Foreword This statement sets out our plans to secure real and lasting improvement in prisoners’ learning and skills – both in prison and in the crucial period after their release. This will be achieved through a new strategic partnership between the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) and the Prison Service, working with all the key agencies. Most prisoners have very low levels of educational attainment. They have left school having derived very little benefit from the experience. When they leave prison, poor skills and qualifications make it harder to obtain and hold down a job and to build a life away from crime. That means a high social and economic cost for the public in terms of crime and social exclusion. Focusing on prisoners’ learning needs is not a substitute for preventative measures of the kind the Government is putting in place to tackle social exclusion, and to help vulnerable young people and adults gain from education, training and work: it is an essential component of our agenda to build citizenship and employability. Nor is investment in education and training for prisoners a soft option or a reward for poor behaviour. As part of our plans to modernise the criminal justice system, it has a key role to play in helping to break the cycle of re-offending which is the standard pattern of behaviour for over half of all offenders. There are clear links between appropriate education and training, the reduction of re-offending and the protection of society. Much good work is already being done in prisons and the positive outcomes of our commitment to raise skills levels are clearly evident. But the present arrangements are neither sufficiently comprehensive nor consistently applied in all our prisons. Nor do they provide the continuity of support necessary to help prisoners find work or go on to further education once they leave prison. The new partnership which this statement launches will improve prisoners’ learning and skills. We will actively promote the ambitious agenda set out here. Tessa Blackstone, Minister of State, DfEE Paul Boateng, Minister of State, Home Office

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