BWC alongside almost 50 other voluntary and community-based organisations, including the 26 women’s specialist organisations of the NWJC have signed an open letter published today, outlining the vision, recommendations and expectations of the new Women’s Justice Board. You can read the letter in full below.
Dear Ministers,
The announcement of the Women’s Justice Board (WJB) marks a pivotal moment for transforming outcomes for women and girls in the criminal justice system. Following our July 2024 letter, where the National Women’s Justice Coalition (NWJC) called for the creation of this board, we warmly welcome the government’s commitment to this vital initiative.
Based on this announcement, we understand the board’s overarching remit will be to tackle the root causes of female offending and to advocate for the distinct needs of women and girls in contact with the CJS. It will do this by developing a strategy to divert women away from custodial sentences and better utilise alternatives to prison, including community sentences and residential women’s centres.
We also understand the board will be chaired by Lord Timpson and will be held to account by experts from across the voluntary and community sector who will be represented on a new Women in Justice Partnership Delivery Group (PDG).
In consultation with the NWJC’s 26 organisational partners, all of whom deliver trauma-informed support to women and girls in prisons, women’s centres and women-only premises, as well as with criminal justice and women’s specialist organisations from across England and Wales, we have developed a vision and set of recommendations for how the Women’s Justice Board should be convened and operate.
This vision is informed by the wealth of our collective lived and learned expertise and is based on our shared belief that any plans for improving women’s justice will only be successful with women’s justice organisations at their heart. At this stage of the design and development of the Women’s Justice Board, the government has a valuable opportunity to involve and collaborate with the voluntary sector and specifically, women’s organisations. We would welcome any opportunities to take part in further consultation to inform how the WJB and PDG are established, and we offer our collective and committed support to delivering the board’s strategy to reduce the number of women in prison.
For the purposes of this joint letter, we have summarised five priority considerations we believe should underpin the development, mobilisation and operation of the Women’s Justice Board.
1. STRUCTURE
It will be critical from the outset to embed an effective governance structure within the Women’s Justice Board based on good practice examples, such as the Youth Justice Board (YJB), and avoid replicating previously failed models of cross-departmental working and decision making. The YJB’s success in fostering independent recommendations, stakeholder relationships, and child-centred justice provides a valuable blueprint for the WJB.
We recommend that the structure and remit of the WJB should be developed with this effective, tried and tested model as its foundation. The board will need to share equitable power with and remain receptive to expert guidance and input from the women’s sector. The Partnership Delivery Group has a key role to play in this respect, since it will involve specialists from across the voluntary sector, but it must not evolve into a tokenistic advisory group that lacks meaningful influence or input. It needs to be recognised and valued for the expert contribution and support it can offer to implementing and realising the WJB’s strategy with specific consideration given to increase the capacity of smaller, specialist organisations working with minoritised groups of women. This could in part be achieved by remunerating voluntary sector organisations for their involvement, in recognition of the expertise and additional resource and time they will need to dedicate to this work.
2. APPROACH
The Women’s Justice Board must adopt a gendered, cross-sector approach to break cycles of trauma and harm that perpetuate female offending. This includes addressing how gender injustice leads to the criminalisation of women and girls, often rooted in their experiences of abuse, poverty, and systemic inequality.
All too often, women are criminalised and imprisoned for crimes relating to the abuse, poverty, trauma or inequalities they experience firsthand. The WJB has a responsibility to address this, and to rebuke false and damaging assumptions that prison can provide a ‘place of safety’ for women experiencing poor mental health, housing issues and drug and alcohol problems.
3. REPRESENTATION
To drive systemic change, the Women’s Justice Board must lead a cross-government, intersectional focus on the diverse needs of women and girls. Representation from minoritised groups, including young women, Black, Asian, ethnic minority and migrant women will be essential. Ensuring that women with lived experience of the criminal justice system themselves are also represented must be a priority if delivering a more humane and equitable justice system is to be achieved.
Prioritising representation from the Home Office, CPS, NPCC, magistracy and judiciary, Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, DoE and DoHSC as well as ministerial representation on VAWG and mental health support for women and girls will also be critical to the credibility and clout of the board.
The expertise and insight of women’s leaders from across the community and voluntary sector must also be valued and centred at the highest possible level. Dedicating places on the board to women’s centre and women’s specialist service leaders will increase its effectiveness and provide expert insight and experience of early intervention and diversion work, tackling the root causes of female offending, and delivering frontline specialist services that support women on community sentences and improve outcomes for them. Furthermore, having a representative from a National Women’s Justice Coalition partner organisation on the board will provide a direct and efficient link to the only coalition of women’s organisations delivering services to justice-involved women across England and Wales.
A Women’s Justice Board with this level of diverse and expert representation will improve collaboration and cooperation between government departments and the statutory and voluntary sectors, and will strengthen the board’s capacity to drive lasting, systemic change to improve outcomes for women and girls.
Fixed term, ‘rotational’ seats on the WJB would also help to facilitate opportunities for more equitable and ethical participation from a wider pool of experts and support representative inclusion and participation.
4. AGENDA
The Women’s Justice Board will need to centre and fully understand women’s complex needs, experiences and perspectives to inform any policies and approaches that will effectively address high rates of remand, recall and reoffending, reduce the number of women in prison, and prevent the criminalisation of women and girls.
