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

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Ev 64 Justice Committee: Evidence26 March 2013 Helen Grant MP, Ian Porée and Michael Spurrobviously, that would involve women as well. That isone of the reasons for having Cathy Robinson’s reviewof the estate at the minute.Q315 Jeremy Corbyn: Do you all accept that theabsolute key area is when a woman prisoner, in thiscase, is released? If anything goes wrong in thoseimmediate moments and first few days, it can destroyan awful lot of the work that has been achieved in thepast during whatever time the sentence has been.Michael Spurr: Yes, absolutely.Helen Grant: Yes, we do.Ian Porée: There are two very important moments.There are the first few days and weeks in custody when,if someone checks a whole range of things about yourfamily, accommodation and benefits arrangements andthose are sorted out very well up front, it can reducesome of the harms later on. Then, as you say, there isthat moment of transition from within custody backinto the community. That process pre-release andpost-release is an essential transition. Paying attentionto both of those areas will be essential in the futurereforms to try to improve the overall performance ofthe system.Q316 Steve Brine: You mentioned the large andsmall providers. Are you switched on to the fact thatsmall providers bring an awful lot to the table, butthere are simple issues with their being paid by results,which takes time? It is a simple matter of cash flow forsmall firms, which will simply not be able to deal withthe parameters that PBR puts in their way, whereasobviously a publicly funded probation service does nothave that concern.Ian Porée: We have spent a lot of time in theconsultation on “Transforming Rehabilitation” talkingto the whole range of providers, large and small. Thepoint you make is essential. If there is going to be asustainable but very diverse market, where we get thebenefit of the financial strength of large organisationsbut also the intimacy or engagement of very smalllocal organisations, we will have to embed market________________stewardship principles in the new market that insiston transparency and sustainability. It would not beappropriate to transfer financial risk to very smallorganisations because that is simply not sustainable—they do not have the balance sheet to cope with it. Themarket model will need to ensure that we pay attentionto those stewardship principles so that we get the verybest out of each sector— public, private and voluntaryor community.Q317 Chair: Yesterday at Adelaide House it wasquite striking to us that here was a facility providedby an agency of the Church of England diocese ofLiverpool operating on a small scale; it had someother projects, too. It was very challenging, but reallyit was only achievable at all because it was on thatsort of scale—not the very grand scale, for example,that was suggested for the original reorganisation ofprobation areas into huge contracting areas. Are youconscious that you must not lose the ability to bring inorganisations like this?Helen Grant: Yes.Ian Porée: For these reforms to succeed, it is essentialthat we have both very effective local deliverystructures and community-based provision and theoverarching disciplines of managing at scale supplychains and the financial risk we have been talkingabout. We would be looking to put in place that fullrange of provision and offering some of the oversight,as the commissioner, so that the Ministry of Justicegets the benefit of both of those things. In the end, theincentive will be to reduce reoffending. It would becompletely strange for an organisation that will be paidby effective results to get rid of very effective servicesat a local level, because they will benefit from thequality of that service provision. That is what we willneed to protect in the system, along with the financialincentives.Chair: Minister, Mr Spurr and Mr Porée, thankyou very much for your evidence. This was the lastevidence session in relation to this subject, so we willset to work to prepare a report.
Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 65Written evidenceWritten evidence from the Corston Independent Funders Coalition and 16 other voluntary sectoragenciesWe welcome the Justice Select Committee Inquiry into women and the CJS. Many of the signatories of thisletter will be making individual submissions to assist the Committee in its consideration of evidence; but wehave come together here as “one voice”, confirming the strength of support for the implementation of theCorston Report recommendations. We wish to highlight some key shared concerns and to stress our belief thatthe Inquiry provides a real opportunity for the Committee to assist ministers in their stated aim to build on theprevious progress made in delivering the Corston agenda.The Corston Report provided a route-map for reform and presented a golden opportunity to provide anintegrated, cross-government response to addressing appropriately the multiple complex needs of womenoffenders and women at risk of offending. Baroness Corston always intended that the agenda should stretchbeyond criminal justice so that her changes would benefit women with multiple vulnerabilities in thecommunity (and their children). It was stated clearly in the early stages of the response to the Corston Reportthat the work was the start of what was necessarily a long-term, sustainable strategy: there was no “quick fix”in achieving improvements and change.We welcome the fact that the current government has continued the funding for the women’s communityprojects for this year; but are dismayed to have drawn the worrying conclusion, despite Ministers’ assertionsto the contrary, that over the last three years the impetus for real change appears to have been lost and progresshas stalled. It is of particular concern that:1. The dismantling of the infrastructures put in place to secure an integrated approach acrossGovernment, (the Inter-Ministerial Group on Women and the cross-departmental CJS Women’sStrategy Team), has resulted in a loss of any real focus on “women at risk” and a return to theproblematic, “silo-thinking” and actions identified by Baroness Corston.2. There is an apparent “loss of corporate memory”, perhaps as a result of the reorganisationwithin MoJ, on previous progress made in implementing the Corston recommendations andwhat is needed to build on that progress. Dialogue with current officials has failed to elicit detailon any transparent, proactive work underway on a joined-up cross-departmental strategy—astrategy against which progress can be evidenced and judged.3. The inexplicable delay in delivering on the commitment made by Lord McNally on 20 Marchin the House of Lords, to publish MoJ’s “Strategic Priorities on Women Offenders” on the MoJwebsite. Reporting on work underway would surely take days rather than months, to set out?4. The Justice Select Committee’s Report on Probation (June 2011) and the Joint ThematicInspection of probation Equal but Different (October 2011), both identified concerns andprovided the opportunity to drive improvements in Probation Trusts’ practice in addressingwomen offenders’ specific profiles and needs. The lack of any formal responses is concerningand disappointing. NOMS’ assurance that they are seeking Probation Trusts’ CommissioningIntentions for women is welcome, but does not address the issue of improving practice andconsistency across the piece.5. Previous progress on the expansion of provision of women-specific community projects was areal achievement; but despite strong and growing evidence of their effectiveness their futureremains precarious and gaps in provision remain. There is a lack of any narrative of substanceon how local commissioning will work and structures are not yet in place for women’s projectsto approach to broker future sustainability of services. Time is already running out for theprojects whose funding ends in March 2013. It is a pity perhaps that the good practice shownby the HO in funding Rape Crisis Centres for three year periods and retaining central oversighthas not been emulated by the MoJ.6. The net result of the failure to make sustained progress in all these areas is that the size andcharacteristics of the women’s prison population remain largely unchanged. The deaths of sixwomen in HMP Styal prompted the Corston Report, it is therefore particularly disturbing thatin the prison’s most recent inspection report published in January this year, Her Majesty’s ChiefInspector commented that it was “disappointing to find, and to be told of by the governor, toomany cases of women, some of whom were clearly mentally ill, serving very short prisonsentences which served little purpose except to further disrupt sometimes already chaotic lives”.We would stress our conviction that this Inquiry presents a real opportunity for the Committee to set out toministers the realistic and achievable steps required to get progress in delivering on the Corston agenda backon track. The areas specified as in scope for the Inquiry are comprehensive and most welcome. There are key,crucial elements needed to underpin the drive for tangible improvements and progress:7. A clear cross-departmental strategy, reported on annually to maintain momentum, supported bysome sort of infrastructure arrangement at both ministerial and official levels and incorporatingclear direction from the centre in driving change at the local level.
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