Low achievement in schools can lead to disengagement from education, exclusion from school and crime. According to the Youth Justice Board (YJB), excluded pupils are almost three times more likely to commit crimes than their peers who are in school. Over half of young people on a Detention and Training Order (DTO) have literacy and numeracy levels below that expected of an 11-year-old, although their average age is 17. There is also evidence from the adult prison population to suggest that the underlying factor is poverty, with prisoners' literacy levels corresponding to their social class. (1)Government policy aims both to prevent disengagement from education and to address the poor skills of young people in the youth justice system, meaning that they are better equipped for employment, which is thought to be the single most important factor in preventing re-offending.
Government targets for 2006/7-2008/9
- 90% of young offenders supervised by YOTs to be in suitable, full-time education, training or employment
- 90% of young people to receive 30 hours a week of education, training, and personal development activity compliant with the National Specification for Learning and Skills. For young people in young offender institutions (YOIs), the expected performance will be 25 hours
- YOIs to ensure that attendance rates for timetabled education and training sessions do not fall below 90%
- All young people entering secure facilities to be tested for literacy and numeracy
- 80% of young people on DTOs of 12 months or more to improve by one skill level or more in literacy and/or numeracy, to the level of need set out in their individual learning plan
- Reoffending by young offenders to be reduced by 5% by March 2008 compared with the 2002/03 baseline
These targets were the same as those set for 2004, but progress has been slow in achieving them. The second quarter of 2003 showed that 72.4% of young offenders were engaged in full-time education, training or employment. By the third quarter of 2004, this had risen to 73%. Young offenders on a DTO have become more engaged in education, training and employment, rising from 41% engaged in quarter three of 2002 to 57% in quarter three of 2004.
For more on youth justice visit www.yjb.gov.uk
| Initiatives and ideas
Research |
Related areas
|
PLUS is the YJB's strategy to target those within the youth
justice system who have a record of poor achievement in literacy
and numeracy. It aims to re-engage these young people in education
and enable to break the cycle of re-offending by giving them
the skills they need for the future.
PLUS provides a flexible approach to learning and a range
of materials, including a computer based initial assessment
tool, traditional worksheets for individual or group study,
interactive CD ROMs (based around mobile phone technology
and buying a scooter) and "enrichment materials"
of a pond building kit and music projects. These are all specifically
designed to meet the needs of and appeal to young people,
using their interests to engage them in learning. PLUS also
provides teachers' materials, including a guide to accreditation,
which maps the PLUS modules to the National Core Curriculum
and Adult Basic Skills Core Curriculum, and development and
training for teachers and support staff; a website and helpline
are planned.
The programme has been piloted with young people on DTOs,
but will be used nationally across the youth justice system,
including in community settings, as part of the Department
for Education and Skills' Skills for Life programme. There
are opportunities for Youth Offending Teams to engage in the
delivery of programmes and to promote them to local training
providers. It is also hoped that practitioners in the system
will have the opportunity to be directly involved with the
learning activities, such as prison officers helping to run
the enrichment activities.
Links:
This project took the form of eight workshops, in which young
offenders produced written work inspired by objects from loan
boxes brought in by staff from Reading Museum. The workshops
incorporated the history of the objects, participants' perceptions
of them, and the writing of short pieces of prose or poetry,
led by a professional poet.
The young men's confidence was built by initially writing
poems as a group: everyone, including the facilitator, contributed
one line to the poem. The objects that worked best were ones
related to topics the participants had not studied at school,
such as Egyptian and Native American items, smoking objects
and those connected with natural history. A book of their
poems was produced, and a copy given to all participants.
The young men appreciated the fact that they were trusted
to hold the artefacts, and that their work was put into the
loan boxes to inspire school children and others with their
own writing.
Link
For more information, and a toolkit for practitioners, visit
www.mlasoutheast.org.uk
Reference
D. Kendall and J. McAlpine-Black for SEMLAC (2004) Project
Hero Toolkit, Winchester: SEMLAC.
(SEMLAC is now MLA South East)
One to One is a scheme at HMYOI Huntercombe through which
volunteer tutors help juvenile offenders with their literacy,
language and numeracy, with the aim of giving boys the skills
and confidence to access learning opportunities.
Volunteers are trained in working in a secure environment
as well as in helping students with their reading and writing.
One to One uses a phonic programme that staff have found to
work well for inexperienced learners, those with learning
difficulties and those whose first language is not English.
Students may be referred to the scheme from various areas
of the prison - for example, they may need help with catering
vocabulary if they work in the kitchens.
The support students receive is tailored to their individual
needs and interests, and volunteers work closely with the
scheme coordinators to move their students' skills on within
a short time. Prison staff have noticed improved confidence
and self-esteem in participants, along with a better ability
to cope with prison life; they see improving a prisoner's
literacy skills as part of a wider picture. The scheme is
funded by the prison itself.
Links:
School-age criminals achieve more locked up in young offenders'
institutions than under supervised education in Welsh communities,
according to a report on the youth justice system. Inspection
body Estyn found many young offenders gain nationally recognised
qualifications for the first time when behind bars. But they
do not do as well after release because youth offending teams
fail to chart their progress.
Between 2002 and 2003 in Wales, more than a third of youngsters
who had offended, or were at risk of offending, were not in
full-time education because of exclusion or truancy. Inspectors
say many do not receive the legally-required equivalent of
25 hours' education a week for excluded pupils because LEAs
are failing in their duty. They also found youth offending
team education workers - who are often not qualified teachers
- lacked influence in schools.
David Hopkins, acting chair of the Association of Directors
of Education in Wales, acknowledged there were tensions between
schools and youth offending teams. But he said it was often
too late to turn around young people's underachievement. He
said, "We need to be looking at using a cross-agency
approach to nip bad behaviour in the bud before it leads to
exclusion from schools and the path down to supervised education.
In this case prevention is better than cure."
Estyn claims young offenders achieve more in prison because
learning can relieve boredom and means mixing with other inmates.
But the body said more needs to be done by the Welsh Assembly
government and the Youth Justice Board to raise educational
achievement on the outside. This includes a requirement on
youth offending teams to record and track young people's progress,
more training for YOT education workers when dealing with
council officers and schools, and improving individual education
plans for offenders.
(TES Cymru, 5 August 2005)
| 80px.gif)
