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<p>The Female Offender Strategy recognises the role that holistic community services
can play in supporting vulnerable women in contact with or at risk of entering the
justice system. These services work to support women to address the often complex
needs that underlie their offending behaviour.</p><p>This is why, as part of the Female
Offender Strategy, we have invested £5 million of funding over two years in community
provision for women. This funding will help to sustain and enhance existing services,
and create new services where there is currently a gap. This is in addition to the
£1 million invested between 2016 and 2020 to support local areas to respond to the
needs of female offenders by adopting a multi-agency approach.</p><p>Services such
as women’s centres receive funding from a range of sources. We will continue to look
at the scope to increase the sustainability of the sector as we take forward the delivery
of the Strategy in its second year.</p><p>In the strategy we also committed to develop
a ‘residential women’s centre’ pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales.
The aim of the pilot will be to develop an evidence base for how we might reduce the
numbers of women entering and re-entering custody for short periods. We want to make
sure the models we take forward are sustainable, scalable and appropriate for the
local context of each site. We have recently concluded our first phase of consultation
with stakeholders, partners and providers to inform our scoping. We will continue
to consult with partners as we refine the design and delivery of the pilot.</p>
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