Young people in young offender institutions (YOI) are being denied access to the education they have a legal right to, regulators have found.
The joint report from Ofsted and the HM Inspectorate of Prisons, released today, found that education in YOIs is “bleak” and has been steadily declining in the last decade.
It comes amid a stark picture of education in custody for both children and adults, with Ofsted grading the majority of prisons as ‘inadequate’ for their education and training, largely due to acute staffing and overcrowding crises.
A survey of adult prisoners, released last week, found “limited opportunities” with most of those lucky enough to spend more than two hours a day outside their cells feeling “disappointed” at a lack of training opportunities.
Young offenders
In today’s report on YOIs, titled ‘A decade of declining quality of education in young offender institutions: the systemic shortcomings that fail children,’ Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said young people spend “far too long locked up in their cell”.
Based on inspections of England’s four YOIs and surveys of young offenders, the report found 15- to 18-year-olds have “only 10 to 13” hours education per week, despite having a legal right to at least 15 hours.
Many lessons are cancelled due to “severe” shortages of staff to teach or escort young people to classrooms.
In addition, time out of cells has “sharply reduced” in recent years and staff rely on “complicated regimes” to manage potential violence between students, instead of focusing on their educational and career goals.
In one case, young offenders studying construction were placed on a barbering course “with no educational rationale”.
Sir Martyn said: “Many of the children in these institutions are extremely vulnerable.
“They are in urgent need of high-quality education: at present, the system has already failed them and continues to do so at this most urgent and crucial point in their life.”
Chief executive of Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) Jon Collins said: “All this adds up to a total failure to provide a good quality education to these young people, at a time when positive, effective interventions could be transformative.
“This report demands urgent action from the prison service and the government.
“More funding is needed, but so is a greater focus on what needs to be done to secure much-needed improvements.
“More of the same is simply unacceptable if we want to give these young people the skills and qualifications they need to have a chance in life.”
Lack of purposeful activity
This comes as more than two-thirds of adult prisoners spend most of their days in their cells “with little to occupy them”, a report published last week revealed.
The HMI Prisons report ‘purposeful prisons: time out of cell’ is based on responses from 5,000 prisoners surveyed during inspections between 2023 and 2024.
A quarter of prisoners said they have less than two hours outside their cell on a typical weekday and 44 per cent had less than six hours unlocked, leaving limited time for education and training.
Charlie Taylor, chief inspector of prisons, said the lack of purposeful activity leaves prisoners feeling more likely to reoffend on release.
Only 34 per cent of prisoners felt it was easy to access education and 18 per cent felt they had access to work opportunities, including vocational or skills training.
The report said: “For these prisoners, we repeatedly heard a sense of hopelessness and a pervasive feeling of boredom from long hours spent in their cells.”
‘Inadequate‘
The bleak picture painted by adult prisoners is reflected in repeated poor gradings by Ofsted during prison inspections.
In September, all five full prison inspections resulted in ‘inadequate’ gradings.
The most recent inspection of HMP Hull found many prisoners locked up for up to 22.5 hours per day in “particularly cramped cells”, with many telling inspectors they felt “bored” with little access to activities and “poor” attendance at education.
Taylor said: “Despite having so little to do, prisoners’ attendance at education was poor, partly because some of the teaching was not good enough, and it was disappointing to see workshops closed because there were no staff available.
“The governor was trying to improve the performance of the education provider, but progress had been much too slow.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson did not respond when asked about the comment on the prisoners’ survey or recent low Ofsted grades.
However, minister for youth justice, and former sixth form college principal, Nic Dakin said: “This government has inherited a criminal justice system in crisis, and these damning reports highlight the unacceptable strain that has been placed on the youth estate for too many years.
“We are determined to tackle these challenges head-on – giving staff the support they need to reduce violence, increase access to education and help these children turn their lives around. “This includes working towards a clear strategy for youth custody reform and stepping up efforts to stop more young people from getting caught up in crime in the first place.”
An FE Week investigation earlier this year highlighted concerns about declining prisoner participation in education, contracts that prioritise value for money over quality, and a focus on English and maths over more interesting or advanced courses.
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