HMPPS Literacy Innovation Fund – Learning through Digital delivery

The Government has set out a vision in the Prison Strategy White Paper to deliver a service which equips prisoners with the numeracy, literacy, skills, and qualifications they need to get jobs or apprenticeships after they leave custody.

To achieve this commitment, we are seeking innovative solutions to the Literacy and Numeracy challenges that exist within prisons from the open market, as outlined below. This is to include both Digital and non-Digital solutions.This is a distinct requirement to the wider ongoing Prison Education Service.

We know that most prisoners have low levels of education. Over 50% of adult prisoners are assessed on entry as having the maths and English levels at or below that expected of an 11-year-old, around 30% are assessed as having learning difficulties and disabilities, and a high proportion have been excluded from school. This can make learning and engagement with formal English and maths education settings ‘in the classroom’ challenging or out of reach for many prisoners who need the most support. We are seeking innovative solutions that meet one, or more, of the following criteria:

1. Solutions which deliver maths and English learning in an appealing and accessible way to prisoners (including those that may have additional learning needs) who are currently unable or unwilling to engage in the current education offer to improve their literacy and numeracy skills. In particular we are interested in approaches that support prisoners with a range of reading and writing needs, including decoding, word reading, reading fluency, vocabulary learning, spelling and reading/writing practice. We are also interested in approaches supporting with maths/numeracy at a range of levels.

This can be both Digital and Non-Digital interventions, which supports prisoners to improve their literacy and numeracy and acts as a progression route into more formal functional skills qualifications.

We are interested in digital interventions which promote engagement and access to literacy and numeracy education away from the classroom environment (for example in workshops, on-wing, in-cell, outdoors, the gym or the library).

2. Additionally we are looking for solutions which deliver learning to mentors (peer mentors primarily) on how to teach, or support the learning of, literacy and/or numeracy skills to peers.

In issuing this Prior Information Notice, the MoJ is seeking to inform the market of this planned procurement with a view to having a virtual market engagement session on 18th August 2022. This will be recorded if you are unable to attend this session.

This PIN is in conjunction with another PIN supporting this priority for digital content and eLearning for other subjects outside of literacy and numeracy.