Women’s criminal justice network bulletin

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These e-bulletins aim to keep you updated on relevant developments for the women’s sector, including the work of Clinks and our members. We will aim to send these out quarterly, with additional updates when there is urgent or important information. We are committed to supporting and representing our members who provide specialist support to women, and following the merger with Women’s Breakout we continue to seek funding to allow us to develop our service. We will let you know of any progress on this, but in the interim will strive to provide support from our existing resources.

News

Female Offender strategy launched
The Ministry of Justice launched their long awaited Female Offender strategy in June, which sets out the government’s commitment to a new programme of work for women in contact with the criminal justice system in England and Wales. The strategy focuses on the need for early intervention and prevention, alongside an emphasis on community-based solutions to women’s offending. The strategy also announces the development of a National Concordat on Female Offenders to set out how local bodies and services should be working in partnership, and the piloting of residential women’s centres. We have published a blog that details the key information from the strategy and we will be following up with a more detailed briefing soon.

The sector's response to the Female Offender Strategy
Agenda co-ordinated a letter to the Secretary of State for Justice, David Gauke, highlighting the sector’s concerns about the government’s Female Offender Strategy. The women’s criminal justice sector and Clinks were unanimous in our response - we welcomed the focus of the strategy and its emphasis on community support but said without adequate investment it represents a missed opportunity. The £3 million of funding allocated is not enough to achieve the strategy’s ambitions. An estimated investment of at least £20 million in community services is required. David Gauke responded to the letter on the 11th July.

Grant funding launched
Alongside the launch of the Female Offender Strategy, the Ministry of Justice has launched a grant funding competition of £3m for 2018/19 and 2019/20, which includes £2 million of funding explicitly for female offenders who have experienced domestic abuse. The grant deadline for 2018-19 is the 29th August. Details can be accessed online here under reference ITT 2020.

Farmer Review into family ties for women
A second independent review has been commissioned by Lord Farmer. The original Farmer Review entitled ‘The importance of strengthening prisoners' family ties to prevent reoffending and reduce intergenerational crime’, focused on men in prison. The second review will investigate how supporting female offenders to engage with their families can lower recidivism, aid rehabilitation and assist in addressing the issues of intergenerational crime. The terms of reference can be found in Appendix A of the Female Offender Strategy.

Apply to be a member of the Advisory Board for Female Offenders
The Advisory Board on Female Offenders, chaired by the Minister for women in the criminal justice system, is refreshing its membership and wants to ensure it has a wide range of expertise relating to women in contact with the criminal justice system, including people with expertise in service delivery both in the community and in custody. The Board brings together government departments, criminal justice agencies and key stakeholders to provide advice and challenge on the development and delivery of policy. To apply to be a member of the Board please send a full CV and expression of interest that explains your reasons for applying and how you meet the person specification by 12th September. All the details can be accessed here.

Consultation on the future of probation
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced a public consultation on proposals to stabilise the delivery of probation services over the next two years and a longer term strategy for probation services beyond 2020. Clinks’ Interim Head of Policy Jess Mullen has written a blog which takes a close look at the MoJ's proposals and examines how different they are to the current system. This represents an opportunity to influence future arrangements, and was a key recommendation from Clinks' TrackTR research on the voluntary sector's involvement in Transforming Rehabilitation. Read the blog here. If you are a small organisation with limited ability to respond to the consultation you can email Nathan.dick@justice.gov.uk to organise a telephone interview and feed in your views to the consultation directly.

Clinks events

Strengthening probation, building confidence
As part of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) market and stakeholder engagement activity for their consultation on the future of probation services, Clinks is hosting a series of events for the voluntary sector to find out more about the proposals, ask questions, and feed in your views. The MoJ has announced a public consultation on proposals to stabilise the delivery of probation services over the next two years and a longer term strategy for probation services beyond 2020. Book your place to have your say here

Women’s networking forums
Clinks’ networking forums, hosted in partnership with Agenda, are for leaders of organisations working with women in contact with the criminal justice system [10th September, Bristol | 13th November, Liverpool, from £15]. The Ministry of Justice will be present to consult with attendees on the residential units for women announced in the Female Offender Strategy. This is your chance to contribute to strategic discussions, share your experiences, and support and build partnerships across the sector. The events include: Updates from Clinks and our members; expert speakers on an issue identified by members; and consultation on new developments and strategic discussions. Find out more and book here

Publications

Response to domestic abuse
Clinks has responded to HM Government’s consultation on transforming the response to domestic abuse. We welcome the recognition that domestic abuse is often a key factor in women’s involvement in the criminal justice system (CJS) and stress the need for a shared approach across the government to responding to victims of domestic abuse. Our response focuses on the importance of early intervention and prevention, as well as diversion from the CJS. You can access our response here

Response to the sentencing of women
Our response highlights the need for sustained investment in women’s centres, information for sentencers about the availability of gender specific services and the provision of gender specific community sentencing options. Our response was informed by consultation with our members during a recent women’s networking forum meeting. You can access our response here

