Author(s):

Women’s Budget Group

Published date:

19/10/2020

Women’s Centres are specialist community support services for women facing multiple disadvantages, including women involved in (or at risk of involvement in) the criminal justice system. They are demonstrably the most effective specialist services available to women (as evidenced throughout this report and by, inter alia, the Corston Report, the UK Government Female Offender Strategy, and Why Women’s Centres Work: An Evidence Briefing). This briefing argues that these services are at risk of closure for lack of secure funding and makes the case for investing in a sustainable funding model. We summarise the evidence of the cost of the current system and the savings that are already being realised through Women’s Centres. We recommend a model of matched funding in which central and local government share the costs of delivering the objectives in the Government’s Female Offender Strategy.