The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is planning to develop a trio of digital systems to support the Prisoner Education Service (PES) in screening and assessing the performance of prisoners.
It has published a prior information notice to inform potential suppliers of the plan, saying the tools will be at the centre of an “integrated digital ecosystem that brings together a holistic prisoner view that informs planning, delivery and accountability”.
The ministry said it expects to procure three tools to support: English, mathematics and digital skills; reading; and additional learning needs.
Among the functions will be identify the ability and needs of individual prisoners, support collaboration with education providers, improve the flow of relevant data across the prison estate, and enable ‘digital by default’ screening.
Value and compliance
The MoJ has placed an expected value of £9.6 million on the procurement and indicated that the tools must be compliant with the Government Digital Standard and capable of integrating with other services, sharing data using open standards.
The notice refers to a MoJ report from 20176 showing that prisoners who took part in any learning activity were 9% less likely to reoffend and 1.8% more likely to be in employment after release.
