§ Mr. Damian GreenTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many staff have been employed in Prison Education in each year since 1997, broken down by(a) teaching staff and (b) non-teaching staff. [119432]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThere are currently around 1,600 full-and part-time teaching staff employed in delivering education in Her Majesty's Prison Service through the education contract. This includes around 220 Learning Support Assistants, who are employed in juvenile facilities on a ratio of one to every 10 learners. We do not have figures for previous years. Each juvenile establishment has a Special Needs Co-ordinator who is responsible for the assessment of learners, drawing up specialist learning programmes, supervising Learning Support Assistants and supporting all staff on special educational needs issues. We have also appointed Heads of Learning and Skills in all juvenile facilities to coordinate learning and skills provision, and will be appointing a further 110 in adult prisons this year. Other non-teaching staff involved in prison education include Instructional Officers, Prison Officer Instructors, other prison staff and voluntary workers.