Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...

12 Women offenders: after the Corston ReportThe Government subsequently made a commitment to develop these nationwide by2014. 2820. Our other witnesses shared similar views of key areas of importance in terms of post-Corston Report successes and disappointments, though opinions differed regarding theextent to which they felt that sufficient progress had been made in these areas. 29 Weconsider these developments in greater detail in the following chapters. We now examinethe governance arrangements that have been put into place to effect Baroness Corston’srecommendations, the strategic approach that has been taken, and other drivers that haveinfluenced their implementation.Governance arrangements and other drivers to implement theagenda21. In her report Baroness Corston recommended the creation of “a strategic top levelcross-departmental commission” to be headed by a senior civil servant, supported bysufficient staff from the various departments and agencies involved and governed by a newinter-departmental ministerial group encompassing all relevant government departments.She warned: “Without the safeguard of strong, visible direction of issues relating to womenin the criminal justice system, provision for women is likely to continue to be inconsistentand to depend on the level of priority and strength of leadership afforded locally and thedepth of local understanding about women’s needs.” 3022. She reiterated to us the need for a strategic national body overseeing the system. 31 Forexample, she attributed the positive developments described in the early part of thischapter to the “critical mass of women Ministers [...] who instinctively understood whatthis was about”, as well as the support from the cross-departmental group of civil servants.Liz Hogarth, the former head of this group, who previously had worked in women’s policyat the Home Office, described the shift in the profile of the women offenders agenda thatstemmed from this:However hard we worked with civil servants, the general response at that time was,"Women are only 5% of the prison population; we must focus on the largernumbers." It was a real battle to get attention. The sea change that came with thejoined-up work and the cross-departmental team was huge. It was a very exciting,vibrant way of working, because what we had was Maria Eagle [the MinisterialChampion], with an inter-ministerial group, and all those Ministers from across thepiece—the Home Office, the DWP, Communities and Local Government, Health—all sitting round a table. That meant that their officials were suddenly required to bethere and to make change happen. It was a huge difference. 3223. Many of our witnesses drew attention to a perceived weakening in governancearrangements for further progressing the Corston agenda and an apparent shift in the28 Subject to a business case. See Ev 96.29 Q 77 [Mr Kilgarriff], Q 138 [Ms Crook] [Ms Lyon], Q 165 [Ms Halford], Q 193 [Ms Castell]30 The Corston Report, p 631 Q 1332 Q 2