Prison Education Service – Screening & Assessment Digital Tools

Description

His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) is implementing a new Prison Education Service (PES) programme which is working to design and implement the next generation of adult education services in prisons in England. The service will include an initial ‘Screening and Assessment’ process, delivered via tools that accurately identify prisoners’ educational attainment and ability levels, as well as potential additional needs to support successful engagement with prison education. We aim to embed the procured Screening and Assessment tools as part of a modern and robust digital infrastructure that supports data analysis, decision making, tailored support plans and access to appropriate education pathways, through integration with other 3rd party systems as required. Lot 1: As part of the roll-out of the new Prison Education Service (PES) in 2025, we are exploring capabilities within the market with a view to better understanding the availability and suitability of Screening and Assessment tools. The procured tools must cover ‘Functional Skills’ assessments, including English, Mathematics and Digital Skills educational levels. Further to this, there is a requirement for an ‘Additional Learning Needs Indication Tool’ (ALNIT), and assessments for reading and for ‘English for Speakers of Other Languages’ (ESOL) where identified as appropriate or necessary. The desired package will consist of tools which are validated and designed to create high quality, accessible, and accurate information on additional learning needs and functional skills levels across the whole prison estate. The information generated by the tools will be used to inform a prisoner’s starting point for the support they require in order to successfully engage with rehabilitative activities within prison, across education, skills and work. Accurate and effective Screening and Assessment is therefore essential for successfully supporting prisoners’ rehabilitation progress and resettlement outcomes. The intention is that the implementation of the new PES Initial Screening and Assessment process will be ready for deployment, with tools in place and staff trained for delivery, for 1 April 2025. The tools procured must as minimum meet the following requirements: 1. Provision of a digital Functional Skills tool, to assess the prisoner’s skills and ability in Mathematics, English, ICT, Reading and ESOL literacy. The tool must provide accurate results which define the prisoner’s ability. 2. Provision of an effective, high quality and evidenced based additional learning needs indicator tool which can produce accurate results, which inform education and prison-wide additional needs support planning processes. The additional learning needs indicator tool should: a. Clarify what the indicators of neurodivergent needs are for the individual, including any areas of strength as well as areas of need b. Suggest where further specialist assessment may be needed, and indicate where further diagnostic assessment may be needed, by suitably qualified psychology, learning disability, nursing or specialist education staff. c. Clearly identify what practical strategies and reasonable adjustments can be put in place to support the individual both within education and more widely within the prison regime and in community healthcare. 3. Tools must generate results which are recorded by the Contractor and made available digitally live to the delivery Contractors, the Learner (where appropriate) and the Authority after completion and in line with any pre-agreed regular data submissions. The results must be able to be used to inform the learning pathway of each individual Learner.  Additional information: In order to obtain a copy of the PIN launch pack organisations must get in contact with stuart.taylor6@justice.gov.uk and express an interest in supporting this process.