Justice sector

Early Insights

Teaching and learning

Where teaching is strong, many learners develop valuable skills and make secure progress. However, the quality of teaching is inconsistent across the sector. Where it is weak, it does not meet learners’ needs or contribute well enough to their prospects of success on release.

What’s going well

In the adult prison we visited, many teaching sessions are planned securely with teachers providing helpful activities to support learning and progress. In these sessions, generally learners:

engage purposefully with education, training and work provision that meets their personal, educational, and employment needs effectively
develop valuable skills in meaningful contexts, including their literacy and numeracy skills
gain appropriate qualifications during their time in prison

What needs to improve

Learners’ progress towards achieving meaningful accreditation in literacy and numeracy is too slow at the YOI visited.
Where teaching activities do not challenge learners, or meet their needs or interests, this impacts negatively on learners’ engagement and progress. This was particularly true of a minority of sessions at the YOI.
A few children disrupt the progress of others in the YOI.
Across the prison estate visited this year, there is insufficient provision for learners to develop their digital skills.

Well-being, care, support and guidance

Rates of attendance have improved since the pandemic. However, the support for learners with additional learning needs to overcome barriers to learning is inconsistent.

What’s going well

Rates of attendance at education, training or work activities have steadily improved since the pandemic.
On the whole, many prisoners in adult men’s prisons engage productively in the activities on offer.
Staff members and peer mentors support prisoners and children in YOI effectively to build their confidence and resilience.
In some cases, staff use the information from initial assessments well to inform their teaching and mitigate against potential barriers to learning.

What needs to improve

Support for individuals with additional learning needs and how well staff monitor their progress is not strong enough.
A few children’s routines are too restrictive, reducing opportunities for them to develop their social and emotional skills.

Leading and improving

Leaders work well together to ensure that most learners have sufficient time out of cell to pursue a range of activities. However, where the curriculum offer is weak, there are insufficient opportunities for learners to engage in meaningful and appropriate learning or training.

What’s going well

Leaders and staff work well together to maximise opportunities for men and children to spend time out of cells.
Leaders review their provision appropriately to identify broad areas for development, such as the quality of teaching and the breadth of provision.
In some cases, leaders work well with external partners to enhance the range of accredited vocational pathways to increase learners’ chances of gaining successful employment on release.
Staff at all levels engage well in regional and national networks to share practice.

What needs to improve

The curriculum does not always meet learners’ needs and/or support their meaningful progression well enough. This was of particular concern at the YOI and was exacerbated by gaps in teaching staff.
Leaders do not use monitoring activities consistently well to identify areas for improvement precisely.
In a few cases, partnership working with external services or contractual partners is not strong enough.
There is insufficient provision to develop the Welsh language

There was only one joint inspection of youth justice services in Wales in 2023-2024. These findings are therefore not included in the interim findings but are reported on in full in the Annual report.