Response to the Justice Secretary Prison Reform announcement
Kirstie Donnelly, Interim CEO of City & Guilds, comments on the Justice Secretary recent Reform of prison education announcement in the UK.
04 November 2016
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Kirstie Donnelly, Interim CEO of City & Guilds, commented: ‘Reform of prison education in the UK is long overdue so we welcome this weeks' announcement by the Justice Secretary. Equipping prisoners with the skills they need to get into a job after they are released is vital in order to reduce reoffending rates and drive down the economic and social costs of crime. It’s encouraging to see that measures are being put in place to increase levels of literacy and numeracy amongst prisoners as these skills are so closely linked to employability – we would like to see the same focus placed on digital literacy in the future as these skills continue to grow ever more important in the workplace.
It’s heartening to see a commitment to increasing staff numbers in prisons as 4/5ths of the prisons we work with have raised staffing as the main challenge to delivering high-quality education. We look forward to understanding the full impact of the detail contained in today’s White Paper, and hope the Government implements these measures sufficiently to allow prison education to have the transformational impact on individual lives of which it is capable.’
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