Ofsted and HM Inspectorate of Prisons have carried out a joint review of reading education in prisons.
Following concerns about the poor state of prison education, Ofsted and HMIP decided to find out how prisoners are helped to improve their reading skills. Specifically, they sought to understand how prisoners’ reading is assessed, what provision is in place and how much progress prisoners make.
Key findings
Inspectors found that:
- reading education is not given sufficient priority in the prison regime and much of the provision is not organised in a way that supports prisoners to improve their reading.
- the curriculum was not designed to support improvement in prisoners’ reading skills, with those in most need of help receiving the least support.
Find out more about the review of reading education in prisons here
Find out more about the Ofsted review of prison education here
