Responsibility for offender learning passes to the LSC

As of July, the LSC is now responsible for offender learning and skills across England.

The LSC takes charge of planning, funding and delivery of the new integrated offendersÕ learning and skills service (OLASS) across all nine English regions in the UK, including Yorkshire and the Humber. Good regional partnerships have been developed with NOMS [ National Offender Management Service] to ensure that offender learning and skills is high profile in the region.

In the future the new integrated service will offer portable training, enabling learners to continue their courses without disruption as they move from serving their sentence in custody (prison) to the community (probation).

Over the coming year the LSC will invest £130 million from the Department for Education and Skills and the Youth Justice Board, in improving the quality and quantity of offender education. This will be supplemented with a share of an additional £30 million of funding sourced from the European Social Fund, £3.5 million of which is going to the LSC in Yorkshire and The Humber.

The £130 million investment will deliver value by enabling ex-offenders to play a full, active and valuable role in society. It will also serve to facilitate the provision of high-quality learning and provide offenders with the right skills for the world of work.

Philippa Lester, Skills Development Director of OLASS for the LSC in Yorkshire and the Humber commented: "Education and training has been proven to help reduce re-offending rates, but too many prisoners experience fragmented learning as they move between prisons or re-enter the community.

"Alongside a package of other support measures, including drug rehabilitation and assistance in finding jobs and housing, education is playing a leading role in easing the re-integration of ex-prisoners back into society. By providing prisoners with personalised learning plans that travel with them, we can assist more offenders back into gainful employment."