an increase in violent incidents,” the college spokesperson told FE Week

Eton: ‘Elite’ sixth form plans impossible without our £1m top-up

Eton College will pump £1 million per year into each of its three proposed elite sixth forms in the north and midlands, declaring current funding levels are inadequate for its lofty ambitions.

The prestigious private school has partnered with the Star Academies trust to open the new sixth form colleges in areas identified for levelling up support by government.

However, FE Week can reveal Eton is stumping up an “in perpetuity” financial top-up that works out at around £2,000 extra per student, if each college meets its 480-student quota over two year groups. That’s effectively a 50 per cent uplift on top of what students in other post-16 institutions get.

Eton said the extra cash is needed to offer the educational and co-curricular opportunities available at the all-boys school, which charges nearly £50,000-a-year, as government funding rates are too low.

“The kind of provision we envisage is simply not possible under the current per student funding provided by the government for 16 to 19 settings,” an Eton spokesperson said.

The government has pinned its “levelling up” promises on delivering “elite” sixth forms to get pupils in deprived areas into the top universities.

But Lee Elliot Major, a professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: “If that is what it takes, to provide an education that everyone should receive, then for me it begs the question, why aren’t all pupils funded at that level?”

Tom Richmond, a former adviser to two skills ministers and now director of think tank EDSK, added the investment was a “curious interpretation of ‘levelling up’, particularly when the government has yet to address the miserly funding settlement for 16 to 19 education in recent years”. 

Eton and Star intend to bid in the next wave of free schools, with a view to opening the sixth forms in Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham in 2025. 

They will provide “knowledge-rich teaching from subject-specialists; access to talks, academic essay prizes and debate clubs; Oxbridge-style tutorial sessions and the chance to learn Latin”. 

Eton told FE Week it is drawing up an admissions policy to prioritise pupil premium students, looked after children, those would be the first in their family to attend university and also youngsters from particular postcodes.

Eton has repeatedly said the proposed colleges would not pose a problem for other post-16 providers in Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham.

But experts have questioned whether the extra cash will create an unequal playing field for student recruitment.  

Richmond said the “question is how many potential winners and losers their philanthropy will create. The early signs are not encouraging”.

He said “far from expanding opportunities, they are seeking to limit the beneficiaries of their plans to the tiny number of students ‘lucky’ enough to attend these new institutions”.

Best way to ‘level up’?

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said private institutions like Eton are free to target resources at a tiny number of high performing students, but this is “unlikely to make a significant contribution to the governments levelling up agenda”.

“If Eton really wants to make an impact, it should invest in, and work in partnership with, existing sixth form providers that are busy transforming the lives of students of all abilities and doing so with a much lower unit of resource,” he added.

These sentiments were echoed by Jayne Clarke, executive principal of Oldham Sixth Form College, who said it is well understood that funding for sixth-form education should be increased.

And Association of Colleges deputy chief executive Julian Gravatt said the investment “is an argument in favour of wider investment in post-16 education and not just for those on track to selective universities”.

Eton told FE Week that it intends to increase opportunities for young people over and above those who might attend the new sixth forms.

“For example, EtonX future skills courses will be offered for free to all 11 to 16 partner schools in these towns, as will other digital content via our Eton Virtual platform,” a spokesperson said.

The institution will offer opportunities for those in partner schools to access career education, society speaker and academic enrichment programmes run by Eton and Star. Eton will also host a free residential Eton Connect summer school for year 10 students from these areas.

Some multi-academy trusts have benefited from philanthropist investments in the past.

But Sam Freedman, an ex-government adviser now at Ark Schools, said Eton’s proposed level of investment is “quite unusual” particularly in the post-16 space.

He added that he has no problem with Eton taking money from rich parents and giving it to kids who need more help, but added: “I just wish they were offering these schools to a wider range of students, rather than just those at the top.”

A DfE spokesperson said the department welcomes proposals for new sixth forms “where they are most needed to ensure that talented children from disadvantaged backgrounds have the opportunity to progress to leading universities” as part of its levelling up agenda.

CORRECTION: The original version of this article said students at Eton’s sixth forms would receive around £4,000 extra per student. This was based on Eton sharing the £1 million perpetuity between each year group of 240 students. Eton has now clarified it will be £1 million between two-year groups totalling around an extra £2,000 per student per year.