Creating a blue print for women in contact with the criminal justice system
In April, Welsh Government and HM Prison and Probation Service launched a Framework to support people at risk of offending. The Blueprint will provide a vision for the services which should be delivered by partners in Wales to reduce the number of women in the criminal justice system. Clinks, working with Prison Reform Trust and Community Justice Cymru has been supporting partners to develop the Blueprint. This has included a workshop which provided an opportunity to share good practice, including the IOM Pathfinder that has successfully diverted women from court. Members valued learning about the work of the voluntary sector, including Anawim and 218’s whole system approaches with residential provision, and the journey that led to the development of a network of women’s centres across Greater Manchester. For more information please email: womensprogramme@prisonreformtrust.org.uk

The impact on children of maternal imprisonment
The Prison Reform Trust has published a report entitled What about me? The impact on children when mothers are involved in the criminal justice system. It highlights that children are often devastated when their mother is sent to prison, but their interests are rarely considered by a justice system which is blind to their needs. The report makes a series of recommendations including that UK governments should establish a national framework for identifying and safeguarding children affected by maternal imprisonment, improved data collection and tackling barriers to disclosure, and consider implementing child impact assessments to ensure that a child’s needs are identified and addressed. Hard copies are available on request.

Member updates

From our member organisations working with women.

Agenda

Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Bill: Agenda released new figures, which found that 32 women died after being restrained in the five years to 2017, and appeared on Radio 4's Today and Victoria Derbyshire to discuss them. The Bill passed its third reading and will now be scrutinised in the House of Lords.
Co-ordinated a joint meeting of the Mental Health and Domestic Violence All Party Parliamentary Groups in June, co-chaired by MPs Jess Phillips and Helen Whately.
Lead joint open letter to the Justice Secretary from members of the Advisory Board on Female Offenders outlining concerns about the lack of funding attached to the Female Offender Strategy, featured in the Guardian. You can read David Gauke’s response here.
Responded to the Government’s Domestic Abuse Bill consultation here.

Upcoming: new research on Gender and Systems Change, and the findings of national Commission with AVA on women facing domestic and sexual abuse and multiple disadvantage. Agenda will be responding to the Ministry of Justice Transforming Rehabilitation consultation, ‘Strengthening Probation, Building Confidence’, and the Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry into the Enforcement of the Equality Act. Please submit any comments on either of these to jessica@weareagenda.org
If people want to keep up to date with Agenda’s work, please do sign up for the monthly newsletter.

Women’s resource centre

Published the results from the Women’s Way Ahead survey- commissioning and funding main need, followed by support for specialist black, Asian and minority ethnic women’s organisations.
Responded to the CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women) consultation. Published the UK CEDAW Shadow Report, Women’s Equality in the UK: a health check which was produced by the CEDAW working group, a coalition of 42 women’s and human rights organisations from across the UK in preparation for the examination of the UK Government by the UN CEDAW Committee in July 2013.

Published a research report Why Women? 2018 which highlights the importance of women’s organisations.

On 6th September are running an event in London to explore feminism’s role in civil society and tackling violence against women and girls.

Join as a member.

Prison Reform Trust

Accommodation: Publication released on 14th June of updated Home Truths briefing on housing for women in the criminal justice system.
Foreign national women and trafficked women in the criminal justice system: High level roundtable held in Westminster on 19th July; new report forthcoming (with Hibiscus).
Community Sentence Treatment Requirement: Working with Northamptonshire women specific CSTR pilot: view short film.
Influencing work: Supported Ministry of Justice (MoJ) consultation event on domestic abuse as a driver to women’s offending; submission to Domestic Abuse Bill consultation on the basis of this briefing. Commented on Female Offender strategy; continuing to press for increased investment. Working with Welsh Government core group to develop Welsh blueprint for the treatment of women under Framework to support positive change for those at risk of offending in Wales.
Local Data Resource – to highlight local variations in women’s imprisonment and support local efforts to tackle this. Updates forthcoming following MoJ publication of 2017 data.
Research on women’s recall to prison is well underway, and will be published at the end of the year.

Women in Prison

2020 Ambition campaign – a public awareness and lobbying campaign with the objective of building a united and loud voice leading to the significant reduction in the women’s prison population to 2,020 by 2020. See their supporters briefing for more information. It is asking all 2020 supporters to contact their MP to influence the development of the Ministry of Justice’s Female Offenders’ strategy. To pledge your support for the 2020 Ambition, find out more about how you and the women you support can get involved, and to use the online lobbying tool to contact your MP go to www.WIP2020.org.uk
As part of this campaign Women in Prison wants to build a louder and more positive voice on Twitter to promote the vital and excellent work of women’s support services and Women’s Centres. Please follow Women in Prison - @WIP_live and use the hashtags #2020by2020 or #WomensJusticeStrat so they can retweet – with stats, case studies, photos from your service showing policymakers the amazing work that you all do and how crucial it is to invest in community women’s services.
For more on WIP’s campaigning, contact the Policy and Campaigns Manager Claire Cain – claire.cain@womeninprison.org.uk.

Inquest

Published Still dying on the inside: examining deaths in women’s prisons. The report shows that 94 women have died in prison since 2007, with 22 deaths in women's prisons in 2016.

Comments and feedback

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If you have suggestions for topics you would like covered at our network meetings, information you want to share in the newsletter, or good practice for a case study or presentation get in touch: kate.aldous@clinks.org or telephone 020 7383 0966.

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