Prison leaders have been accused of not taking reading education seriously in a damning joint report by education and prison inspectors.
Reading education in prisons is still hampered by “weak curriculum design” and a lack of specialist staff, Ofsted’s chief inspector has warned – in a new report warning reading is “still not given sufficient priority”.
Despite warnings last year of “serious systemic challenges, as well as plenty of poor practice”, HMI Prisons chief inspector, Charlie Taylor said in this year’s follow-up report that “things have not improved at anything like the rate that Ofsted and HMIP would have expected”.
Inspectors found that staff shortages are still a major problem, that the curriculum had not been improved enough and that the prisoners in most need of reading support were least supported to develop good skills.
