Call for evidence: Lifelong learning, crime and social exclusion

Crime costs us all, financially and emotionally. The victims and their families suffer, and the public costs of maintaining a swelling prison population are huge. Those who offend are often in effect excluded from normal economic and social activity, after they have served their sentences. We know that many people who engage in criminal activity have low levels of educational achievement. A very high proportion of prisoners have basic literacy and numeracy problems, which make it very difficult for them to reintegrate.

The connections between educational failure on the one hand, and criminal and anti-social behaviour, with its risk of social exclusion, on the other, are strong but also complex. Lifelong learning – the provision of learning opportunities for adults at all levels - has a significant role to play in addressing this major theme: in helping to prevent criminal behaviour, to enable people to take up productive lives and to enable an informed public debate on dealing with crime issues.

This is why the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning (IFLL), sponsored by NIACE, is putting out a public call for evidence on lifelong learning, crime and social exclusion.

With a Board of Commissioners chaired by Sir David Watson, the IFLL was launched in September 2007 and will report in June 2009. Experts from government, business, academia, trade unions, public service, providers and the voluntary and community sector, as well as learners, are brought together to identify a broad consensus for the future direction of adult learning policy in the UK. (For detail see www.lifelonglearninginquiry.org.uk).

The Inquiry looks at the critical issues that face our society in coming decades, and identifies how adult learning can equip us to meet these challenges. A number of specific themes provide a focus for the work, around which we are issuing calls for evidence. Interested individuals and organisations were invited to submit written evidence on lifelong learning, crime and social exclusion by 12th June 2008.

Tom Schuller, Director of the Inquiry, comments: “Crime is an area where we can reasonably expect adult learning to make a big difference, but we need to understand the issues better. Imprisoning people is a huge cost to society, and crime wrecks many people’s lives. We are calling both for empirical evidence on what works, and for rigorous thinking on possible ways forward.”

The Inquiry invites submissions that address the following questions:

In particular,

Written evidence

This is a public call for evidence. Recipients of this notice are encouraged to draw it to the attention of others who may wish to submit evidence to the Inquiry.

At this stage we take a broad view of what constitutes evidence. It might include:

It would be helpful, however, if you could indicate what sort of evidence you are submitting.

Evidence submitted become the property of the Inquiry, and may be printed or circulated at any stage. Personal contact details supplied to the Inquiry will, however, be removed before publication. If you do not wish for your submission to be made public, please state this clearly at the start of your submission.

Witnesses may publicise their written evidence themselves, but in doing so should indicate that it was prepared for the Inquiry.

Submissions by email are preferred (as attachments in Word) and should be emailed to lifelonglearninginquiry@niace.org.uk  Unless submissions are short, they should be accompanied by a summary outlining the key points.

Please ensure that you include your relevant contact details. Evidence should be attributed and dated, with a note of your name and position, and should state whether it is submitted on an individual or corporate basis. Please indicate clearly that the evidence is being submitted in response to the call for evidence around lifelong learning, crime and social exclusion.

(We continue to welcome evidence on any area relevant to the work of the Inquiry. This evidence can be submitted at any stage, but please indicate that it is not linked to a particular call.)

Evidence should be submitted to:

Hanya Gordon
Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning
NIACE
21 De Montfort Street
Leicester LE1 7GE
Email: lifelonglearninginquiry@niace.org.uk

Further information about the Commission of Inquiry is available from www.lifelonglearninginquiry.org.uk

For more information about the Inquiry, please contact:
Hanya Gordon, 0116 204 4237 Email: lifelonglearninginquiry@niace.org.uk

For further information, the media contact is:
Ed Melia, 0116 223 0050/07795 358870
Email: Ed.Melia@niace.org.uk

Commission Membership

The Chair of the Commission is Professor Sir David Watson, historian, professor of higher education management at the Institute of Education, University of London and a member of the Board of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

The Commission members are:

The Director of the Inquiry is Tom Schuller.