What price a decent education for those in jail, one that could help offenders to go straight? The government says prison education is a priority. But prison reformers are worried about the future as it has emerged that the country's biggest provider of prison education plans to cut 300 jobs around the country.
Contracts to deliver education in more than 90 – around 60% – of the country's penal institutions are run by The Manchester College. Last year, the college extended its prison teaching empire after successful bids for new contracts. But some months after the deals were done it discovered, according to a letter to staff from Peter Tavernor, the principal, that the contracts were "financially challenging ... due to unforeseen hidden costs that could not have been reasonably anticipated".
In December, TMC imposed a pay freeze on prison education staff. The college now says it needs to save £5m across the service. In a letter to staff, Tavernor said that redundancies would be necessary. This would be a "managed process", focusing primarily on management and higher-paid staff; and also those approaching retirement or of post-retirement age.
Consultation over the proposed redundancies has begun. The University and College Union, which represents lecturers, says prolonged uncertainty means that many classroom lecturers have lost heart and says it fears problems could be caused by the loss of more senior managers who support less experienced colleagues in the service. "They play a crucial role in mentoring and helping them handle difficult learners," one official says.
Someone who has already seen the impact on morale is Jonathan Wells, who runs software development company Guroo and trains lecturers in prisons and young offender institutions in the north-east, where prison education is now run by TMC. "I have been in a dozen [institutions] and what I'm hearing from people is 'we have absolutely no idea if we will have a job in two months' time, so we don't know why we should bother planning for curriculum change'. They say they can't plan anything beyond the next month."
Wells says lecturers fear bigger classes. "In a room of eight, you have eight different problems and you need eyes in the back of your head. You could end up with having 10 to keep an eye on, so things will be at least 20% worse, and exponentially it could be even more serious."
In December 2008, the standard of prison education delivered by Olass, the offender learning and skills service, was condemned by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. However, last December, prisons minister Maria Eagle told the Guardian: "If you look at offender learning ... there is a good story to tell."
That was a month before TMC announced its redundancies. Eagle's office has declined to discuss the possible consequences. "The Learning and Skills Council [LSC] are responsible for Manchester College and are therefore better able to assist," a spokeswoman said.
The LSC said in a statement: "The college is contractually obliged, in accordance within the agreed service requirements, to ensure it meets the needs of both young people and adults in custody." A spokesperson said the LSC was not able to comment on the college's staffing arrangements. "It's responsible for decisions necessary to ensure delivery of the service. The LSC will, through its contract management, monitor this."
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, feels any cutbacks are short-sighted amid reoffending rates of around two-thirds. "The prisoners' perception of education, learning and skills is as a kind of oasis," she says.
Pat Jones, director of the Prison Education Trust, says the prospect of redundancies raises questions about the contracting process. "Why did things go wrong so quickly?" she asks.
The Conservatives' shadow prisons minister, Alan Duncan, says: "If I were prisons minister I would want to see how the contracts are worked out, how they were drawn up, what Manchester's obligations are and whether the prisons service has been left in the lurch. This looks as if it will need a serious post mortem."
The LSC said that in December TMC decided to withdraw from offender learning contracts in the south-east and north-east. "LSC entered into these in good faith, with every confidence that the college would be able to deliver, given their extensive experience in delivery of offender learning and the opportunity they had to conduct due diligence," a spokeswoman said. However, TMC later withdrew the threat after the LSC made £2m available to cushion the cost of redundancies.
TMC declined to elaborate on what "unforeseen hidden costs" caused problems with the contracts won last year.
However, the college, which formed in 2008 when Manchester College of Arts and Technology (Mancat) and City College merged, was "in a strong position" to tender, as the latter college had been "a high-quality provider of offender learning," a spokeswoman said.
"Its experience and successful track record presented an unprecedented opportunity to influence quality and policy around the education of offender learners. The college achieved the first ever Ofsted grade 1 for its provision at Askham Grange [prison and young offenders institution]."
She said college finances were "currently robust, although with major funding cuts it needs to protect its financial health and avoid destabilisation in the future". Additional savings and efficiencies were needed that could result in up to 250 staffing reductions within offender learning, less than 7% of the workforce.
"Much work is being undertaken to ensure the long-term viability of an effective learner-focused service, and there will be no compromise on quality," she said. The college was recently awarded Investors in People accreditation, which covered offender learning. Moreover, there had been "an excellent response" to registering interest in voluntary severance, which would help to cut compulsory redundancies, she added.
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