FE Week asks the skills minister: are apprentices paid enough? 

Apprentice pay is “better than it looks on paper”, the skills minister has insisted.   

FE Week quizzed Alex Burghart on the issue in the face of a cost-of-living crisis during this week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference.   

Experts, including the Low Pay Commission, recognise that many deem the minimum wage for apprentices to be “unfair” and a disincentive for those considering the programme.   

A campaign was launched last year to encourage employers to pay apprentices over and above the minimum rate, which currently stands at £4.30 an hour but will increase to £4.81 an hour next month.   

Burghart said he “knows it is a difficult time” but asked people “to bear in mind a few points” which show apprentice pay isn’t as bad as some fear.   

“I completely appreciate that this is a very increasingly difficult time for a lot of people across the country with increasing inflation and increasing cost of living, particularly energy costs. I know that everyone is starting to feel the squeeze,” he told FE Week.   

“Obviously, when it comes to apprenticeship pay, I think there are a few things to bear in mind. The first is that it’s set by the Low Pay Commission. But the other is to remember that this is a minimum, and most apprentices will be earning more than that.”   

The skills minister added that he thinks the median income for apprentices is actually closer to about £8.24 an hour.   

Plus, apprentices are entitled to the minimum wage for their age if they are aged 19 or over and have completed the first year of their apprenticeship.   

An apprentice aged 21 who has completed the first year of their apprenticeship, for example, is currently entitled to a minimum hourly rate of £8.36.   

Burghart said: “Whilst that’s still difficult for some people, it [apprentice pay] is better than it looks on paper.”   

The Low Pay Commission produces a report every year to set national minimum wage rates. 

Its report for 2021, published in December, pointed out that the latest growth in median pay for apprentices has been driven by the fall in the number of apprentices doing lower-level apprenticeships.   

But the commissioners said the volume of evidence over a period of years has indicated “widespread dissatisfaction” with the level of the apprentice rate.   

They added that unions, employers and other groups repeated the message that the apprentice rate did not ensure a decent standard of living for young people; left them struggling to cover basic living costs; and could cause hardship and distress.   

The report also pointed out that underpayment of even the national minimum wage for apprentices “continues to be a problem across all ages” as identified by the government’s Apprenticeship Pay Survey, which was last published in January 2020 for the 2018/19 academic year.   

Research into the “reasons for non-completion” in apprenticeships was also published by the Department for Education in 2019 and found that “offer of a paid job” was the third most common reason for apprentices dropping out. “Apprenticeship did not pay high enough” was another common reason.   

A campaign called Back the Future was launched last year and called for a “decent” minimum apprentice wage of at least £6.25 an hour to be implemented. 

Cambridge sixth form still ‘outstanding’ in first Ofsted inspection since 2006 

A principal has hailed the hard work of staff and students after her sixth-form college retained an Ofsted ‘outstanding’ judgment over 15 years since its last inspection.   

Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridgeshire was lauded by inspectors for creating a “highly ambitious and inclusive community” in a report published this week that resulted in grade ones across the board.   

Principal Jo Trump said: “Delivery of educational excellence is about enduring habits and values that have students at the heart of everything. And we do that so well, Ofsted or no Ofsted.   

“Throughout every aspect of our work with young people, we strive for excellence, and it’s wonderful to see the hard work of our staff and students recognised in this way.”   

‘Outstanding’ schools and colleges began to be inspected last term for the first time since 2010, after an exemption was removed last year.   

Hills Road Sixth Form College was last inspected in November 2006.   

In the latest inspection, Ofsted found that students “consider it a privilege to study” at Hills Road and “enjoy studying alongside other like-minded students who challenge and inspire them”.   

Students also have a “strong work ethic and dedicated focus to achieve the very top grades of which they are capable”.   

The college’s “highly ambitious, inspirational and effective curriculum” was also recognised by Ofsted, which found that learning extends “well beyond… academic expectations” by, for instance, creating a “wealth of enrichment opportunities that are highly effective in building students’ character in preparation for their next steps”.   

Ofsted said the college teaches around 2,640 level 3 students aged 16 to 19, and there are 13 students with high needs.   

