MAYOR’S £500,000 TO TACKLE FEMALE REOFFENDING

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has put tackling female offending at the heart of his policing strategy, investing £500,000 in improved services to support women at risk of reoffending.

Around 30,000 women are arrested each year in London, making up a third of all offenders sentenced at court. Of these, over a fifth go on to reoffend. Support for female offenders in the capital has been historically underfunded and the need for more services has become increasingly acute as a result of the closure of HMP Holloway last summer.

The new Female Offender Service, funded by the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) and the London Community Rehabilitation Company (London CRC), will expand and improve current services and bring different agencies together to tackle women’s reoffending across the capital.

The programme builds on the work of the Minerva project, part of women’s charity Advance, which works with women who are either leaving custody or serving their sentence in the community.

The new service will reach 950 female offenders across London. MOPAC’s funding will enhance support services in 10 London boroughs, including specialist care in the areas of domestic and sexual abuse, trauma counselling, employment support, parenting and housing.

Sophie Linden Deputy Mayor for Policing And Crime said: “We know that most women serving prison sentences have committed a non-violent offence, and by providing support across a range of areas, we can help them deal with the root causes of their problems, drive down reoffending, cut crime and make our communities safer. The Minerva project supports women as they navigate the criminal justice system and when they leave it, and by expanding this service we are one step closer to the pan-London approach to female offending that our capital needs.”

Helga Swindenbank, Director of Probation at the London Community Rehabilitation Company said: “We are delighted to be working with Advance Minerva to help our women service users deal with some of the complex issues that can lead them to re-offend. Advance Minerva will complement the work we do with women to prepare for their release from custody, meeting them in prison and working with them once back in their communities.

This will give us more of an opportunity to provide tailored support to address women offenders’ individual needs and will enable us to deliver a more seamless service to help a woman’s transition from custody to the community.

“I hope that, by working with women offenders in this way, we will help equalise the life chances of vulnerable women in London and reduce the cycle of reoffending.”