Jon Collins of the Prisoners’ Education Trust on the latest prison education statistics.
Small Gains
Each year the prison education statistics come out from the Ministry of Justice. And each year they tell a pretty familiar story of high levels of need that prisons are struggling to meet. This year’s statistics – which cover 2024-25 and only include public sector adult prisons in England – are no different, although they do show levels of participation rising slightly. But they come at a key juncture for prison education, with new contracts about to come in and real concern about budget cuts.
Literacy and numeracy of people in prison
Firstly, the statistics include the results of literacy and numeracy assessments that people sent to prison complete before they engage in education. As always, they show lower levels among people in prison than in the broader population, with the majority (69% in Maths and 65% in English) at Entry Level 1-Entry Level 3. This is very slightly lower than last year – when the equivalent figures were 73% and 71% respectively – but still much, much higher than for the population as a whole (where the equivalent figures are 49% for numeracy and 15% for literacy).
Maybe most worryingly, 20% – nearly 10,000 people – were at Entry Level 1 for literacy, the lowest level in the assessment. The National Literacy Trust notes that adults below Entry Level 1 “may not be able to write short messages to family or read a road sign”. This shows how important it is to provide additional support, often one-to-one, for this group to enable them to, if nothing else, engage with the day-to-day prison regime.
Also important is the proportion of people who have a learning difficulty and/or disability (LDD). There is no overall figure on this for the prison population as a whole, but these statistics show that over half (57%) of people in prison who took an initial assessment and then enrolled on a course had an LDD. This again shows the importance of a personalised approach that takes into account these people’s specific needs.
Levels of participation rising
Secondly, the statistics tell us how many people took part in education during 2024-25. Here the news is somewhat positive, with more people participating than in the previous two years. Overall, 55,105 participated in a course of some kind in 2024-25, compared to 49,965 last year and 46,679 the year before that. For functional skills courses – accredited courses that cover English, maths, ICT and English for Speakers of Other Languages – 23,294 participated last year compared to 21,781 and 20,648 in the previous years.
While these increases of 10% and 7% respectively on last year are welcome (and outstrip the 0.25% increase in the prison population in this period), and we should take any small wins where we can with the prison system in its current state, the longer-term picture is still of a reduction in people taking part in education. Although there has been a change in the way the statistics are collated in the meantime, it’s clear that participation this year is still well below the peak levels of a decade or so ago, when more than 100,000 people participated in education at a time when the prison population was smaller than it is now.
Progression
Thirdly, the statistics tell us not only how many people participated in education but also how many made progress. Of the 55,105 people who participated in education, 49,135 (89%) made measurable progress. For functional skills courses, of the 23,294 people who participated, it was 17,876 (77%). These are similar levels to last year (91% and 79% respectively). However, it remains the case that relatively few people are achieving Level 2 in literacy and numeracy each year – the equivalent of GCSE grades 9-4 or A*-C. In 2024-25, just 2,232 people reached Level 2 in English and 1,264 in Maths.
So overall, the story of these statistics is modest improvement in very difficult circumstances. More people are participating in education – which is obviously good – and levels of attainment are similar to last year. With prisons continuing to really struggle, this is no mean feat.
Looming budget cuts
But it also ignores the elephant in the room. This is the last full year of the old Prison Education Framework contracts, which funded the delivery of this work. From 1st October, new contracts will replace them amid growing concern about the budget cuts that prisons are facing.
While the picture is by no means straightforward, with budgets shifting between local and national provision and between prisons based on their populations, the overall result is less funding for core education. So less funding for literacy and numeracy. And less funding for the vocational courses that can help people to get a job on release.
Some prisons appear to be very severely affected, with reports of one prison facing a 46.5% reduction in their budget. But even for those facing less dramatic cuts – the Prison Governors’ Association has suggested education budgets will be cut by at least 5% in real terms for most prisons – any less resource will be difficult to manage without cutting back on what is available.
This seems incredibly short-sighted. Prison education was already chronically underfunded, yet evidence shows that investing in it is cost effective because it leads to reductions in reoffending and more people getting a job. The latest statistics show at least some progress being made in getting more people into classrooms and workshops. Instead of cutting budgets, removing any chance of this being sustained, the Ministry of Justice should be putting more funding into prison education – helping more people to get the skills and qualifications they need to turn their lives around on release.
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here
2 responses
After working in Prison education for 16yrs delivering vocational qualifications in a resettlement training Prison, the budget cut is 40% within the new moj funding.
All industries accredited qualifications have now been removed in the industries workshoos with instructor’s being asked the deliver non accredited Assessment qualifications,this is surely not in the interest of reducing reoffending and employability.
Math and English have also seen a reduction with fewer courses being on the curriculum.
All education areas have seen a big reduction in funding. This is the most dramatic cut by the moj I have seen in my time working within this sector.
The sector will also lose a lot of experienced and dedicated Teachers who only want to turn around peoples lives.
Very sad to hear these details, thanks for sharing them.