Thirty-five A-level subjects are on offer. Inspectors found the college maintains curriculum breadth by supporting small class sizes in specialist subjects, such as dance, Latin, history of art, German and geology.   

The college was praised for “extensive investment in specialist tutors, whose role is to support students to cope with such a demanding curriculum”.   

Teaching staff were described as “enthusiastic, skilled and highly qualified in their subjects” and who “use their knowledge and skills to successfully inspire and motivate students”.   

Senior staff were found to “encourage and achieve extremely high levels of collaboration with parents and carers” as leaders “recognise the considerable benefits of involving and informing parents in their decision making and student progress monitoring”.   

Within the college’s provision for students with high needs, “staff are highly proficient and extremely proactive in planning the curriculum for students with SEND”, Ofsted added.   

“Students with high needs are supported exceptionally well to integrate with their group and gain confidence in their ability.”   

Trump said: “We look forward to maintaining and improving on these standards at Hills Road for many years to come.” 

Treasury plays down apprenticeship levy review

The Treasury has denied the apprenticeship levy is under “formal” review, despite the chancellor promising to “consider” and “examine” its effectiveness.   

Rishi Sunak delivered his spring statement on Wednesday and told the House of Commons he would “consider” whether the current tax system, including the operation of the apprenticeship levy, is “doing enough to invest in the right kinds of training”.   

Final decisions from this apparent review are set to be announced in the autumn budget, he told the chamber.   

Accompanying documents published after Sunak’s speech added: “The government will consider whether further intervention is needed to encourage employers to offer the high-quality employee training the UK needs.   

“This will include examining whether the current tax system – including the operation of the apprenticeship levy – is doing enough to incentivise businesses to invest in the right kinds of training.”   

But in what one expert described as a “bizarre” backtrack, the Treasury has now played down the review when FE Week approached the department for further details.   

FE Week understands the prospect of a formal review into the apprenticeship levy is strongly opposed by officials in the Department for Education who, sources say, pushed back against the Treasury following yesterday’s spring statement.   

The Treasury has now said: “There will not be a formal review of the apprenticeship levy or system.   

“All taxes are under constant review and we will continue to engage with businesses on the levy. We are committed to protecting the quality of apprenticeship training and improving the system to respond to the legitimate concerns raised by employers.”   

Calls for greater flexibilities of the apprenticeship levy have come from employer representatives for years, with various groups welcoming yesterday’s news, as many want to use funds for other training courses and associated apprenticeship costs, such as travel and wages.   

Ed Reza Schwitzer, who worked in the DfE for six years before becoming an associate director at public policy think tank Public First, said he suspects the chancellor is likely to announce a “discrete tax credit” in the autumn budget, rather than wholesale change of the apprenticeship levy.   

“From what I can pick up from government, this is fundamentally about looking at the skills landscape more broadly and how the current tax system does or doesn’t incentivise the best possible behaviours from business in terms of training and retraining,” he told FE Week.   

“Whether this was clear in the original statement is definitely up for debate, but I’m assured that while Treasury will want to ensure any proposed changes work well in tandem with the existing levy set-up, they are not intending to substantially unpack the levy itself.”   

He added: “Given the chancellor is clearly working to develop his own personal brand and ‘offer’ to the electorate, I would suspect what would suit the chancellor most is to announce a discrete tax credit of some sort in the autumn budget.”   

Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said it was “frankly bizarre that the chancellor would tell parliament on one day that he was reviewing the levy, only to be flatly contradicted by government officials the next”.   

Bewick said no one is expecting the levy to be scrapped, or for an entirely new system to be adopted, but to “try and pretend there is no discussion to be had about the efficacy of the levy is to be tone deaf to what has actually happened to the performance of English apprenticeships” a decade on from the Richard Review.   

The Institute of Directors called on the Treasury to clarify its plan for engaging with business on this issue as it believes greater flexibilities are needed in the levy, which was echoed by the Confederation of British Industry.   

Jane Hickie, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, urged for details of any type of review to be made available as quickly as possible.   

And Toby Perkins, Labour’s shadow skills minister, said the apprenticeship levy itself “demonstrates the government’s chaotic failure to deliver a plan to drive forwards the training opportunities needed to help individuals and the economy prosper”. 

