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

Ev 120Justice Committee: EvidenceWritten evidence from the Probation Chiefs’ Association1. The nature and effectiveness of the MoJ’s strategy for women offenders and those at risk of reoffending/integrated across government1.1 Major steps have been taken by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the National Offender ManagementService (NOMS) to raise awareness of the different pathways women take into crime, the complexity of theirneeds and how this requires a “different and distinct” approach. The Probation Chiefs Association (PCA)values the significant progress made so far but urges against complacency and welcomes this review as anopportunity to realign strategy, structures and practice in the context of what we have learned about womenoffenders post Corston (a succinct overview of the profile and need of women offenders and the growing bodyof evidence on what type of provision is likely to be effective for those with complex needs was produced bythe social exclusion task force in 2009 1 ).1.2 MoJ and NOMS developed a National Service Framework for working with women offenders includinga guide for practitioners (A Distinct Approach: A guide to working with women offenders 2 ) which has to anextent helped strengthen partnership activity in Probation Trusts at both regional and local level in terms ofdeveloping specific service provision for women offenders. It helped develop a women-centred approach andgreater understanding of the issues eg that women are more likely to be misusing opiates/crack cocaine; aremore likely to have mental health problems; to have been victims of domestic abuse. The fact that Trustsembraced these practice recommendations is evidenced in the joint inspectorate report into the use ofalternatives to custody for women 3 .1.3 However, the PCA is of the view that there has not been sufficient time for that infrastructure to becomeembedded, to change historical patterns of providing services or to begin to address the deep rooted needsthat are recognised as barriers that get in the way of female offenders being able to desist. There is an emergingbody of evidence of “what works or what might work” in enabling women to desist from crime. Gelsthorpe(2011) lists 9 recommendations for provision of women’s services which recognise the fact that women arelikely to be both victim and offender and to have complex needs. 4 Examples include women only services whichhave good links to mainstream agencies and which integrate offenders with non- offenders. The women centredapproach being taken by Probation Trusts mirrors these recommendations and the NOMS/MoJ strategy shouldfocus on sustaining this approach and evaluating progress towards desistance.1.4 NOMS introduced gender specific standards for women’s prisons and an enhanced Bail AccommodationSupport Scheme (BASS) was developed for women. All 35 Probation Trusts established lead senior managersto coordinate gender specific services and to link with the Women’s Strategy Unit in the MoJ. This gavevisibility and coherence to the strategy and the goal of reducing the numbers of women entering custodyprovided clear focus. Some good projects were developed with a plurality of partners to provide viablealternatives to custody.1.5 It is unfortunate that following the MoJ restructure there is no longer a women’s team in place—therehas been a loss of impetus and it is disappointing that the amendment to the legal aid sentencing and criminaljustice bill, tabled by Lady Corston to establish a women’s criminal justice policy unit within MoJ was defeated.The plan was for this unit to draw on cross government representatives from the Department of Health,Communities and Local Government, Department of Work and Pensions and Home Office. PCA believe thatthis would provide a means to achieve a strategic and coherent approach to reducing the number of women inthe Criminal Justice System and extending more support for community sentences which could in turn reducethe female prison population.1.6 Funding was made available 2009 via NOMS and the Corston Independent Funders Coalition (CIFC) todevelop viable alternatives to custody and as a direct consequence over 45 Women’s Community Projects(WCPs) have been created. 31 have been centrally funded—3.5 million has been set aside for these projectsfor 2012–13 and will be allocated to Trusts via the NOMs budget. Since April 2012 responsibility for thefunded projects has been devolved to Probation Trusts with an expectation that they manage the quality andperformance of the WCPs (see comments on governance in section 2). A summary of different models ofservice provision and examples of good practice, most of which involve partnerships with Probation waspublished by Fawcett 5 .1.7 However funding for WCPs remains limited and short term allocated on a year by year basis and thishas led to projects having to focus efforts on sustainability rather than impact. The message from NOMS isthat in line with their commissioning intentions there will be disinvestment in inefficient/ineffective services?At this stage the majority of WCPs are in early development and so this presents something of a challenge forMoJ/NOMS in that longer term funding is needed to enable them to develop and be in a position to monitorand evaluate effectiveness. Overall PCA is concerned that insufficient resources have been committed to thenational strategy for women offenders and that continued investment in WCPs is critical. Probation Trusts arebest placed to coordinate and manage women’s services at a local level supported by a national drive to ensurethat other partners are engaged—particularly Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and the Health andWell Being Boards (HWBBs).