In this edition...
Women’s networking forum
Clinks, with support from Agenda, held the latest women’s networking forum in Liverpool. The group received a presentation prepared by the Ministry of Justice on the national concordat announced in the Female Offender Strategy and then discussed the proposals. The group discussed how sign up for the concordat will be encouraged and accountability for signatories on its commitments; how to localise the concordat effectively; the role of the voluntary sector; and its potential to encourage more collaboration within the voluntary sector. Clare Jones, an independent consultant, also gave a presentation on shared purpose commissioning which discussed the barriers to integrated commissioning and potential opportunities on the horizon. Full notes from the meeting are available here
Advisory Board on Female Offenders
The Advisory Board on Female Offenders (ABFO) met in December 2018. Kate Aldous, Head of Strategic Development at Clinks, represents the voluntary sector on the ABFO and attended the meeting. The meeting focused on how to realise the commitments made in the Female Offender Strategy including the development of female custodial units and utilising community responses to women’s offending. The ABFO also discussed the Ministry of Justice’s review of probation and how the outcome will need to ensure the needs of women are met. If you would like to discuss the ABFO, please contact Kate at kate.aldous@clinks.org
Follow-on Farmer Review
The follow-on Farmer Review into maintaining family ties for women in the criminal justice system held its final expert group meeting in January. Thank you to everyone that responded to, and promoted, the Farmer Review call for evidence. The Farmer Review team received 372 survey responses from women with lived experience, 109 from their families and friends and 15 responses from voluntary organisations. This high response will ensure the voices and experiences of women and their families will be heard by the Review. As a member of Lord Farmer’s expert panel, Clinks is working to inform the review, which will be submitted to the Ministry of Justice. Clinks' Policy Manager, Nicola Drinkwater, has written a blog discussing the Review further. Read the blog here
Additional support for probation providers
The Ministry of Justice is investing an additional £22m per annum for probation providers to deliver an enhanced level of through-the-gate support until Community Rehabilitation Companies have their contracts terminated in 2020. In light of concerns raised by our members, Anne Fox, Clinks' Chief Executive Officer, wrote a letter to Rory Stewart, Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice, and Edward Argar, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice, outlining how vital it is for the additional funds to reach voluntary sector organisations. In particular, Clinks highlighted the challenges that women’s centred services have faced and the need for more funding to support the vision of the Female Offender Strategy and deliver on enhanced through-the-gate specifications.
Mental health
The Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Bill to reduce restraint, which Agenda has been supporting since 2017, received royal assent and became law in November 2018. Agenda’s research has shown that women and girls are restrained at disproportionate rates, with 32 women having died over a five year period after being restrained. This Bill is an important step towards ending the regular and repeated use of physical restraint against all patients, but particularly women and girls. The Bill includes measures to introduce training for mental health staff that will help them understand the impact of trauma on a person’s mental health and help them de-escalate situations without resorting to force. Find out more here
Abuse and multiple disadvantage
Agenda and AVA's joint Commission on Domestic and/or Sexual Abuse and Multiple Disadvantage has been continuing its work, and will be launching its final report and recommendations soon. The commission, chaired by Baroness Hilary Armstrong, is examining the situation of women and girls who have experienced violence and go on to face a range of other issues including addiction and poor mental health. The commission has taken evidence from peer researchers who are experts by experience and considered over 70 submissions to a national call for evidence. The commission also held evidence sessions on intersectionality, rural and isolated communities, and partnership working. The commission will consider what services are available and the changes to policy and practice needed to support women. Find out more here
Regional blueprints for the treatment of women
The Prison Reform Trust’s Transforming Lives team is working closely with local government and key agencies in high custody areas including Wales, London and Merseyside to support the development of local blueprints to improve the treatment of women in the criminal justice system. The blueprints are intended to support delivering of the ambitions of the Female Offender Strategy in the specified areas. Clinks will keep our members informed of developments.
Women’s networking forum
Clinks, with support from Agenda, will be holding the next women’s networking forum [19th March, Manchester, £15]. Our networking forums provide support, information and networking opportunities to those working with women in contact with the criminal justice system. We welcome your suggestions for speakers and agenda items. Please contact kate.aldous@clinks.org to submit a suggestion. Find out more and book here
Training sessions for women’s organisations
Women’s Resource Centre (WRC) is running training sessions for women’s organisations and projects. ‘Perfecting the Pitch’ [7th February, London, £25 for WRC members; £50 for non-members] is aimed at anyone who is responsible for developing partnerships, business development, bid-writing and service development. ‘Joining the Dots Between Governance, Trustees, and Fundraising’ [28th February, London, £25 for WRC members; £50 for non-members] is aimed at CEOs and members of senior management, or individuals preparing to move into senior management roles. The session will cover: the principles of good governance; the roles and responsibilities of trustees; board recruitment; and fundraising. Find out more here
State of the sector
Clinks' latest State of the sector report looks at how organisations are recognising and responding to the particular needs and vulnerabilities of people protected under the Equalities Act (2010) and what barriers they face in doing this. We found that organisations providing a service tailored to a specific client group, including women’s centres are experiencing unique challenges: they are more likely to report service user need becoming more complex and immediate, but are also most likely to be reducing their services. Clinks has conducted this research annually for the last six years to enable us to determine how the voluntary sector is faring and plan our priorities to meet the sector’s needs. Read the report here
Women in the criminal justice system
The Ministry of Justice has released its biennial publication on women in the criminal justice system. The data shows that women continue to disproportionately receive short-term prison sentences, with 57% of women sentenced to three months or less in custody compared with 35% of men. Women make up a far higher proportion of prosecutions than men for theft (women 48%, men 30%) and fraud (women 9%, men 3%). The figures also highlight that a significantly higher proportion of women report problematic drug or alcohol use on arrival at prison. The data shows high levels of self-harm – women were found to be 135% more likely to self-harm in prison, relative to men. Find out more here
