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

46 Women offenders: after the Corston Reportlocal authorities, working with their partners, gained full responsibility for commissioninghealth and wellbeing services for offenders in both custody and the community in England.According to the MoJ, this presents a unique opportunity to move to a “fully integrated,locally commissioned and recovery-oriented system that meets the health needs of femaleoffenders.” Providers to NOMS would be expected to work in alignment with localpriorities, which include female offenders where appropriate. 230118. The Inspectorates, among others, considered that involvement of Health andWellbeing Boards (HWBBs) and the Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) would beessential to the success of any locally coordinated arrangements as would that of LocalCriminal Justice Boards, with their capacity to act as brokers between the various localagencies. 231 We encountered some evidence of existing joined up working to meet thedistinct needs of vulnerable women but this appeared to be piecemeal and dependent uponlocal dynamism and there was no longevity of funding. 232 Bedfordshire Probation Trust,for example, found that the “significant” health and wellbeing needs of both womenvictims and offenders often “lost in the maze of commissioning forums and complexcommissioning processes that do not align well across criminal justice, health and localauthorities.” 233 West Mercia Probation Trust had found that women’s health was not apriority locally, let alone women offenders’ health. 234 The Probation Chiefs’ Associationproposed that Trusts would be best placed to coordinate and manage women’s services at alocal level; this should be supported by a national drive to ensure that other partners areengaged, particularly PCCs and HWBBs. 235 The maze of local commissioningarrangements can result in centres having to develop highly complex fundingarrangements to enable the provision of a wide sphere of activity. For example, CalderdaleWomen’s Centre, in existence for over 20 years, is supported by 32 different fundingstreams. On the other hand, newer projects, are very dependent on probation workingclosely with them to access funding. 236119. We are concerned about the potential impact of significant changes tocommissioning arrangements on the volume, range, and quality of specialist communityprovision for women offenders and those at risk of offending. The fact that responsibilityfor preventing women being drawn into the criminal justice system lies within adepartment focused on criminal justice is particularly problematic and inhibits thedevelopment of a more holistic approach. The current priority must be to preserveexisting services for vulnerable women and their children. The Advisory Board shouldurgently clarify how the various inter-connected commissioning agendas will becoordinated and funded and how to mitigate the risks that services will not be affordedsufficient priority or that designated resources will be stretched too thinly across toomany commissioning bodies.230 Ev 96231 Ev 66, Ev 80. See also Ev w45, Ev 89, Ev 120232 Q 20233 Ev w16234 Ev w99235 Ev 120236 Q 20