Reaching the ‘hard to reach’ through a whole-prison learning culture
Clare Taylor, Policy and Research Officer, PET and Morwenna Bennallick, PhD candidate, PET
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Both were involved in a year long NOMS funded project to evaluate the impact of a range of
Learner Voice activities in eight prisons in England
The project built on the Learner Voice toolkit published by PET in 2013
Worked in collaboration with Cambridge University to develop a survey tool to measure the
level of cultural change through the initiatives (learning and rehabilitative culture). The
learning culture was measured at the beginning of the project and again at the end in each
prison
Each prison had an initial day of training for a wide range of staff from different departments
across the prison to encourage the whole prison approach. A safe space was created for the
sharing of ideas and the development of individual projects in each of the prisons. A further
session took place between staff and prisoners to develop the projects further. A final
session took place to launch the projects in each of the prisons.
Some of the projects had a specific focus on engaging hard to reach prisoners, for example;
one prison rebranded their education department to make it feel less ‘school like’ which is
off-putting to many prisoners with negative experiences. Another prison recruited a team of
Skills mentors to engage with prisoners not involved in any education or work activities. In
the first month of the project, 140 extra new prisoners became engaged in work or
education.
The findings from the evaluation showed that changes could be made to the learning culture
within a relatively short period of time. However, the most success was found within prisons
where a whole prison learning culture was adopted, involving staff from across the prison
and involving prisoners in a meaningful way and effective communication channels.
Danny Branley, Head of Learning and Skills, HMP Dartmoor – Weston College.
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Danny has been in the prison service for 27 years coming from an operational officer
background and also working as Head of Operations and Security.
Danny became Head of Learning and Skills after a poor HMIP / Ofsted report in 2011.
Was asked if he could do a better job and said ‘I will give it a go’. In the HOLS he has
found a role that he enjoys and feels that he can make a difference.
Since the 2011 inspection systems have been put in place to ensure that different
departments are working together and adopting a whole prison approach through
various means; including; relevant partners (OMU, NCS, industries and Weston College)
meeting weekly to look at the allocation board sequencing – looking at both the need of
the prisoner and the establishment; taking part in weekly quality review meetings
including; OMU, NCS, industries, Head of Reducing Reoffending, Prisoner Employment
Team, Weston College, IMB and wing managers – discuss performance across the prison
from previous week and look forward to planning the following week.
The key to all this is partnership working; every partner is included in all meetings and
the decision making process, wing staff are included in the process by regular residential
and full staff meetings and regular feedback from learners through learner forums.