Richard Ward leads the Offender Skills and Employment Team at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. His work involves significant cross-Government activity, working closely with the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Work and Pensions, as well as with the Skills Funding Agency, National Offender Management Service and Jobcentre Plus.

Richard was closely involved in the recent offender learning review and in the production of the new strategy document that followed, Making Prisons Work: Skills for Rehabilitation [May 2011].