Residential Women's Centres

(asked on 1st October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress has been made on the (a) identification and (b) delivery of five residential women’s centre sites across England and Wales as part of the implementation of the Female Offender Strategy.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 9th October 2020

The Female Offender Strategy (2018) committed to develop a residential women’s centre (RWC) pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales, and on 5 May 2020 we announced that the first RWC will be located in Wales. A Prior Information Notice was published in June 2020 to make potential bidders aware of the pilot and we are receiving expressions of interest from organisations in England and in Wales.

Since the residential women’s centre pilot was announced, we have been consulting extensively with the Welsh Government, stakeholders, partners and providers in England and Wales to inform the scoping, design and delivery of the pilot. We will continue to do so as we refine the delivery model, which will offer a robust alternative to custody, providing safe accommodation and intensive rehabilitative support as part of a community sentence.

We are currently considering a range of data and evidence, in order to identify the best locations in England and Wales for the RWCs. We will work with Welsh Government and delivery partners in England and Wales to ensure locations selected meet the needs of local women.

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