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Maximizing the benefits of OLASS for female offenders: An evaluation of the issues

This report provides an analysis of the Offender Learning and Skills Service, now within the remit of the Learning and Skills Development Agency. Previous provision was through the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA). OLASS’s aim is to provide integrated, holistic learning and skills opportunities for offenders, with a view to increasing career and education opportunities, through identifying factors which most encourage offenders to take up learning and skills opportunities. This report assesses the quality of the service for women offenders since its inception in 2005/06, set within the wider context of NOMS. This is through examination of reviews, previous reports, focus groups, and interviews with practitioners and women offenders in prison and in the community. A key challenge to provision was that, owing to the smaller number of women’s prisons, women are more likely to be placed far from home, with the attendant disruption this entails. Although in theory women’s prisons have a regional structure, in practice provision is national, which makes providing consistent opportunities in custody difficult. Prison-based practitioners reported difficulties in encouraging women to engage with services in the early stages of custody: women’s focus when they entered prison was family ties and outside responsibilities, especially those with children. Staff noted that, unlike male prisoners, who tended to immediately focus on life inside the prison, during the first six months women remained very concerned about home responsibilities, often trying to manage things from within the prison, and unable to take up learning opportunities. Staff and prisoners both mentioned the need for access to learning provision to be ongoing and flexible, and not something only available at the start of a sentence. In the community, the importance of women-only learning settings was emphasized. Consistent with the wider profile of women offenders, learners were likely to have experienced male violence or abuse, which made mixed-gender provision inappropriate. It was acknowledged that currently the majority of community provision is mixed gender. The complexity of the profile of women offenders was noted, and the need for services to reflect this. In comparison with learners in general, women offenders are more likely to have experienced violence, to suffer from a mental health problem, to have substance misuse issues, to self-harm, have low-self-esteem and to have higher debt.