New Prison Education Contracts
The Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) contracts come to an end in March 2019, making way for a new era of governor-led education commissioning.
The Ministry of Justice’s new commissioning framework presents both challenges and new opportunities for providers, charities, colleges and others to deliver education services in prisons.
From April 2019 governors will commission education in line with their establishment’s curriculum plan via two distinct routes: the Prison Education Framework (PEF) and the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). The DPS will provide a route for governors to directly commission provision without subcontracting through their PEF provider. They can use it to try an innovative approach to meet a short-term need, and/or to help build and grow relationships with local employers, educators and providers.
Any providers wishing to sign on to the PEF or DPS must do so through the Ministry of Justice Bravo Solutions portal.
We encourage anyone wishing to deliver work in prison now and in the future to sign up to the portal. The DPS is not yet open but signing up now will provide you with information about DPS including relevant deadlines and updates. Once the DPS is live you will be asked for more information about what you deliver, and to supply three references. Once on the DPS you will then be able to bid for relevant ‘call ups’ put out by the governor.
Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) have a useful webpage that has information, events and resources to keep you updated on the changes to education commissioning. Click here to find out more
Rod Clark, Chief Executive of PET, has written a guest blog for Clinks to help you understand the changes to education commissioning. Click here to read the blog
