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

68 Women offenders: after the Corston Reportinfantilised. They often behave like girls, and they are often treated like children or younggirls.” 366175. We were impressed by the approach taken at HMP Styal to foster independent livingskills and a sense of responsibility within small residential units, and to build emotionalresilience through therapeutic interventions. We were also impressed by the apparentability of the prison to cater for women serving a range of sentences, with a range of risksand needs, to the best of its ability. We believe the experience at HMP Styal demonstratesthe benefits of small units in developing responsibility and enabling different types ofprisoners to offer support to each other. We would like to see more focus on care ratherthan security in custodial regimes for women where appropriate. Priority should begiven to finding appropriate ways of enabling and encouraging women to take moreresponsibility for their lives while they are serving a custodial sentence.Staffing and training176. In the 2010–11 annual report of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons it was found that aminority of staff do “not always treat [women] prisoners appropriately” and that staff donot have sufficient training and leadership to deliver activities in a gender-specific way. Itwas concluded that a disappointingly low number of offender managers showed empathyfor the women they supervised, had sufficient knowledge about how to work in a genderspecificway, and were not aware of the range of resources available to meet women’sneeds. 367 Similarly, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation commented that the lack of knowledgeand confidence it had encountered indicated that staff have inadequate training to dealwith female sex offenders. 368 We heard that NOMS had sought to provide women’sawareness training. 369 Nevertheless, Nick Hardwick suggested that as part of the review ofthe custodial estate an assessment should be made of competencies for working withwomen prisoners. 370 Skills for Justice proposed a broader review of skills and nationaloccupation standards for staff working with women offenders both in the community andcustody. 371177. Another issue that our evidence suggested the review should consider is the questionof the appropriate gender balance of staff. We encountered this issue at HMP Styal, whenthe Governor told us he believed that the ratio of female to male staff should be higher toenable the prison to meet women’s greater need for emotional attachment, whilstacknowledging the need for them also to have positive male role models. When we put thisto the Chief Inspector he agreed that the management of prisons, and individual prisoners,can often be dominated by men and stated that the ratio of male to female staff is too highin some prisons. 372 Mr Spurr told us that he saw a 60:40 ratio in favour of women as a“reasonable benchmark” to provide both equality of opportunity for women to work in366 Q 148367 Ev w12368 Ev w14369 Q 273 [Mr Spurr]370 Q 233371 Ev w27372 Q 233