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CROSS-PARTY calls from MPs and peers to renationalise prison education were welcomed by the University and College Union (UCU) today.
Labour peer and ex-head of the National Union of Teachers Baroness Blower described prison education as “fundamental to rehabilitation” during a debate on Thursday, as she demanded Tory ministers return it to the public sector with “standardised curricula and qualifications.”
Crossbencher Baroness Meacher also raised the “potential benefits of doubling the prison education budget,” while Tory Lord Cormack asked ministers to provide statistics on the impact of education on reoffending rates.
It came after 32 MPs backed a parliamentary motion by Labour’s Zarah Sultana urging the government to use its long-delayed new prisoner education service to renationalise the sector.
The left-wing member for Coventry South slammed the current set-up for “wasting millions of pounds of public money each year and encouraging a race to the bottom between [private] providers.”
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “The current for-profit model is not fit for purpose — the service needs to be brought back into the public sector to stop the exceptional talent and commitment of prison educators being wasted.”
