The Skills for Life national strategy to improve adult literacy and numeracy is contributing to this: all prisons must provide a basic skills screening test at reception and a core curriculum covering social and life skills, information technology and preparation for work as well as basic skills. Qualifications gained by offenders have made a large contribution to the achievement of the strategy's own targets.

The introduction of the OLASS arrangements saw the establishment of new contracts between the LSC and a series of lead providers. The main stakeholders in the new OLASS arrangements include the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Work and Pensions, with the main operational focus coming from the LSC, the National Offender Management Service, including HM Prison Service and the National Probation Service), the Youth Justice Board and the Youth Offending Teams, Jobcentre Plus and the Connexions Service.

OLASS does not have a dedicated staff or an organisation structure. Instead it is a means by which existing delivery services work together and focus on the particular needs of a specific group of learners. The budget that meets most of the costs of OLASS is held by the LSC (with a significant sum controlled also by the YJB) but the explicit intention, recognised by all the partners, is to act in a collaborative manner, making the effect of the OLASS arrangements greater than the sum of its parts.

OLASS also covers the education of young offenders. This is overseen by the Youth Justice Board, which commissions places for juveniles and young offenders in custodial establishments. Youth Offending Teams are multi-disciplinary teams that assess every young offender, identifying programmes to address their needs and prevent further offending. They exist in every local authority and are being incorporated into children's trusts. Local Connexions partnerships also work with young offenders in custody and the community, offering holistic support.

For more information visit www.dcsf.org.uk.

Probation

The National Probation Service (NPS) works with 200,000 offenders to protect the public and reduce re-offending. Under the remit of the Home Office, the NPS is concerned with offenders who are given community services and those released from prison, with responsibility for enforcing the conditions of their court orders and release licenses. In the last few years, basic skills has been addressed more systematically and a number of pathfinder projects were initiated. As a result of the emerging findings, and the Skills for Life strategy, a cross-government working group developed a NPS basic skills framework, implemented from April 2002.

It recommends probation areas to:

• screen all offenders for basic skills needs at pre-sentence report stage
• administer, as appropriate, initial assessment and diagnostic assessment of offenders at the start of community supervision
• refer, as appropriate, offenders to basic skills provision where possible
• support offenders to attend screening, assessment and basic skills provision

Since 2003-04 the service has had targets for basic skills learners and their achievements.