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

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Ev 98Justice Committee: Evidence15. Officials from other Government Departments were, for a while, co-located within the women’s team inMoJ. However, this arrangement is no longer needed. Strong relationships have been forged between ourdepartments, with relevant policy leads in MoJ working closely with cross-Government colleagues on specificelements of the women’s policy. This approach ensures that the specific needs of female offenders are embeddedin policy making across Government. Moreover, it offers the most effective approach and makes the best useof resources.The extent to which the gender equality duty has become a lever for mainstream service commissioners—outside of the criminal justice system—to provide services which tackle the underlying causes of femaleoffending16. The Equality Act 2010 introduced the “public sector equality duty”, which places equality at the heartof how Government departments design, deliver or commission their policies and services to the public. TheCommittee will be aware that the Government recently announced a review, due to be completed in April2013, to determine whether this duty is operating as intended.17. It is difficult to assess the direct impact of the public sector equality duty but mainstream servicecommissioners must show that due regard has been given to the public sector equality duty when providingservices which tackle the factors associated with offending.18. We will continue to develop and improve our approach to female offenders by using existing evidenceand undertaking research to understand where gender distinctions exist between offenders and whether, andhow, these can best be accounted for through our policies and services.19. Examples of the way mainstream service commissioners provide services which address the factorsassociated with offending are below:Health— The Department of Health assumed responsibility in April 2011 for funding drug and alcoholtreatment in all prisons and the community in England. However, under the Health and Social CareAct 2012, from April 2013 the National Health Service and local authorities, working with theirpartners, will have full responsibility for commissioning health and wellbeing services for offendersin both custody and the community in England. This presents a unique opportunity to move to afully integrated, locally commissioned and recovery-oriented system that meets the health needs offemale offenders. Providers to NOMS will be expected to align local needs-based priorities, whichinclude female offenders where appropriate, and resources with the new commissioningarrangements.Abuse— The Home Office-led Violence Against Women and Girls Action Plan (March 2012), recognises theneed to improve commissioning of services for women and girls, which includes tackling some ofthe factors associated with women’s offending. The Home Office has committed to develop a supportpackage to help local authority commissioners better understand the needs of domestic violencevictims and measures to tackle perpetrators.Employment— From March 2012, prison leavers applying for Jobseekers Allowance have had a mandatory referralonto the Department for Work and Pensions’ Work Programme. Recognising that re-establishingcaring responsibilities is a priority for many women leaving prison, Work Programme providers arerequired to be responsible for childcare and replacement caring costs whilst the claimant is on theprogramme, which enables providers to take into account these gender-related needs.Accommodation— Homelessness legislation does not take a gender specific approach, functioning as a safety net for allthose who need help regardless of their gender. However, pregnant women are automatically helped,as are those with dependent children. In 2011/12 almost half (47%) of homeless households inpriority need accepted by local authorities were comprised of female lone parents with dependentchildren (male lone parents with dependent children comprised just 4% of households accepted bylocal authorities). 32The suitability of the women’s custodial estate and prison regimes20. NOMS is fully committed to ensuring that women prisoners are held in conditions and within regimesthat meet their gender specific needs and which facilitate their successful resettlement. The latest available data32 DCLG (2012) Homeless households in priority need accepted by local authorities, by household type, England, 2006 to 2012.(Table 780). http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/homelessnessstatistics/livetables
Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 99on female offenders show that women have consistently accounted for 5% of the prison population since 2007.On 30 June 2012, the prison population was 86,048, of which 4,123 were women. Of these:— 633 women were remanded in prison (15%), the lowest number over the last decade;— 3,477 women (84%) were under sentence; and— 13 women in prison were non-criminal prisoners (less than 1%).21. There are currently 13 women’s prisons in England. As part of the thematic audit of women’s prisons,each establishment is audited against the requirements in Prison Service Order 4800 Women Prisoners and theaccompanying gender specific standards. NOMS data from July 2012 shows that, whilst female prisoners wereheld further from home than male prisoners (54 miles on average, compared with 51 miles for male prisoners)the difference was not as large as might be expected in view of the fewer number of prisons accommodatingwomen. 3322. HMP Morton Hall was re-roled in 2011 to an Immigration Removal Centre, meeting our commitmentto reduce the number of places in the female estate by 400. Plans for the women’s prison estate will beconsidered as part of a wider strategy looking at the future development of the overall prison estate and willreflect the current and projected prison population making best use of specialist services.23. NOMS has set out its commitment with a specific Commissioning Intention, to ensure that appropriateprovision is in place to enable female offenders to complete their sentences and address their offendingbehaviour. This has led to the development and inclusion of targeted outputs and outcomes reflecting thespecific needs of female offenders.24. NOMS is also undertaking a programme of work to segment the female offender population.Segmentation involves separating out groups within the offender population in a way which enables providersand commissioners to understand risk and needs, and commission services accordingly. Segmenting the femaleoffending population will enable NOMS to identify priority groups for investment and disinvestment accordingto their offending behaviour/needs.The volume, range, quality, and sustainability of community provision for female offenders, includingapproved premises25. The most recent annual statistics on the volume and range of community provision show that:— In 2011, 24,613 women and 209,915 men were supervised by the Probation Service (thuswomen represented 10% of Probation caseload). Of these, 53% of women and 34% of menwere serving Community Orders; 25% of women and 17% of men were serving SuspendedSentence Orders; and 23% of women and 50% of men were under pre- or post-releasesupervision.— In 2011, a higher proportion of women than men served Community Orders of one or year orless (82% of women and 72% of men). Women also served shorter Suspended Sentence Ordersthan men: 41% of women and 37% of men served Suspended Sentence Orders of one yearor less.26. NOMS has provided £3.78 million via Probation Trusts to support 31 Women’s Community Services in2012–13. This is in addition to Probation Trusts’ basic settlements, and has been given with a contractualexpectation of enhanced services to female offenders. This funding has now been embedded in the NOMScommunity budget baseline to support the provision of appropriate services for women going forward into2013–1427. From April 2013, this approach of locally devolved commissioning will ensure provision is integratedinto local services. NOMS Commissioning Intentions outlines the opportunities for Women’s CommunityServices to enhance the community based sentences and Probation Trusts are expected to demonstrate howthey will ensure the appropriate provision of women’s services locally in their responses.28. Six probation trust areas have approved premises for female offenders. These provide closed andenhanced supervised accommodation for high and very high risk offenders. By March 2013, NOMS willexplore opportunities to maximise the use of existing approved premises for women.29. Bail Accommodation and Support Service (BASS) provides gender specific independent livingaccommodation and support in every region of England and Wales as an alternative to custody. BASS currentlyprovides 80 beds plus the facility of support in their own home. We are currently discussing the possibleextension of the BASS contract with the provider with a view to protecting this provision for women withinthe context of delivering savings overall.30. The Government published two consultations earlier this year on community sentences and probationservices. The Government response on community sentencing was published on 23 October and we will shortlypublish a paper setting out proposals for the Rehabilitation Revolution, delivering a Rehabilitation Revolutionin how we tackle reoffending.33 NOMS (2012) Unpublished Management Information
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