In February 2010, the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition and the Ministry of Justice announced the creation of a joint £2m fund to divert women from custody.

The Women’s Diversionary Fund focuses on:
- Supporting organisations to develop new community diversionary services for women offenders and women at risk of offending
- Building the capacity of existing women’s community diversionary services further
- Building the capacity of the women’s community diversionary sector

Grants made in the first round of the Women’s Diversionary Fund, in April 2010, can be accessed here. Grants made in the second round, in August 2010, can be accessed here.

In the final round of awards, the projects supported, by theme, were:

Service development
Ormiston Children and Families Trust – to develop an early intervention service and one-stop-shop for women offenders and their children in Ipswich
Tees Valley Women’s Centre – a small grant to enable the centre to develop a proposal for a one-stop-shop service, Teeside
Female Prisoners’ Welfare Project (Hibiscus) – to develop a service for Roma women in London

Building the capacity of organisations delivering women’s community diversionary services
New Economics Foundation (NEF), Brighton Women’s Centre, Escape Family Support, Women@theWell, The Trust Women’s Project and Turning Point Women’s Centre – to enable five one-stop-shop centres to carry out a Social Return on Investment (SROI) study of their work, supported by NEF

Building the capacity of the women’s community diversionary sector
Women’s Centres Forum – two grants to enable the project to begin to realise its role at the centre of the agenda for women in the criminal justice system or at risk of offending, representing and supporting women-centred community-based provision

Please contact Antonia Bance at the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition with any queries about the Women’s Diversionary Fund. Please note that the fund is not accepting applications, so please do not contact us seeking funding.

In February 2010, the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition and the Ministry of Justice announced the creation of a joint £2m fund to divert women from custody.
The Women’s Diversionary Fund focuses on:
- Supporting organisations to develop new one-stop-shop services for women offenders
- Developing existing one-stop-shop services further
- Building the capacity of the women’s offending sector

Grants made in the first round of the Women’s Diversionary Fund, in April 2010, can be accessed here.

In the second round of grants in July 2010, the projects supported, by theme, were:

New one-stop-shop services
Safe Exit Toynbee Hall – to provide a supportive alternative to the criminal justice system for women involved in prostitution in the Olympic Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham, Greenwich and Waltham Forest
Together Working for Wellbeing – to provide a women-specific Forensic Mental Health Practitioner service at Thames Magistrates Court serving the London boroughs of Hackney and Tower Hamlets, to help reduce the use of custody for vulnerable women offenders with mental health needs.
Together Women Yorkshire and Humberside – to support the newly opened Women’s Centre in Sheffield, a venture developed in collaboration with South Yorkshire Probation and the police.

Development and capacity-building of existing one-stop-shop services
Derby Women’s Work – towards the costs of a business development manager and casework database
Turning Point Women’s Centre, Leicester – towards the costs of evaluation and demonstration of impact
The Trust Women’s Project, Lambeth – towards the costs of workforce development, data gathering and financial planning
Women@theWell, Camden – towards the costs of consultancy to develop a three-year business plan and funding strategy
Escape Family Support, Northumberland – towards the costs of an external evaluation and for consultancy to support the Support for Women Around Northumberland (SWAN) partners to develop a 3-5 year business plan
Brighton Women’s Centre – towards the costs of consultancy support to develop a sustainability strategy, to implement a quality assurance system and to develop relationships with local commissioners
Anawim, Birmingham – towards the costs of quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation and infrastructure development
Asha, Worcester – towards the costs of consultancy support to review governance and strategic development plans and for fundraising training and support

Building the capacity of the women offenders’ sector
Homeless Link – to set-up and maintain for three years a UK-wide database of women offenders’ provision

Please contact Antonia Bance at the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition with any queries about the Women’s Diversionary Fund. Please note that the fund is not accepting applications, so please do not contact us seeking funding.

In February 2010, the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition and the Ministry of Justice announced the creation of a joint £2m fund to divert women from custody. The Women’s Diversionary Fund focuses on:
- Supporting organisations to develop new one-stop-shop services for women offenders
- Developing existing one-stop-shop services further
- Building the capacity of the women’s offending sector

The projects supported are:
Nottingham Women’s Centre – to develop the centre’s services and diversionary activities for women offenders
Advance – to fund a criminal justice worker for its Minerva women offenders’ project in Brent and Hammersmith & Fulham
The Relationships Centre – to develop their services for women offenders at Halton Women’s Centre
Novas Scarman Group – to provide a court and outreach service for women offenders in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire
One25 – to fund a criminal justice caseworker to work with female street sex workers in Bristol
YWCA England & Wales – to develop their services for women offenders in Cornwall
Hafan Cymru – to expand its work with young women offenders in Powys and Ceredigion
Clean Break – to expand its work with women offenders in London
The Women’s Centre Forum (grant held by WomenCentre Ltd) – to develop and independent national forum for diversionary and community services for women offenders and women at risk of offending.

This first issue will fund social organisations working to reduce the re-offending rates of short sentence male prisoners leaving Peterborough Prison. The Ministry of Justice has agreed to make payments to investors in the event that re-offending is reduced below an agreed threshold. [...] During the Peterborough Prison pilot, experienced social sector organisations, such as St Giles Trust, will provide intensive support to 3,000 short-term prisoners over a six year period, both inside prison and after release, to help them resettle into the community. If this initiative reduces re-offending by 7.5%, or more, investors will receive from Government a share of the long term savings. If the SiB delivers a drop in re-offending beyond the threshold, investors will receive an increasing return the greater the success at achieving the social outcome, up to a maximum of 13%.

This offers a new way of financing early intervention; we hope that this first project, working with male offenders, will lead in future to the availability of new sources of finance for working with women offenders in the community.

The Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition is an alliance of charitable trusts and foundations working together to reduce the numbers of non-violent women in prison. The members of the Coalition are all grant-makers, with years of experience of working in the criminal justice system.

The Women’s Diversionary Fund will be used to provide grants to third sector organisations to support further growth in community services for women and contribute to building the confidence of courts in alternatives to custody.

The Women’s Diversionary Fund builds on the substantial progress already being made to divert women away from crime. In 2009 the MoJ announced £15.6 million of new funding over two years to invest in women’s community projects delivered by the third sector and other specialist provision for women in the community. These projects provide services for female offenders who are not a danger to the public, and for women who are at risk of offending.

Maria Eagle MP and Ministerial Champion for Women and Criminal Justice Matters said:

“This exciting partnership between the Ministry of Justice and the alliance of charitable trusts forming the Coalition represents a commitment on both sides to transform further the way women are treated by the criminal justice system. By working together in this exceptional way we will build on the initiatives already announced.

We have already made good progress in taking forward our strategy to divert women from crime. Over the last two years I have ensured there is a specific push to direct resources to stop vulnerable women from becoming trapped in a cycle of crime. Women’s offending is a complex phenomenon which burdens society, damages children and families, and creates misery for the women themselves.”

Georgina Nayler, Director of the Pilgrim Trust, and chair of the grants panel of the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition, said:
“The Coalition is delighted to be working with the Ministry of Justice on this groundbreaking initiative. Every year charitable trusts and foundations invest millions of pounds in supporting charities working with offenders – and this experience gives us a real insight into what works to reduce women’s offending. Supporting alternatives to custody takes us one step closer to the vision laid out in the Corston Report where community solutions for non-violent women offenders become the norm.”

Further information about the Women’s Diversionary Fund is available here.

The written ministerial statement announcing the Fund is here.