New Approach to Offender Learning

Plans have been unveiled to meet the learning and skills needs of offenders and those at risk of offending in an effort to cut crime. A pilot project will take place in a Scottish prison to help those already in the justice system while intervention will also take place to help young people who have been identified as likely to offend in the future.

The plans, outlined by the Skills Minister, Keith Brown, on a visit to the young offenders institute in Polmont, come in the light of the Offender Learning: Options for Improvement report.

The report, which was published on the Scottish Government website at the start of 2010, concluded that "learning and skills acquisition … may offer a route out of offending and towards a more productive, positive future". However, it added that the "good work going on across Scotland to develop and deliver effective offender learning … is far from universal", services are "poorly integrated" and the help offered by the many agencies is "fragmented".

As part of the new measures, efforts to support offenders will be more co-ordinated, and the main agencies in this area will now work more closely.
Skills Development Scotland has appointed a full time staff member to work in the Polmont and Cornton Vale prisons while the Scottish Prison Service will attempt to attend to the learning requirements of 16 and 17 year olds in custody with a new approach which is based on the new Curriculum for Excellence as well as Getting it Right for Every Child, the programme that aims to improve outcomes for all children and young people.

You can read the views of Keith Brown and Derek McGill, the governor of Polmont, on the Scottish Government website. You can also find the Offender Learning report on the site.