Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Deferred
Paragraph: 88
Set out detailed operational plans and evaluation methods for Residential Women's Centres.
Recommendation
We recognise that the Residential Women’s Centre model is new and untested, and so we acknowledge the concerns of many of our witnesses over how the centres will operate in practice and how their provision will differ from that of custody. As it develops its plans for the Swansea centre and other sites, the Ministry of Justice should set out in greater detail how the centres will operate in practice, including how they will differ from custody. Additionally, the MoJ should set out how it intends to evaluate and report on the effectiveness of the pilot.
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation but responded by detailing a multi-disciplinary Women’s Self-Harm Taskforce and various prison safety measures, instead of providing operational details or evaluation plans for Residential Women's Centres.
Paragraph Reference:
88
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
We accept this recommendation. Ensuring the safety of our prisons is a priority for the Department. We have established a multi-disciplinary Women’s Self-Harm Taskforce to address the high levels of self-harm. The aim of the taskforce is to focus on work, research and interventions that improve prisoner outcomes. Key actions to date include: a review of prolific self-harm in the women’s estate; delivery of specialist training for new officers; recruitment of psychologists to support the delivery of Support through Enhanced Management (StEM) for women with complex needs; piloting a Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) intervention; rolling out a woman-specific Offender Management in Custody (OMiC) model; and commissioning a review of health and social care with NHS England. We have allocated a total of £37m on safety measures over the next three years. This includes 290 ligature-resistant cells; trialling alternatives to wet-shave razors; providing emotional resilience training to new arrivals; training prisoners to provide peer-to-peer wellbeing support; creating multidisciplinary specialist support teams who will work with individuals to address their risk of harm to self and others; and we are establishing an innovations taskforce bringing together experts from across the sector to develop new ideas to address the drivers of self-harm and violence in prisons. Additionally, we have committed to expanding and supporting our workforce to enable a greater focus on offender management and key work; ensuring a more resilient estate by both building additional prison places and undertaking refurbishments with the current estate; improving access to healthcare and substance misuse treatment; and creating a regime that supports safety with an increased focus on creating a secure estate. Since publication of the White Paper, we have also funded a number of activities to support improvements in safety, including additional support for women with complex needs, specialist support for women who have experienced abuse and extra support during early days in custody.