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

Ev 72Justice Committee: Evidence— Some Probation Trusts have approached Women’s Community services with a clear messagethat their work would need to cover a wider geographical area with less budget and this messagehas not been supported by a service costing.5.5 This demonstrates the importance of central ownership of this young agenda, and also demonstrates thatit is too soon to transfer responsibility to local commissioning especially so at a time when proposals forchange are underway (Effective Probation Services consultation) and resources are being squeezed.5.6 The future is not clear, but at the time of writing there is cause for optimism. There have been a numberof disturbing “messages” relating to future funding of services for women offenders, but we are now hopefulthat there will soon be confirmation that the budget that was identified for 2012–13 will be available toProbation Trusts as part of their base budget in future years; and that there will continue to be a level of coordinationof data and services on a national scale, with a requirement to commission the model that ourprojects represent.5.7 While we welcome this, the financial support has been available to some 31 projects. This does not giveadequate national coverage, and there is a need for a coherent strategic approach that shifts resources from theexpensive option of custody to a national network of community based provision. This requires the engagementand commitment of police, prisons, courts, local authorities and third sector providers and a reorganisation ofbudgets and accountability.6. Strategic Links6.1 We have valued the relationship that we have had with the Ministry of Justice and the National OffenderManagement Service over the last five years, and it has been crucial that we have been able to work alongsideindividuals with commitment to the agenda and understanding of the contribution that we make. In the lastyear, there have been significant changes within both of those areas, and these changes have brought significantchallenges to how the third sector can make a strategic input.6.2 Over the last twelve months the restructuring arrangements within the Ministry of Justice and NationalOffender Management Service appear to have weakened the focus on women at risk and women in the CriminalJustice System, and removed a layer of officials who really understood and bought into the agenda for changethat Baroness Corston set out in her report. While the number of people in both Departments has reduced, thenumber of people with a connection to the women’s agenda has increased, and for an organisation like Women’sBreakout this has brought the need to connect at a greater number of points. This of itself stretches capacity,but given that the responsibility for commissioning services in the future will be with the Probation Trusts, ofwhich there are 35, then the ability to connect effectively at a strategic level becomes a serious challenge.6.3 The strategic landscape continues to stretch across the localism agenda with the election of forty onePolice and Crime Commissioners later this year, and they will become very important in the futurecommissioning of local services as budgetary responsibility for Police and Community Safety Initiativestransfers to their control. But the budget for the imprisonment of women does not move local—and so womenwho are imprisoned become a “free good” to local statutory services.6.4 As the responsibility moves increasingly local, the focus on women becomes less sharp as women are asmall proportion of the offending population and they do not generally cause nuisance, fear or harm. Further,at a local level data has not to date been disaggregated by gender. It is clear that without a National CrossGovernment Strategy for women offenders and those at risk of offending the needs and circumstances ofwomen offenders will not be addressed appropriately and we are in real danger of sliding back to the conditionsthat led to serious health risks to women engaged in the criminal justice system and thirteen suicides in one year.7. A Strategy for Women Offenders?7.1 There is clearly no current strategy for women offenders, either written or implied. Without such astrategy, there is no coherence to the work and there is a confusing and fragmented landscape for differentproviders and contributors to connect to. Given the overlapping agendas that must come together under aholistic approach for women, co-commissioning of services and reorganisation of budgets becomes veryimportant, and yet in the absence of a strategy and appropriate leadership this will not become a reality.7.2 In March 2012 a commitment was made in the House of Lords to publish the Ministry of Justice’sstrategic priorities on women offenders. Early in this year, the Director of Women’s Breakout chaired a taskand finish group to produce a paper on women offenders. This paper was produced at the request of theMinister for Prisons and Probation, and presented to him in May 2012 (NB This paper is being submitted tothe Inquiry). Crispin Blunt was interested to explore some of the key elements of the paper in greater depthand there was useful discussion of important issues and the Minister ended by re-affirming the Government’scommitment to publish a document setting out the strategic priorities for women in the Criminal Justice System.7.3 In a subsequent discussion with officers in May 2012, members of the Third Sector Advisory Group onReducing Reoffending (RR3) were advised that this document would not be available until December 2012,and that their would not be a route for the third sector to contribute to the development of the document. At