Letter from HMPPS on the Prison Education Dynamic Purchasing System (PEDPS)
From Phil Copple, Director General of Operations HMPPS, to the Constructive Custody Coalition
Phil Copple, Director General of Operations at HMPPS, has provided an update on budget allocations for the Prison Education Dynamic Purchasing System (PEDPS).
The national budget allocated to the PEDPS in 2025/26 will be £12m across public prisons in England. Prisons received their indicative PEDPS allocations for 2025/26 in November 2024. All prisons have now received confirmed of their PEDPS allocation for 2025-26, enabling them to begin formally commissioning services. Prisons are being supported to undertake pipeline planning to ensure that prisons are ‘fully utilising their budget and preparing to engage the VCSE sector.’
The national budget is allocated to prisons through a funding formula that considers prisons’ size and function. More resources – in terms of money per person in prison – have been allocated to where people are closer to the end of the sentence, with ‘the aim of best supporting employment after release’. This sets the national strategy, with Area Executive Directors (AEDs) and Prison Group Directors (PGDs) then given the opportunity to 'consider whether any local factors means that PEDPS allocations be balanced differently across regions’.
Beyond 2025-26, allocations for prisoner education and for HMPPS will be subject to the ongoing Spending Review process.
Read our blog - Ongoing engagement around current challenges – How is Clinks supporting the sector? - for the latest updates on key issues affecting the sector including, the funding process of the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) in prisons and ongoing challenges around vetting.