Local authorities provide many of the services and pathways that can help turn an offender's life around and therefore we need to take ownership of the reducing reoffending agenda.
It is local authorities who help to tackle the root causes of offending, through services such as housing, employment support, drug and alcohol treatment and social services. We also facilitate and participate in local partnership working with criminal justice agencies and voluntary sector organisations to ensure that our communities are safe.
Through the Community Budgets programme, led by the Department for Communities and Local Government, the tri-borough councils of Hammersmith & Fulham, City of Westminster, and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, had the opportunity to look at what was being spent across our three boroughs to address reoffending, understand who our most problematic reoffenders were and analyse the effectiveness of current programmes.
This work highlighted a plethora of services, all working with different groups, funded through different sources, aimed at a variety of outcomes.
We determined that resources should transfer to short sentenced prisoners who commit a large proportion of offences across the Tri-borough, have a negative impact on local communities and, at the time, received no supervision upon release from custody.
We decommissioned existing programmes, such as our Drug Interventions Programme, and pooled resources (predominantly from Public Health and the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime) to fund a new approach.
We then designed with our partners and service users a new offer working from police custody , through to prisons and on into the community
Distinct service for female offenders
In recognition of the distinct and complex needs of female offenders, we commissioned a dedicated service for female offenders, in order to provide a holistic, ‘women-centred' approach to meeting their needs. This approach also ensured that female offenders were not overlooked in a payment by results contract, as they make up a small percentage of the overall cohort (estimated at approximately 7%) and may become victims of ‘cherry picking' by a provider in favour of the male offenders with less challenging and complex needs.
In January 2014, we commissioned ADVANCE Minerva to provide support to women sentenced to under 12 months in custody, with the aim to reduce their reoffending by 10% over 2 years.
Key workers provide specialist assessments, referrals to services such as substance misuse and mental health for those who need them, and through the gate support. Intensive work takes place in the critical two weeks upon release from custody and beyond, in order to ensure women released from prison are engaged with local support services that will aid resettlement.
There is a focus on building basic life skills, rebuilding relationships with family and friends and group work at the service's centre in Hammersmith to develop peer support, social skills, resilience and empowerment. In short, women are given both the opportunity and support to make positive changes in their lives.
What is unique about the ADVANCE Minerva service is that we are now able to provide an end-to-end service for female offenders across the three London boroughs with Minerva being the gateway for all female offenders requiring support.
As well as working with those serving short prison sentences, they are commissioned by the local probation service to work with statutory clients, and in partnership with the Transition to Adulthood Alliance, they also provide an earlier intervention approach to support young women arrested and in police custody to provide key worker support to divert them from the criminal justice system before their offending escalates.
Key workers have access to a personalised commissioning fund, which can be used where a client's need cannot be met through existing provision, or where the key worker and service user have come up with an innovative approach to addressing the client's needs. This is in recognition of the fact that offenders do not always meet the eligibility criteria for local services.
The future
It is difficult to know what the future for local service provision will look like when the Transforming Rehabilitation changes come into effect, but we are working closely with our Police & Crime Commissioner through the Mayor's Office for Policing & Crime to incorporate our learning and ensure that respect for local partnerships and delivery is factored into the Ministry of Justice scoring of tenders
It is positive that those bidding to win the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts will be required to outline how they will provide a distinct service for female offenders.
There is a risk that providing services for this group may prove less attractive to providers because not only do women make up a small percentage of the overall offending cohort, they have complex needs and often require more intensive support.
It is vital that the experience and expertise of specialist women's services, such as ADVANCE Minerva, as well as other local support providers such as substance misuse services are not lost, and that CRCs consider these services within their supply chains and local areas are not disincentivised to continue funding these services.
Key to this is improving information sharing among agencies, something which is currently a real challenge with numerous different information systems none of which provide a complete and up-to-date picture of offenders and offending.
Alice Kavanagh is community safety commissioning manager, Westminster City Council
