Plan aims to do justice for training units

Federation is looking at issues that are affecting the effective delivery of quality teaching programs to incarcerated young people, writes JEFF LOUIS.

Federation Representatives and Women's Contacts from the nine education training units located within juvenile justice detention centres in NSW gathered to discuss and formulate actions regarding a variety of issues on September 17-18. Five main areas were identified by the participants.

Firstly was the relationship between Department of Juvenile Justice and Department of Education and Training (DET). There appears throughout all centres that education is devalued by Department of Juvenile Justice management. There is no consistency in regards to policy matters in all centres and often the quality of learning is undermined by Department of Juvenile Justice management decisions that appear illogical and ill conceived. The group unanimously agreed that a review of the current Memorandum of Understanding and the establishment of compliance and requirements, including reporting of review and grievance procedures, needs to be undertaken as a high priority.

Staffing of centres was also a common theme: the availability of suitable casual staff and access to adequate safety induction to meet Juvenile Justice needs, the need for adequate access to school counsellors, the reclassification of centres that recognise their unique needs and a review of staffing levels based on accurate information gathered by the Department personnel (not as is currently the practice of relying on Department of Juvenile Justice information).

Workload and work practices were vigorously discussed, in particular the amount of paperwork generated by the constant admission of and discharge of detainees, the responsibilities of accountability of equipment by teachers and school administrative and support staff used in programs and the need to develop protocols for Department of Juvenile Justice and DET's staff relations especially regarding removing students from learning programs.

The physical environment was another major issue with no consistency between any centres due to their physical layouts. Lack of access to basic facilities such as toilets and overcrowded staff areas were a major concern in all centres often with quality facilities being denied access by DET for classroom use. The safe use of security devices such as radios and protocols around the use of CCTV in classroom settings was high on the agenda for further investigation.

The main point of concern in regard to professional issues was the lack of opportunities to network at all levels. As education training units are unique, even from each other, for a variety of reasons such as classification, physical layout and type of clientele it is very important that the group are encouraged through the establishment of a regular forum where best practices can be presented and ideas/ issues can be discussed at all levels. The constant but irregular selection of detainees for transfers and the average length of their time in a centre does not allow for a consistent educational program to be established. If these detainees are to have any chance of improving their lives then education is the key. The introduction of learning programs in literacy and numeracy and a standard reporting system across all centres should be a priority. This would require additional resourcing by the DET to provide adequate training and procurement but the educational benefit of continuity to our nomadic detainees would be highly beneficial.

Jeff Louis teaches at Lincoln School.

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October 2007 contents