The place of education and training in sentence planning
At the centre of the OLASS process is an early detailed assessment of an offender’s learning needs and the development of an individual learning plan, which sets out how to meet them, as shown in the following diagram:
There is an explicit intention to ‘join up’ delivery arrangements so that learning started in one setting can continue in another as the offender moves through the criminal justice system and out into mainstream learning in the community.
Consequently, the intense focus on assessing and recording an offender’s learning needs should happen as soon as possible following contact with the criminal justice system.
Understanding individual learning needs, how best to meet them and where long-term employment aspirations lie in the context of those needs being met is vitally important to the development of a personalised offender management plan.
It is a vital offender management function to tailor the plan so that arrangements to continue learning on release from custody or during elements of a sentence served in the community are co-ordinated with other aspects of sentence planning such as addressing accommodation needs.