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

Justice Committee: Evidence Ev 1212. The nature and effectiveness of MOJ’s governance structures for women offenders2.1 In 2009 NOMS gave a commitment to reduce the operational capacity in the women’s estate by 300 byMarch 2011—this was achieved and resulted in the re-role of one prison. NOMS decided to take a targetedapproach to achieve this and focused resources on three larger probation areas where it was considered mosteffect could be gained. At the time it was felt that there was insufficient preparation/consultation with ProbationTrusts with a consequence being that not enough was done strategically to get partners on board or to addressthe very different needs of women in small rural areas. In essence this highlighted the tensions of performingagainst national targets whilst working to develop a strong local resource base which could support women tochange whilst taking account of the realities of their lives.2.2 The responsibility for performance management of individual women’s services has evolved differentlyand up until April 2012 it was managed via a combination of NOMS regional teams, NOMS Cymru andindividual Probation Trusts. The NOMS Women’s Team (NWT) centrally collected data on the performanceof WCPs in relation to their development and the delivery across the nine pathways—unfortunately theoutcomes from this did not routinely reach individual Probation Trusts, sometimes getting log jammed atNOMS regional level. NWT worked well to coordinate activity around women offenders and also collectedinformation on the financial capability and sustainability of the WCPs on behalf of the CIFC.2.3 In April 2012 NOMS grants for WCPs were devolved to local Trusts with ring fenced funding for thosealready receiving the grant. NOMS said they would leave it for local Trusts to decide how they managed thisgrant, but put in place a quarterly reporting requirement of data that was significantly different to that data setpreviously requested of the WCPs. It has been agreed that this will be standardised for 2012–13 and thatmonitoring will focus on the collation of referral data.2.4 The governance structure for women offenders is presently unclear. PCA would like to see a drivetowards joint local commissioning with an end goal which all agencies can be held accountable to—at themoment there are complementary targets but they need to be focused more specifically on reducing women’soffending (evidenced by progression and interim outcomes) and reducing the number of women enteringcustody. PCA would like to see a women’s policy unit in the MoJ and supports the Women’s Justice Taskforce 6recommendation to set in place a cross government strategy with responsibility to lie with a designated Ministerand accountability to be built into relevant roles within government departments and local authorities.3. The extent to which work to address the multiple complex needs of women offenders is integrated acrossgovernment3.1 NWT (which folded in March 2011) recognised that we have some way to go in terms of raisingawareness within the criminal justice sector about the different approach required for women offenders. WhilstNWT was in existence there was a focus on raising the profile of women offenders with Criminal JusticeBoards (CJBs) and ensuring that Magistrates and Sentencers understood the complex needs of women. InProbation Trusts where Intensive Alternatives to Custody (IAC) were piloted, there was significant engagementwith Magistrates and District Judges 7 to promote the benefits of holistic bespoke packages of supervision forwomen which recognised their experience as both victims and offenders. Sentencers involved on the ProjectBoards and partners in the wider community safety arena were key drivers of IAC schemes ensuring thatresources were available to support the “control” element via Integrated Offender Management (IOM)developments. The projects all worked closely with the Voluntary Community Sector (VCS) with significantsupport from the WCPs. Many Probation Trusts continued to provide IAC once central funding ended but withsome loss of momentum.3.2 Outside of criminal justice there is now awareness that a significant number of service users with thegreatest problems and most complex needs utilise services across a range of government/local authoritydepartments, ie adult and children social services, education, health, etc. However, this is not yet sufficientlyintegrated via the various departments with the work of probation. Local Authorities are only now starting tograsp the financial and intergenerational impact of women and young girls entering the justice system and inparticular the impact of imprisonment.3.3 There is still limited understanding of how far reaching the issues are. The Troubled Families agendahas helped to raise awareness of the specific social characteristics of women offenders eg half the womenentering prison ran away from home as a child; one third were excluded from school: 70% suffer from 2 ormore mental health disorders and 55% report drug misuse 8 . Despite the fact that during 2009 there wereapproximately 200,000 children who had experience of a parent in prison, with 17,240 children separated fromtheir mothers by imprisonment in 2010 8, there is still no mechanism in place for systematically identifyingchildren affected by their parents entering the criminal justice system. Work taking place in schools to addressthis issue is embryonic at best and non existent at worst.3.4 Following Corston there has been a greater understanding within Government of the complex needs ofwomen offenders and recognition that all government departments have a role in preventing and reducingoffending. What is missing is the presence of an accountable individual within Government responsible fordriving this, continuing a programme of research and making it happen. Probation Trusts have been successfulin coordinating support and resources at a local level and have made some significant achievements in stemingthe number of women entering custody and in getting them successfully through community orders.