Spring statement: Chancellor will review apprenticeship levy

Rishi Sunak has announced that he will review the apprenticeship levy.

In his spring statement today, the chancellor said a review of the apprenticeship levy will be part of a new Treasury tax plan, which will be finalised in the autumn. 

“We lag international peers in adult technical skills. Just 18 per cent of 25-64 hold vocational qualifications, a third lower than the OECD average,” he told the House of Commons.

“And UK employers spend just half the European average on training their employees

“So we will consider whether the current tax system including the operation of the apprenticeship levy is doing enough to incentivise businesses to invest in the right kinds of training.”

Treasury documents published just after Sunak’s speech outlines the government’s new ‘Tax Plan‘. The plan has four themes; cost of living, capital, people and ideas.

Under ‘people’, the Treasury states that “the government is increasing skills funding significantly over the parliament. We want businesses to do the same.”

Calls for flexibilities of the apprenticeship levy have come from employer representatives for years, with various sectors wanting to use funds for other training courses and associated apprenticeship costs like travel and wages.

The Treasury appear to have heard calls for reform. In the main spring statement document, it states: “The government recognises that employers have frustrations with the way that these apprenticeship levy funds can be spent within the apprenticeships system and is delivering a suite of improvements to address these.

“As part of this, the government is looking at how more flexible apprenticeship training models can be supported, while ensuring apprenticeships remain a high-quality training route for employees of all ages and stages of their career.”

Skills sector bodies however have warned against going too far in providing employers with greater levy flexibilities.

Responding to today’s announcement, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, Jane Hickie, said: “We would strongly advise that levy funding should remain ring fenced for training and assessment only.

“We look forward to seeing more details about the government’s plans to boost training investment and productivity rates by reforming the apprenticeship levy. Like everybody else, employers and training providers face rising costs over the coming months. Training providers will be disappointed there is little in today’s statement that offers the support they need.”

And speaking at yesterday’s FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conferece, Association of Colleges boss David Hughes said it would be an “unmitigated disaster” to add radical flexibilities to the levy.

“The funding in the apprenticeship levy is for apprenticeship training, not for things like wage subsidies,” he said.

“I think it could be a really dangerous line to go down. In my view the levy is a tax to pay for training that leads to apprenticeships, it’s really simple. We shouldn’t let it be spent on other things.”

Tom Bewick, the chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said the review of the levy was the “most welcome” in today’s spring statement.

“The brutal fact is that this payroll tax, levied on just 2 per cent of British companies, has not delivered on its original policy goals because we have fewer people and companies, overall, engaged in apprenticeships than we did in prior to 2017,” he said.

“We look forward therefore to making positive proposals to the government of how to improve the operation of the levy, but crucially, to bring an end to the decline in employer investment in training which has halved over the past decade.”

Revealed: AAC Apprenticeship Awards 2022 winners

The winners of the 2022 Annual Apprenticeship Conference Awards have been revealed at a glitzy ceremony in Birmingham. 

From a record-breaking 370 awards entries, judges have selected 24 award winners and 12 highly commended recipients. Categories included awards for diversity in apprenticeships, SEND apprenticeships, campaigns that promote apprenticeships as well as 15 sector-specific awards. 

Gower College Swansea scooped two awards, taking home care services apprenticeship provider of the year and the SEND apprenticeship champion award.

Shane Mann, managing director of FE Week’s publisher Lsect and AAC awards co-host, said “Tonight we’ve proved that there is so much to celebrate in the apprenticeships sector.  

“The providers, employers and individuals we’ve recognised tonight represent the innovators, risk-takers and pioneers that are not only doing amazing things for apprentices, but are also proving that apprenticeships are a first-rate pathway through education.

“Congratulations to all the winners and thank our team of amazing judges, sponsors and partners. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

The evening culminated in the award for apprentice employer of the year, won by Lloyds Banking Group, and apprentice provider of the year, won by Realise.

Also co-hosting the awards ceremony was AELP chief executive Jane Hickie.

“The AAC apprenticeship awards are a highlight of the conference every year – and it’s great that AELP and FE Week have been able to work together to put this event on once again. 

