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Lord Ramsbotham writes for ePolitix.com about the implications for prisoner education of the abolition of the Learning and Skills Council.
If I had to choose a phrase to describe the outward and visible signs of this government, certainly in the criminal justice arena, I would say 'change for change's sake'.
Along with countless others I have lost sight of the number of untried introductions that have been overtaken by other untried introductions before they have had time to bear fruit.
One of Tony Blair's many soundbites was 'education, education, education'. No subject is more important in the rehabilitation of offenders; witness the number of them who lack either any or any more than the very basic level of reading and writing skills.
Therefore I would have expected the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to set down, very clearly and precisely, what education is to be made available, in every prison in the country, to match the needs of every type of prisoner. I would then expect it to commission the delivery of that education in a way that ensured consistency throughout the prison system.
Interestingly the question that I have asked of the government on Monday about how education in prisons will be funded after the abolition of the Learning and Skills Councils, which has been responsible for the provision of prison education for the past three years, is to be answered not by the MoJ but by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
This suggests to me that the MoJ is not laying down what should be done, but leaving that up to the new separate funding authorities for education of those under and over 18 that are to replace Learning and Skills Councils in April – any consistency being a matter of luck.
All this before the Learning and Skills Councils had time to bed in let alone bear fruit.
Here we go again. But, remember, change is evidence of virile government!
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