Outstanding verdict makes penal history
Her Majesty’s Prison/Young Offender Institution Askham Grange, a women’s open prison near York, has made British penal history by becoming the first ever prison to be awarded outstanding inspection grades for the quality of its learning. Ofsted News discovered how the prison’s regime is designed to achieve one goal – to aid rehabilitation and so reduce re-offending.
Enter the visitors’ reception area at Askham Grange and a smartly dressed young woman will ask you to show some identification and also whether you’ve remembered to leave your mobile phone in your car. She is not a member of staff, but is in fact one of the ‘residents’ – as all prisoners and young offenders are called.
In the prison’s relaxed atmosphere, all the residents work alongside officers and staff in roles that contribute to the smooth running of the establishment. The women who staff the reception and the conference facilities available for hire are learning how to deal with the public and improving their information and communication technology skills as part of business administration courses. Others manage the gymnasium, used by both residents and staff, as they study to qualify as personal trainers and gym instructors. Elsewhere, the library, the kitchen and dining room, the hairdressing salon and the gardens are largely run by residents studying for level 2 and level 3 vocational qualifications. Achievement rates of these qualifications are good and range from 88 to 100%.
They also cherish the precious times when they can learn alongside their children during fun days and weekend visits which, in the words of one resident, ‘help me to feel like a mother again’
Realistic in-house training is just one element of the comprehensive resettlement programme at Askham Grange. Preparation for a resident’s release begins the day after she is transferred from a closed prison to serve out her sentence. A thorough induction and assessment is used to create an individual learning plan, a pathway to a new, self-supporting working life – not solely based on their needs and abilities, but also, where possible, on their aspirations, no matter how unusual. Rebecca Derrington, a specialist careers adviser at the prison, recalls interviewing one young offender who had grown up on a farm and was unsure what jobs she could do. ‘She said she didn’t want to work with animals,’ says Rebecca. ‘So I probed a little deeper and asked if she had ever wanted to drive the tractors on the farm. Her eyes lit up – she had never thought about that before and she is now on a training course learning how to drive heavy machinery.’
Most residents are offered unpaid work placements in the local community for one day a week or more. Towards the end of their sentences, they can apply for full-time employment outside the prison. With the close support of staff, they will look for suitable jobs, prepare their CVs and contact employers. A local vol
unteer, a retired businessman, comes in to put them through mock interviews. Residents commute daily to York, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle, working in posts such as hotel receptionists and administration managers, while others attend training centres, college or university.
Askham Grange has accommodation for 128 women and the average length of stay is a year. A modern mother and baby unit enables up to 10 mothers to continue to care for their children (aged 0-2) while serving their sentences. For mothers of older children, family learning programmes – covering topics including literacy and numeracy, healthy eating and first aid in the home – help them to maintain bonds with their sons and daughters. They also cherish the precious times when they can learn alongside their children during fun days and weekend visits which, in the words of one resident, ‘help me to feel like a mother again’.
Learning and skills are now integral to all the prison’s activities and benefit from a strong and clear strategic direction from the senior management team
To enhance each individual’s personal development, a rich and diverse range of extra-curricular activities, such as a challenging 12-week dance, course is available. Participants talk of how they learn about self-discipline and teamwork, while those recovering from substance abuse say the physical demands of the course are improving their health and concentration. Many residents support the ‘Prison? Me? No Way!’ scheme and some visit local schools to talk frankly to pupils as young as 12 and discourage them from a life of crime and antisocial behaviour.
Askham Grange was Britain’s first open prison for women. When it opened in 1947, it was common for women prisoners to be called by their cell number rather than their name, and to be offered little more than knitting and sewing by way of work. Mary Size, the prison’s legendary first governor, pioneered a more humane regime that treated prisoners with dignity and respect while giving them every opportunity to educate themselves.
‘This is still our philosophy today,’ says Carol Burke, Head of Learning and Interventions, who has given 28 years’ service to prison education. ‘This is a prison where we want everybody to learn and we are committed to do our absolute best for the women 
who come here.’ Ofsted’s inspectors agreed, observing that staff are ‘highly dedicated’ and show a ‘can-do attitude’ to removing any barriers to a learner’s progress. A key factor in the prison’s elevation to grade 1 status since its previous inspection has been the improvement in leadership and management. Learning and skills are now integral to all the prison’s activities and benefit from a strong and clear strategic direction from the senior management team.
‘From the day they arrive to the day they leave, they work, train and study, learning the skills they will need to resettle back into the community and succeed in life’
Governor Alec McCrystal says, ‘The acid test of our success has to be the reoffending rate. For the last three years, ours has been less than 13%, compared to a national average of 67%. The prison’s data also shows that more than half of its residents enter education, training or employment when they are released.’
Carol remembers less enlightened days, when teachers in prisons were dismissed as ‘do-gooders who kept the prisoners quiet’, and refutes any suggestion that the regime at Askham Grange makes life too easy for convicted criminals. ‘The women who come here can’t just lie on their bed, have their three meals a day and do nothing,’ she says. ‘From the day they arrive to the day they leave, they work, train and study, learning the skills they will need to resettle back into the community and succeed in life.’
What residents say:
- 'My daughters call me “Professor Mum” because of all the qualifications I have gained here.'
- 'I want to make the most of my time here. There’s so much to do.'
- 'I have been given the confidence to believe I can start my own business one day.'
- 'Before I came here I never had hope. Now I do.'
Click here to read or download the inspection report of HMP Askham Grange
This article also appears in the May issue of Talisman - the newspaper for the Learning and Skills sector. Visit www.ofsted.gov.uk and scroll down on the home page to read the latest issue of Talisman.
