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.

View One-stop-shop women’s centres in a larger map

Earlier this year, six organisations were collectively awarded £3.1 million in grants:
Women in Prison (London)
WomenCentre (Calderdale and Kirklees)
Anawim (Birmingham)
Tyneside Cyrenians (Newcastle upon Tyne)
Safer Wales Women’s Turnaround Project (Cardiff)
The Dawn Project, a partnership between Peterborough Women’s Centre and Cambridge Women’s Resource Centre
Asha Centre (Worcestershire)

On 5 November, an additional £6 million in grants was awarded to:
Nelson Trust (Gloucester)
Stonham (Plymouth and Norfolk)
Family Matters (Dorset)
PACT (Reading)
Brighton Women’s Centre (Brighton)
Catch22 3D (Southampton)
Women in Prison/Surrey Women’s Aid (Woking)
Herts Women’s Centre (Stevenage, Luton and Watford)
DePaul UK/Women at the well (London)
Advance Advocacy (London)
Trust (London)
Jagonari (London)
YWCA (Barking and Dagenham)
Turning Point (Leicester)
Derby Women’s Work (Derby)
Addaction (Lincolnshire)
Escape Family Support (Northumberland)
Women in Prison/Pankhurst Centre (Manchester)
Anawim (Birmingham)
Brighter Futures (Stoke on Trent)
YWCA (Wolverhampton – Warstones and Bilston)
Hull Women’s Centre (Hull)
The Cambridge Centre (Scarborough)