{"id":7574,"date":"2026-09-28T11:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T10:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=7574"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T10:36:22","slug":"education-now-down-by-30-in-womens-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/09\/28\/education-now-down-by-30-in-womens-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"EDUCATION NOW DOWN BY 30% IN WOMEN\u2019S PRISONS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Educational hours in women\u2019s prisons have fallen by an average of 30%. They have also fallen by 25% across the men&#8217;s estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Historically, many women in prison have contended with limited access to formal learning due to overstretched prison regimes. Now, further cuts have left hundreds of education staff without jobs, narrowing the curriculum and leaving women in custody with fewer chances to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scale of unmet need is stark. In 2024\u201325, two thirds of women were found to be likely to struggle with everyday literacy and more than four in five (83%) were likely to struggle with everyday maths. Over half of all prisoners enrolling on a course have a confirmed learning difficulty or disability (LDDs), and evidence suggests women in prison have LDDs at a higher rate than men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many women arrive in custody having lost confidence in their ability to learn, work or pursue opportunities. Education, however, offers achievement and structure at an unsettling time and helps women see themselves as a learner or professional \u2013 rather than an \u201coffender\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One learner stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>\u201cMy studies have enabled me to improve my self-worth \u2013 a student, not merely a prisoner.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another commented:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>\u201cFrom what I saw, the challenge was rarely persuading women to learn or a lack of appetite to engage with education in prison. It was making the space for them to do so.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For further information, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.russellwebster.com\/women-in-prison-are-losing-education-when-they-need-it-most\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>click here.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Educational hours in women\u2019s prisons have fallen by an average of 30%. They have also fallen by 25% across the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Amelie","author_link":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/author\/amelie\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Educational hours in women\u2019s prisons have fallen by an average of 30%. They have also fallen by 25% across the [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7575,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7574\/revisions\/7575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prisonersadvice.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}