250 prison teaching jobs to go
The contracting-out of prison education has again proved to be a flop, as Manchester College plans to slash 250 jobs from its teaching team in UK jails, reports Private Eye
Manchester College is the biggest provider of prison education after winning the contracts to teach at 96 jails, young offender institutions and secure training centres around the UK. However, teaching staff at Oakhill STC in Bedfordshire held a one-day strike last year over their “terrible” working conditions. A year after Manchester had taken over the contract in 2008, only 13 of the original 34 staff were still in post.
Now Peter Tavernor, Manchester Principal, has written to college staff saying that “offender learning contracts have proved to be financially challenging, due to unforeseen hidden costs”.
After threatening to pull out of two of its regional contracts entirely, in the northeast and south-east, the college won £2m from the further education funding body, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), to help with the cost of cutting staff (with redundancy payments and the like). But the principal’s letter adds that “additional savings of £3m” will be needed. Teacher unions and prison campaigners say the cuts will have a devastating impact on the education available to prisoners, which is vital if prisoners are to acquire skills that lead to jobs after release and so prevent their re-offending.
Manchester took over many of its prison contracts from private training company A4E, including the eight in Kent where A4E had jumped ship before its contract was up in 2008, complaining that it was running at a huge loss. Not all colleges failed to foresee the hidden costs. Last year, City and Islington College and Hammersmith West London College withdrew bids to teach at Pentonville, Holloway and Belmarsh prisons after complaining that there wasn’t enough money on offer to deliver a good service.
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