“I would like to send congratulations to all the finalists but especially to the winners. The last 12 months have been tough for many apprenticeship providers as we have come out of the pandemic, so it’s even more remarkable that the entrants were so strong this year” she said.

See below for a full list of awards winners.

The winners of the AAC Apprenticeship Awards 2022

College students stage mass walk out over ‘stop and search’ knife crime security checks

Students staged a mass walk out and a governor resigned yesterday after their college introduced what they call “stop and search” security checks – with some promising more protests are to come.

City and Islington College in London started conducting random security checks at the entrance to its sixth form campus on February 28, something leaders said was necessary because of a rise in knife crime.

The policy change has been met with strong opposition from both students and staff who say that the measures amount to “stop and search” tactics used by the police – a term the college disputes.

Students who spoke to FE Week said they feel “violated” by the checks.

A campaign against the policy has been ongoing since its introduction. But students said that following the scandal around Child Q, where a 15-year-old black girl was strip searched, they decided to stage the walkout.

Some 150 to 200 students attended the protest according to the college. FE Week has also learnt that a student governor on Capital City College Group’s quality oversight committee – the parent group for the college – has resigned over the issue.

Justifying the college’s decision Kurt Hintz, City and Islington College’s principal said: “There have been incidents resulting in injury or death of young people, including students of our colleges in London.

“As one of London’s largest sixth form colleges, our duty is not only to educate and inspire our students, but to do whatever we can to keep them safe while they are in our care.”

The checks take place on average about once every couple of weeks, on a random day. A system then randomly sends 10 to 20 per cent of students for a search when they check-in at college.

If a student is selected for a search, their bags are checked and a metal detecting wand is passed over them – something the college likens to a visit to a museum or an airport.

For those students who are selected for the check, the security screening is conducted by a specially trained security person and that person should be the same gender as the student – a rule which hasn’t been adhered to every time.

The check is also overseen by a member of the college’s curriculum or student support team of the same gender as the student.

“It seems that the first time the checks were carried out at this site, some students may have been checked by someone not of their gender, but the process is completely non-invasive, and at all times a same-gender member of our non-security staff was present during the checks,” a spokesperson for the college said.

The spokesperson said that students who do not wish to participate in the screening on the day are not able to access the site that day but can return the very next day for lessons as normal. No-one is being suspended or excluded as a result.

Hintz said students had every right to protest and said he welcomed the focus on knife crime in London and the “important debate that these additional security checks have brought about”.

However, one student who spoke to FE Week who did not want to be named, argued there’s a culture in college that assumes the guilt of young people before anything has been proven.

“It happens a lot, when teachers are suspicious of students for carrying knives, before they’ve even found anything,” they said.

“It feels like we’ve been violated because we’ve basically been told we are more likely to be carrying knives or weapons.” they added.

A spokesperson from the college said that students and parents had been properly consulted.

“The topic of the additional security checks was then discussed with students in a range of meetings, including a students’ union meeting on February 25,” they said.

The college also wrote to parents and students on March 17 and explained the rationale behind the process.

But students from the college told FE Week that they weren’t consulted properly.

“It felt like one day we turned up, and it was in place — we weren’t given enough of a warning, nor were we widely consulted,” they said.

Do students at the college feel safe?

The college carried out a survey of 987 of its students and found that 63 per cent said the checks made them feel safe.

However, a student from the City and Islington College told FE Week that the security measures had the opposite effect.

“For me, personally, I don’t feel safer if when I come into college I have to be searched. I’ve never felt unsafe in college before,” they said. 

“The college is really welcoming. The teachers are really lovely. And the college has been great throughout Covid and throughout the two years I’ve been there.

“I’ve never felt unsafe inside the college. But as soon as they started to introduce stop and search, I started to feel unsafe, because I felt like at any point I could be pulled up and I could be searched and my personal space could be violated.”

A group of students who are running a campaign called “nostopandsearchcandi” against the security measures told FE Week that the measures were “heavy-handed”.

“We do not believe the system enforced by our college is actually keeping us safe, but instead it’s causing a sense of unease and fear.”

Inspectors find ‘enormous and enduring’ failures in prison education

Poor reading education at prisons is an “enormous and enduring problem” Ofsted’s chief inspector has said as a new review by inspectors finds reading education at prisons is “minimal at best”.