Offender equalities annual report
HM Prison and Probation Service released its latest statistical bulletin on people with protected characteristics in prison and under probation supervision. The figures show that women experience a number of poorer outcomes compared to men in prison. For example women have experienced a 76% increase in proven adjudications since 2011; have a higher rate of proven adjudications (at 195 proven adjudications per 100 prisoners, compared to 144 per 100 prisoners for men); and a smaller proportion of women have enhanced status on the incentives and earned privileges scheme (34% compared to 40% of men). The rate of self-harm is also more than twice as high for women in prison as it is for men. Find out more here
Review of the Mental Health Act
The Independent Review of the Mental Health Act has published its final report and recommendations. The report emphasises alternatives to detention, partnership working and the need for investment in community support that reaches patients before they are in crisis. The Review highlights that patients should not be turned away on the basis of dual diagnosis; that detention should not be used without appropriate treatment; and recommends that police cells are no longer used as a place of safety for people experiencing a mental health crisis. (Please see the blog section below for more information on responses to the Review.) Find out more here
Women’s mental health priorities
The Women's Mental Health Taskforce (co-chaired by Katherine Sacks-Jones, Chief Executive of Agenda and Jackie Doyle-Price MP) has published its final report. It was established to set out priorities for improving women’s mental health and their experiences of services. It has made recommendations for future strategic priorities, including: explicitly considering women’s needs in all future mental health policy development; raising expectations of trauma-informed care across services and further embedding it in systems; and recognition of women’s identities as important to individual treatment and in service planning. It recommends that more be done to consider gender from the outset of research design and collect data on topics relevant to women’s health such as violence and poverty. Find out more here
NHS Long Term Plan
The NHS has published its Long Term Plan which sets out its priorities for the next 10 years. The plan for health and justice has prioritised continuity of care, particularly for people in prison and transition to the community. This will include health screening for everyone on entering prison with a follow-up appointment within seven days. NHS England also commits to expanding provision of Community Service Treatment Requirements to more women, people with learning disabilities, and people with mental health and additional requirements. Lauren Nickolls, Clinks Policy Officer, has written a blog which discusses the NHS plans in more detail. Read the blog here
Recalled women
The Prison Reform Trust has published a report called Broken Trust on the rising numbers of women recalled to prison. The report calls on the government to repeal the extension of mandatory supervision to all people serving short prison sentences; to set as a policy objective a drastic reduction in the number of women recalled; and to establish a national network of women-specific community services. It found the threat of being returned to custody creates tensions between supervision and support as fear of recall makes women reluctant to confide in responsible officers about difficulties they are experiencing. Simultaneously, reductions in community services mean women are less able to access the support they need and feel like they’ve been ‘set up to fail’. Find out more here (PDF)
Funding for women
Women’s Resource Centre and Women’s Budget Group have published a report analysing how specialist women’s organisations are faring in the current funding environment. The report identifies changes in the availability and type of funding which are having a negative impact on women’s services. These include the impact of austerity measures reducing the amount of funding available; the move from local and national grants to short-term, competitively tendered-for contracts; funders’ demands for ‘innovative’ projects; and a push for more mixed-gender services. The report calls for funders to recognise the importance of specialist women’s organisations; to provide core funding for delivery of fundamental services and organisational costs and to develop longer-term funding streams to ensure proper training, staff retention and smooth service delivery. Find out more here
Reduce women's imprisonment
Women in Prison will be hosting a mass lobby of Parliament for those who support the campaign to reduce women’s imprisonment. It will give supporters the opportunity to join together at Westminster and meet with their MP. The main aim of the lobby is to strengthen the message with MPs and Ministers for more investment in specialist women’s centres and other community-based support, and housing in order to reduce the women’s prison population and make the government’s Female Offender Strategy a success. The date will be confirmed soon. Register your interest here
Community investment
In November 2018, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced the 12 successful bidders for the first wave of community investment funding from the Female Offender Strategy who will each receive a share of £3.3 million. Clinks will be meeting with the MoJ to discuss the funding and future opportunities for the women’s voluntary sector. Find out more here
How protected are people with protected characteristics in prison?
In this blog Lauren Nickolls, Clinks Policy Officer, takes a closer look at the unequal outcomes and experience of women, young people and people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities in contact with the criminal justice system. Recent data shows that young people are more likely to experience violence in prison. BAME people continue to be significantly over-represented in prison and black people in particular are more likely to be on the lowest level of the incentive and earned privilege scheme in prison. Women continue to overwhelmingly receive short sentences for often minor, non-violent offences whilst the use of community sentences has fallen significantly, which is concerning given the high levels of self-harm amongst the women’s prison population. Read the blog here
Mental Health Act Review
The Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) coalition - a coalition of Clinks, Homeless Link and Mind - has responded to the Mental Health Act Review. MEAM is pleased to see emphasis placed on more accessible and responsive mental health crisis services and community-based services but reiterates the need to take these recommendations beyond legislation to funding, design and delivery at a local level. Agenda has also responded to the final report. It welcomes the focus on community support and changing the ‘Nearest Relative’ model, but highlights concerns about the Review’s lack of gender-specific approach. Read the blog here
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