Solutions to reducing the number of women in prison can be found by addressing the root causes of women’s criminalisation and offering community based, holistic services that support women’s complex needs before, or when they first have contact with the criminal justice system.
We welcome the WJB’s focus on early intervention and diversion strategies, community support and young women in custody as solid starting points, and we urge the board to prioritise measures to prevent and divert young women from custody and ensure they receive the support they need before they are ever criminalised. These will be vital next steps to reducing the cycles of harm and trauma specifically experienced by young women and girls.
To support the government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) over the next decade, the WJB will also need to address how survivors of VAWG frequently face inappropriate and unnecessary criminalisation as a direct result of their experience of abuse. Advocating for reforms in law, policy and practice to prevent this from happening should be a priority focus for the board alongside enhancing sustainably funded specialist support for survivors of abuse in prison and under community supervision.
Tacking the disproportionality experienced by Black, Asian and minority ethnic and migrant women due to the systemic prejudice, discrimination, racism and Islamophobia that exists within the CJS must also be central to the board’s strategic objectives.
Examining the increasing overuse of remand for women, the disproportionate use of remand for racially minoritised and migrant women, and the detrimental and long-lasting impact remand has on women’s mental and physical health, parenting and family relationships, financial security, employment and housing must also be key concerns for the WJB if it seeks to reduce the number of women in custody.
Women’s organisations are expertly placed to offer specialist, holistic community-based support to women and girls in contact with the CJS, but to meet the increased demand for services, women’s centres and specialist service providers will need substantial and sustainable funding to work in collaboration with well-functioning statutory services. The WJB must advocate for this and protect investment, particularly for core costs and upstream interventions and diversion services, if it is to future proof the women’s sector and realise its ambition to better utilise alternatives to prison.
5. ACCOUNTABILITY
We understand the WJB will be held to account by the Partnership Delivery Group, and we look forward to better understanding how progress against the board’s strategy will be communicated and evaluated. We expect the board to regularly feed back to Parliament, reporting on measurable objectives, timelines, budgetary commitments and milestones, and that this information will be publicly available through impact reports and updates. The board will need a sufficient budget and dedicated support staff to underpin its capacity and productivity and must agree evaluation mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability.
We urge the government to expedite the establishment of the Women’s Justice Board and its supporting structures, and as a collective we are committed to working with you to develop a transformative strategy that ensures meaningful, systemic change for women and girls in the criminal justice system.
Yours sincerely,
Abbi Ayers – Director of Strategic Development, National Women’s Justice Coalition
Rokaiya Khan – CEO, Together Women
Joy Doal – CEO, Anawim – Birmingham’s Centre for Women
Lisa Dando – Director, Brighton Women’s Centre
Naomi Delap – Director, Birth Companions
Natasha Finlayson – CEO, Working Chance
Liz Mack – CEO, Advance
Jackie May – CEO, The Women’s Centre Cornwall
Harriet Morgan – CEO, Cambridge Women’s Resources Centre
Louisa Matthews – CEO, Nottingham Women’s Centre
Niki Gould – Director of Women’s Community Services, The Nelson Trust
Abby Lewis – Managing Director, North Wales Women’s Centre
Salma Ullah – Co-founder & CFO, SHEWISE
Sofia Buncy – National Coordinator, Muslim Women in Prison Project
Khudeja Amer-Sharif – CEO, Shama Women’s Centre
Amanda Greenwood – CEO, Lancashire Women
Claire Hubberstey – CEO, One Small Thing
Baljit Banga – CEO, Hibiscus Initiatives
Sara Swire – CEO, New Dawn, New Day
Nikki Guy – Managing Director, Stockport Women’s Centre
Jacqueline Stewart – Deputy CEO, Clean Break
Kellie Ziemba – CEO, Kairos Women Working Together
Hannah Shead – CEO, Trevi
Ali Aliyah – CEO, Daddyless Daughters Project
Mollin Delve – CEO, Phoebe Centre
Kay Nicolson – CEO, A Way Out
Karen Horner – CEO, Tomorrow’s Women
Jo Rae – Project Lead, The JOY Project
Lianne Kirkman – Director, The Esther Project
Lucie Russell – CEO, User Voice
Natausha van Vliet – CEO, Parents and Children Together / Alana House
Razia Hadait – CEO, Himaya Haven
Catrina McHugh MBE & Ellie Turner – Co-CEOs, Open Clasp Theatre Company
Harriet Wistrich – Director, Centre for Women’s Justice
Indy Cross – CEO, Agenda Alliance
Andy Keen-Downs – CEO, Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT)
Annette So – Director, Criminal Justice Alliance
Tracy Sparks – CEO, Greater Manchester Women’s Support Alliance
Lisa Boyack – Board Trustee, Changing Lives
Phil Bowen – Director, Centre for Justice Innovation
Pavan Dhaliwal – CEO, Revolving Doors
Paula Harriott – CEO, Unlock
Joyce Kallevik – Director, WISH
Emma Torr – Co-Director, APPEAL
Campbell Robb – CEO, Nacro
Sonya Ruparel – CEO, Women in Prison
Jackie Lowthian – on behalf of Clinks Women’s Network
Mari Edwards – CEO, Beyond the Streets
Vicky Fobel – Head of the Better Justice Partnership