Prison education is in a worse state than it was ten years ago according to the chief prisons inspector and chief Ofsted inspector who have written to the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary to demand action.
Their letter marks a decade since the Coates Review, a comprehensive investigation of education in prisons that found poor quality provision, low standards, and a lack of accountability.
The joint letter from HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and HM Chief Inspector of Ofsted published this week says despite the change Dame Sally Coates called for, ‘prison education is now in a poorer state’.
The recommendations of the Coates review were to ‘recruit teachers, revise funding, and build digital systems. Their letter mentions that in August 2017 44% of prisons graded good or outstanding for overall effectiveness. In 2024-25 this dropped to 18%. In 2025-26 only 23% of adult prisons inspected scored ‘reasonably good’ or ‘good’ for purposeful activity compared to 55% of inspected prisons back in 2016-17. A small number of prisons have met the minimum requirements for either Ofsted’s ‘good’ judgement for overall effectiveness or HMI Prison’s ‘reasonably good’ test.
A report published by the Government in March 2026 found that some prisons have lost more than 50% of their education hours due to cuts in funding. Ofsted’s report found that inspectors at the most high-risk prisons which are part of the long term high secure estate reported the limited learning opportunities due to the reduction of access to core subjects including English, Maths and reading support.
Prison charity, The Howard League, criticised the government following this report, as the figures revealed that young boys in the prison estate are typically being kept in their cells for about 20 hours a day and getting much less than the mandated 15 hours of education per week.
