Vocational Training for Ex-Offenders

The Welsh Assembly Government acknowledges that reducing re-offending through skills and employment is one of the most effective means of combating crime. It also has a significant contribution to make to the learning and employment agenda in Wales. The Welsh Assembly Government is working in partnership with the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) in Wales and other key partners to integrate learning and skills across policies and programmes, to support offenders in achieving sustainable employment prospects.

The Assembly Government’s Basic Skills Strategy – Words Talk, Numbers Count – identifies offenders and ex-offenders as a priority group and sets out an approach based on co-ordinated multi-agency working. The Basic Skills Agency, as the key partner in delivering the Strategy, is establishing a National Support Project to provide additional support. The Welsh Assembly Government will continue to work with UK government departments, especially the Department for Work and Pensions, and Jobcentre Plus Wales, to support the range of initiatives to raise levels of employment and economic activity amongst offenders. Jobcentre Plus Wales is already involved with the Basic Skills Agency working toward this end.

The Welsh Assembly Government will liaise with the Department for Education and Skills and NOMS on the offender learning consultation Green Paper “Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment”, and will review how these findings may feed into the Assembly’s own strategies for learning, skills and employment in Wales, as set out in “Wales: A Better Country”, “Making the Connections: Delivering better services for Wales”, “The Skills and Employment Action Plan” and “The All Wales Youth Offender Strategy”.

To take this forward, I am pleased to advise you that the Welsh Assembly Government and NOMS are jointly chairing a newly established ‘Education, Training and Employment (ETE) for Offenders Group Wales’. This Group comprises representatives from organisations such as The Prison Service, The National Probation Service, Wales Employment Advisory Panel, Jobcentre Plus Wales, The Basic Skills Agency and Careers Wales. The Group will work closely with the National Offender Management Service and report to the Reducing Re-Offending Strategy Board for Wales, which is tasked with reducing re-offending through channels such as health, finance and ETE. The ETE for Offenders Group Wales will develop a strategy and associated action plan for introducing an integrated learning pathway that will assist the transition of Welsh offenders into employment. It will take into account the issues specific to Wales that are faced by offenders, learning providers and employers, resulting in a ‘made in Wales’ strategy. It is the Group’s intention that this plan be ready for implementation at the start of the next academic year.

I am also pleased to advise that the second Young Offenders’ Learning Project is underway for which the Youth and Pupil Participation Division of the Welsh Assembly Government has lead responsibility. The Project links into and is part of the ETE for Offenders Group Wales. The project addresses the learning, education and training needs of young people within the criminal justice system. Running from July 2005 to June 2007, it seeks to improve current provision of education and training for offenders aged between eleven and twenty five and overcome the barriers faced by young offenders in accessing the learning support and services specific to Wales as part of the ‘Extending Entitlement’ agenda. Part of the focus is on Welsh young offenders residing within the secure estate in England. Two ‘Personal support in custody’ youth workers are in place in Stoke Heath and Ashfield Youth Offenders’ Institutions. This is part of a pilot project which will, alongside the Youth Offending Teams, help to resettle the young people back into their communities and ETE activity.

In addition, you should be aware that the Assembly Government, through its management schedules for ELWa, has made qualifying ex-offenders a priority group for support, enabling them to have immediate access to ELWa’s work-based learning programmes.