Speeches by Cox.

“What are those specialist courses where you have vacancies?”

“Those of us who are on the Committee more permanently have been to several prisons, and we have heard that workshops do not run and education sessions do not run. Although you have highlighted absenteeism or attendance issues within the sessions that run, I am also interested in pressing you on why sessions do not run …”

“I just wanted to pick up on the question of funding and the extent to which that is a barrier to you in providing education in prisons.”

“Could I just ask for clarity, what is the value of the Novus contract currently?”

“I am the Member of Parliament for Colchester. I was previously a professor in criminology and sociology at the University of Essex, and my interests are declared on the register.”

“Can I ask a practical question? To your knowledge, how many prisons have Storybook Dads?”

“Is that Weston College and Milton Keynes College?”

“Jo, you have indicated a view on commissioning; perhaps you would reiterate it here. UCU has called for a comprehensive review of the curriculum and contracting framework before the Prison Education Service is implemented. Why are you arguing that?”

“Just to push a little more on that, the 2023-24 annual report by HMI Prisons said prison leaders struggled “to hold their education providers to account where services were ineffective.” Do you have a view on why that might be?”

“To recap what you said in one of your opening answers, 86% of prison education in the last year was found to be less than good, and a decent proportion of that was found to be inadequate. As a former educator myself, that suggests to me that the framework that is delivering is somehow not performing.”

“Returning to contracting prison education, Lee, in your view in your Ofsted capacity, does the current commissioning framework work well to provide education services to prisoners?”

“In fact, I would like to bring the OU in, because I know you are online learners par excellence. You have managed to crack that model in prison. What is the challenge for scaling that up and allowing non-networked devices—tablets for prisoners—to have access to self-learning modules, online books and all these things? …”

“Would you say there is scope to review the whole contracting process in the prison estate?”

“I know we are a little short of time here, but one more from me. You talked about the Prison Education Framework, but we have not talked much about the Dynamic Purchasing System. Could you explain that to a lay member of the public who might be watching this?”

“Thank you for the overview. There are four major providers, I believe. You at Novus, Peopleplus, Weston College and Milton Keynes College, on the routine education. What are relations like between the four of you? Do you collaborate? Do you innovate together?”

“That brings us to contracts. Could you talk us through the contracting framework for education services in prison, broadly speaking?”

“In fact, I would like to bring the OU in, because I know you are online learners par excellence. You have managed to crack that model in prison. What is the challenge for scaling that up and allowing non-networked devices—tablets for prisoners—to have access to self-learning modules, online books and all these things? …”

“How many of those would have digital facilities like that?”

“You said you are in 43 prisons, is that right?”

“I am going to talk about contracts, and it could come in there, could it not?”