Sector summary
Justice sector
2022-2023
(Only one prison in Wales was inspected during the 2022-2023 academic year, and therefore these findings do not represent the national picture across Wales for the whole of the justice sector.)
Teaching and learning
What's going well
- Prisoners benefit from a broad range of relevant education, training and work activities that are linked to labour market needs.
- Overall, many learners gain appropriate qualifications during their time in prison.
- There are beneficial opportunities to learn and practise Welsh language skills.
What needs to improve
- The identification of and support for emergent readers is not strong enough.
- Delays in setting up training workshops restrict access to valuable curriculum provision.
- Barriers to and inconsistencies in prisoners’ access to education induction and allocation of spaces, limit take-up of available spaces.
Care, support and well-being
What's going well
- The prison’s employment board and hub work well together to motivate men to secure gainful employment.
- Prison mentors continue to provide valuable support for learning and well-being needs.
- Staff members support prisoners well to build their confidence and resilience and develop social and emotional skills.
What needs to improve
- Prisoners’ additional learning needs are not being identified robustly enough. This makes it difficult to establish accurately what provision and staff training is required to support these learners effectively.
- Attendance at education, training and work sessions is too variable, and the reasons for this are not understood well enough.
Leading and improving
What's going well
- Leaders and staff worked well together to ensure a return to a full-time education, training and work offer following the disruption of the pandemic.
- Teaching staff access a range of professional learning to develop their teaching.
What needs to improve
- The professional learning and development offer does not cater well enough for vocational tutors to update and develop their vocational skills.
- The causes of non-attendance or shortfalls in the take-up of education, training and work are not analysed well enough to identify areas for improvement.
Overview of recommendations
1
One provider was inspected during 2022-2023.
Estyn joined HMI of Prisons to inspect the education, skills and work activities in one prison inspection, at Swansea HMP, during 2022-2023. We identified the following recommendations in relation to education and training:
- Use information from self-evaluation activities effectively to identify precise areas for improvement.
- Prioritise actions to address shortcomings in infrastructure and processes to secure the full return to education, training and work activities.
- Improve the identification of, and support for, emergent readers and those with additional learning needs.
Reflective questions
Questions to help providers accurately identify and develop prisoners’ reading skills:
It is well-understood that prisoners often have lower literacy skills than the general population. This affects their educational attainment and engagement in society, and increases the likelihood of reoffending.
- How well does leadership across the prison and at all levels visibly and actively support the development of prisoners’ reading skills and their reading for pleasure?
- How well does the curriculum provide regular, planned, and meaningful opportunities to progressively develop prisoners’ reading skills, including those for emergent readers?
- How well are prisoners’ reading skills developed across the curriculum and outside of skills sessions, including in workplace learning and training?
- Do assessments provide precise information on prisoners’ learning needs, including their reading abilities and the reading skills they need to develop?
- How well does the information from reading assessments support curriculum design and teaching approaches and the advice and guidance given to prisoners regarding the appropriate pathways or programmes to follow?
- How well does professional learning support staff across the curriculum to learn how to develop prisoners’ reading skills from their starting points?
- How well does the library cater for emergent readers’ interests?
- How effective are incentives to encourage prisoners to improve their reading and to read for pleasure?