Ofsted and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) carried out a joint review of reading education in prisons- the results of which were published today. 

Inspectorates sought to understand how prisoners’ reading is assessed, what provision is in place and how much progress prisoners make.

Inspectors found that reading education is not given sufficient priority in the prison regime and that much education provision was not organised in a way that supports prisoners to improve their reading. 

According to the report the curriculum at prisons was not well designed to improve reading and that prisoners with the greatest need to improve their reading generally received the least support.

“This research shines a light on the reading education that prisoners are getting, or in most cases, the lack of it,” said Amanda Spielman, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Ofsted. 

“There are some serious systemic challenges, as well as plenty of poor practice. Little progress has been made in the priority of education since the Coates Review in 2016. 

“I want Ofsted, with the prison service and wider government leaders, to be part of the solution to this enormous and enduring problem.”

Last September, the inspectorates committed to carrying out a year-long review of prison education, which included this research into reading in prisons.

Ofsted jointly visited six prisons to carry out the research. Its findings are based on interviews with senior prison leaders, leaders in the education department, teachers, librarians, prison officers and prisoners. 

The regulator reviewed curriculum plans and assessment data, visited classrooms, education departments and prison libraries, and spoke to prisoners in their residential units. 

“Our study highlights the systemic barriers that prevent prisoners from receiving effective support to acquire or improve their reading skills,” Ofsted said. 

Inspectorates found that leaders’ focus was on enrolling prisoners on courses aimed at gaining qualifications, even though up to 50 per cent of the prisoner population could not read well enough to take part. 

“As a result, prisoners who need the most support with education are largely overlooked,” Ofsted said in a statement. 

Ofsted said that in most prisons, the curriculum is not focused on reading but on practising for exams and prisoners are not encouraged to enjoy reading, to apply their reading skills across their life, or to “read whole books”. 

The report goes on to say that many staff did not know how to teach reading. 

“This lack of adequate reading education means that quality support has been left to voluntary organisations or enthusiastic staff members,” Ofsted said. 

Inspectorates also found that prisons do not have systems in place to identify prisoners’ reading needs or to track their progress. 

In most of the prisons visited for the research, routine phonics screening assessments were not being used to identify the gaps in prisoners’ knowledge and skills, and information on prisoners’ learning was not routinely shared with other prisons.

“The failure to teach prisoners to read or to extend the literacy of poor readers is a huge missed opportunity. It means many prisoners do not get the benefits of reading while in prison,” said HMI Prisons Chief Inspector, Charlie Taylor. 

“And it means that many will fail to learn the essential skills that will help them to resettle, get work and make a success of their lives when they are released.”

Concerns were echoed by others across the sector.

Peter Cox, managing director of Novus, a provider that delivers education, training and employability services to offenders across the UK, said that reading is a “fundamental skill” and the starting point for learning.

However, he noted that many prisoners arrive in their cells unable to read. 

“The biggest obstacle to improving literacy among prisoners is the available budget for prison education, which does not meet need,” he said. 

“At present, the hourly funding rate for male prisoners is around 17 per cent of the equivalent rate for students in community-based adult education. 

“Prison education has a proven impact on reducing reoffending; according to research by Manchester Metropolitan University, participation in prison education reduces the likelihood of reoffending by around a third.” 

Cox called for increasing investment, which he said would reduce the £18 bn cost of reoffending to society each year.

“As the report acknowledges, education providers are mainly funded to deliver qualifications; for those learners who are unable to read, this starting point is beyond their grasp. 

“Greater flexibility in education contracts would allow providers to deliver a curriculum focused on need, rather than simply delivering qualifications,” he added. 

Francesca Cooney, head of policy at the Prisoners’ Education Trust said the report highlights that prison education is “not good enough and is not the priority that it should be across the prison system”.

“If people leave prison unable to read then we have missed a key chance to help them get a job and turn their lives around.

“The most concerning finding is that learners with the highest level of need receive the least help,” Cooney said.  

She argued that supporting learners to read must be a higher priority for prisons and the Ministry of Justice.

“They must focus on reading needs, not just on contractual targets. Funding for prison education must be increased and prison teachers must have more support and training, so that every prisoner gets a high quality education that meets their specific needs,” Cooney added.