Resettlement provision for children and young ... - Ministry of Justice

6. Education, training and employment
(ETE)
Our expectations:
Each young person should be allocated to education or training in custody according to their
individual needs and preferences and linked to plans on release. They should be supported to
make good progress in education, learning and skills and have access to careers advice to
prepare them for their future in the community. Young people should be able to continue their
education or training programme on release.
Our findings:
Information arriving with young men was not always detailed enough and some establishments were
routinely reassessing young people. In our case sample half had a clear ETE need often linked to poor
attendance or a lack of formal qualifications, and nine had special educational needs identified.
Establishments generally provided satisfactory ETE provision and young people’s preferences were
taken into account when possible. Most young men in our sample were attending education or training
and three-quarters said they had achieved or were working towards a qualification. However, education
links to training plans were often poor.
Many young people felt that having something to do was vital to stop them reoffending on release.
However, only 14 of the 48 young men who said they wanted to continue with education on release
said, at the time of interview, that they had something arranged. Many young men said they wanted to
work, including alongside education, but little was done to help them with this. At some establishments
not all young men were seen by career advice services. ETE plans were viewed as the YOT’s
responsibility and case supervisors reported several barriers to ensuring young people had a placement
to go to on release.
Initial assessments
6.1 ASSET, the assessment tool used by YOTs, includes a section on education and employment
that should detail a young person’s educational and/or employment history prior to custody,
including any needs they may have in this area. Heads of learning and skills said that the
quality of information they received, if any, varied depending on the particular YOT area,
previous establishment or outside organisation, which matched what case supervisors
reported. Some felt that the quality and therefore usefulness of ASSET was improving but that
it was still essentially a summary rather than a full picture. Information did not always arrive at
the same time as the young person, was not always up to date and, for education, the details
did not always list the courses a young person had attended or what, if any, qualifications they
had achieved.
6.2 Two heads of learning and skills reported that their establishment routinely contacted young
people’s previous schools or colleges to request information about educational achievements;
one said that the schools were cooperative, the other reported a mixed reaction – some were
willing to cooperate, particularly local schools, whereas other schools or colleges were difficult
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