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

Women offenders: after the Corston Report 89Lessening the inter-generational impact of crime31. We note the Government’s commitment to expand the Troubled Familiesprogramme. We believe that it should direct support to children whose parents arealready directly involved in the criminal justice system, because they are serving timein prison or sentencing in the community; we were surprised that this is not one ofthe explicit criteria for inclusion in the programme. The Ministry of Justice, inconjunction with the Advisory Board, must clarify who has responsibility forpromoting the needs of women offenders and those at risk of offending withcommissioners of mainstream services. (Paragraph 206)Political coverage32. Baroness Corston intended that her agenda for reform should stretch beyondcriminal justice to also benefit women with multiple vulnerabilities in thecommunity, and their children. We welcome the Government’s stated support for a‘whole system’ approach, but there is little to signal a radical shift in theGovernment's thinking about what this means. All the signs are that in practice it willprove to be a partial and fragmented approach. Careful investment in women’sservices has the potential to make significant ‘whole system’ improvement yetfunding options appear unlikely to be available for that purpose. We believe a ‘wholesystem’ approach should enable such services, and others, to provide earlierintervention to address the inter-generational nature of offending, and to stem theflow of girls and women into the criminal justice system. That system is notequipped to tackle the multiple problems that contribute to women’s offending andin many cases, compounds rather than solves issues, increasing a woman’s chancethat she will end up in custody. Breaking the link between women with mental healthproblems and the criminal justice system must also be a key priority. (Paragraph212)33. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice, Women and Equalities haslead responsibility for progress both for women offenders and for those at risk ofoffending. This work will require strong backing from Ministers at the highest levelsacross Government. The efficacy of existing governance arrangements, along withthe changes we recommended earlier in our report and the progress made againstthe Government’s strategic priorities, should be reviewed after one year and shouldbe used to inform a consideration of whether responsibility for driving the strategicapproach should transfer to the Department for Communities and LocalGovernment as Baroness Corston originally intended. (Paragraph 213)