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To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they have cancelled the
contract of the National Careers Service to provide careers
guidance in prisons.
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The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Keen of Elie)
(Con)
My Lords, the custodial element of the National Careers
Service contract has not been cancelled; it will reach its
expiry date on 31 March 2018. We are reviewing options for
alternative provision as part of wider employment services.
We are committed to providing training and advice to deliver
effective rehabilitation for the needs of offenders.
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(Lab)
My Lords, job coaches, who are likely to replace the present
people who deal with prisoners, are not people who visit just
before release. Others coming into this position will not
provide as good a service as the career advisers, who work
with prisoners over a considerable time. Can the Minister say
what consultations have taken place on this decision and
whether the results will be published in due course? Why have
the Government refused to provide information as to the
likely number of advisers who will no longer be employed?
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My Lords, the contract for the in-custody National Careers
Service element could have been extended by a further period
of six months maximum from 31 March 2018. A decision was made
not to extend it because an internal review of the service
being provided indicated that custody contract performance
showed significant inconsistencies of service between
institutions. As regards its replacement going forward, I
note, for example, that community rehabilitation companies
already work with every prisoner 12 weeks prior to release to
ensure a personalised plan with respect to employment, and
Department for Work and Pensions prison work coaches also
work in this field. Indeed, it has been noted, particularly
in 2016 by Dame Sally Coates in her review of prison
education, that there is overlap and duplication within the
current arrangements for supporting prisoners.
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(LD)
My Lords, I declare an interest as in the register. A number
of organisations provide services which assist in the
rehabilitation of offenders. Does the Minister agree that to
remove the National Careers Service will add to the
overcrowding problem, thus increasing reoffending rates,
which are now at as much as 70% in young offender
institutions?
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My Lords, we do not consider that this will contribute to
reoffending rates. One of the issues we wish to address with
regard to future education contracts is the development of
greater autonomy and governor empowerment, which will lead to
local commissioning of these services and which we believe
will lead to an improvement in them.
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(CB)
My Lords, will the internal review that the Minister has just
mentioned include looking at organisations which offer the
ability to search for jobs online? There is an organisation
called Prosper 4, which at the moment has 3,000 jobs on offer
to ex-prisoners but only 200 prisoner takers, because the
Ministry of Justice and HMPPS seem to refuse to use online
job-seeking.
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My Lords, perhaps I should clarify. I referred to an internal
review that had been carried out to determine the standard of
service being provided under the National Careers Service
in-custody contract, and it was that which led to the
decision to let the contract terminate at its natural point
in March 2018. On the provision of alternative services, and
indeed online services, we are of course open to submissions
about such a matter, and it will be an aspect of the governor
empowerment proposals that we are taking forward.
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(Lab)
My Lords, can the Government indicate how many people they
believe who were released from prison will be in full-time
employment 12 months after release?
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I do not have those figures immediately to hand, but I am
content to write to the noble Lord, outlining such figures as
we have in that regard, and I will place a copy of the letter
in the Library.
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(Con)
Would the Minister agree with me that one of the encouraging
features about jobs and careers for prisoners is the number
of times employers from the private sector engage prisoners,
while they are still in prison, who turn out to be
satisfactory employees who then continue that employment when
they leave?
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My Lords, in response to the question from my noble friend, I
agree that there have been notable successes in this area,
and we should appreciate the work done by some particular
employers in this regard. There is one in particular where
present indications are that something like 10% of their
workforce are former inmates. If we can encourage other
employers to take this step forward, we can help to reduce
recidivism in the prison population.
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(Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that one of the biggest
barriers to employment is poor literacy skills? Can he say
how many people going into prison are functionally
illiterate, and how many fewer are not when they come out?
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My Lords, it is unfortunate but true that a very large
proportion of those going into prison suffer mental health
problems or literacy issues. We attempt to address those
during their period in prison. Some improvement is achieved;
it is not as great, perhaps, as we would hope, but within our
prisons there is a difficult cohort as far as education and
literacy are concerned.
