Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Rejected
Paragraph: 76
The Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) was meant to allow Governors to contract bespoke training, including...
Recommendation
The Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) was meant to allow Governors to contract bespoke training, including with voluntary organisations, for their prisons. However, the current length of contracts is making it difficult for smaller organisations to bid. The length of DPS contracts should be extended beyond the current two years.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government rejects this recommendation, stating that the overall responsibility for the quality and effectiveness of education sits with the governor. Inspections already include an assessment of how well the curriculum promotes personal development that includes engagement with civil society.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
76
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government · verbatim extract
Rejected
We reject this recommendation. The maximum length of DPS contracts was reviewed in 2019, and it was determined at that point that any extension beyond two years was, on balance, inappropriate as it would limit Governor flexibility. The aim behind the DPS was to widen education provision and enable more bespoke short-term projects to be funded (for example enabling a governor to commission a specific course to meet employer need). Increasing the length of contracts beyond two years would undermine this aim. We are carrying out market engagement to inform the design of future education contracts and are using lessons learned from our Prison Education Framework (PEF) and DPS to inform our future design work.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