Women’s justice services

We have various support projects, which include Prison In-reach and Enrichment work at HMP Foston Hall and HMP Drake Hall as well as early intervention schemes. Find out more below.

The overall impact of our services helps us to develop women’s life skills, enabling them to better cope with challenging situations in the future, understand how to navigate housing and benefits systems and learn ways to manage their mental health and addictions to substances. This can all reduce their risk of reoffending and the likelihood of them going back to prison.

Project New Chance is one of our early intervention schemes that helps to divert first-time and low-level offenders away from prison and reduce their risk of reoffending.

Working in partnership with West Midlands Police and the Crime Commissioner, women are referred to us if they have received a conditional caution, conditional discharge or community resolution. 

Our caseworkers are able to focus on the deeper, complex issues and build a relationship with each woman as she engages in our services and gets support for everything from housing to mental health, substance and alcohol misuse, domestic violence, sexual trauma and financial issues

We are proactive in encouraging women to take part in courses and make the most of opportunities at Anawim that can improve their work skills and chances of finding a job. 

Anawim’s courses include everything from improving confidence and self-esteem, to budgeting and managing finances and emotional resilience training workshops.

We also have work placements at our centres that give women the chance to build up experience towards a career in office work, events, counselling and much more. 

We are keen to ensure that women who have a history of offending behaviour and a criminal record are aware of their options and feel confident to re-enter into employment, education or volunteering, so we support each woman to understand the conditions of her record and the opportunities that are available to her.

Anawim regularly visits women in HMP Foston Hall and HMP Drake Hall, to build relationships with them, to address their offending behaviour, and to identify women who might require additional support.

For some of our women in prison it’s the first time anybody has listened to their story and the first time anyone has acknowledged that past trauma has played a role in their current situation. This helps women to have hope, to see that they can have a life after prison and that there are options for everyone to make positive progress. It supports women ‘through the gate’, and helps them to thrive in the community after prison.

We also have Enrichment Workers in the CAMEO unit at HMP Foston Hall providing specialised therapeutic workshops for women with personality disorders, understanding how mental health contributes to offending behaviour, and supporting with challenges in prison. Therapeutic activities are provided for women in the evenings and at weekends when women are most vulnerable after having worked through deep trauma. This work is significantly reducing incidents of self-harm within the prison.

This is one part of the mental health services that we provide.

Our resettlement support is designed to assist women who are at risk of or have been involved in crime and crisis within the community. Resettlement receive referrals through established referral routes, as well as from internal teams or staff members who identify a need for extra support at the point of case closure. This flexibility ensures that we can respond promptly, consistently and appropriately to the needs of the women we serve.

Comprehensive and Multidisciplinary Support

We offer unique and comprehensive support across various critical pathways that often lead women into challenging situations. Our multidisciplinary approach ensures that we address the diverse needs of each individual, providing tailored assistance that encompasses multiple areas of expertise.

Advocacy and Intermediary Services

In addition to direct support, we act as advocates and intermediaries. Our role involves helping other professionals and stakeholders understand the specific needs and perspectives of the women we support. By fostering better understanding and communication, we aim to ensure that these women receive the most effective and empathetic care possible.

“Seeing our women grow in confidence and believing that there can be a life after prison is inspiring. Our service gives women the right tools to rise to those challenges and overcome them.” – Anawim case worker

The Intensive Supervision Court is a specific female problem-solving court which started as a pilot in Birmingham in June 2023. It can offer alternative, intensive, community-based sentences for women on the cusp of custody. They can be given a community order which asks them to engage with intensive support from multiple services. The aim is to integrate care and support services,  for vulnerable women with multiple co-occurring social challenges, all under the authority of a single judge.

The ISC is a place where partners working across a range of organisations (housing, mental health, substance misuse, Children’s services, women’s services, and others) co-deliver a multifaceted intervention programme, delivering joint appointments and assessments so that the women do not have to repeat their story. Caseworkers will support women to court reviews monthly and be their point of contact, providing a trauma-informed approach and pastoral support throughout the entirety of their order.

The Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA) is a comprehensive gender-responsive risk, needs and strengths assessment designed specifically to be used with criminal justice involved women. It was first used in 1999 and re-validated in 2002, 2008 and 2013. It is currently used in locations across the world. We are involved in a project validating the Probation Module of the WRNA for the first time in England.

The study aims to test whether the WRNA works as effectively in England as it does in the US, in terms of predicting the risk of re-offending according to the needs/strengths contained in the WRNA scales.  Adaptions can then be made to ensure scales and scoring are appropriately weighted to the characteristics of this specific population group.

Women who are involved in, or at risk of, the criminal justice system, entering Women’s Centres will be invited to participate in the validation study, from the following pathways:

• Prison, with a caseworker and through-the-gate support (TTG);
• Liaison and Diversion (L&D) from Police custody, street triage or Mental Health Trusts;
• Probation referrals received by the Women’s Centres

Dara will be collected in three Women’s Organisations including Anawim. When they meet their caseworker, participants undertake the WRNA assessment – and it identifies their needs and strengths that predict the risk of offending. This initial assessment will be updated at regular points, and completed with a final interview within 6 months of the baseline being taken. A further 6 months on, criminal conviction data will be sought, which will link the risk scores to whether that person did reoffend, as a means to assess the predictive accuracy of the WRNA.

The WRNA is really helpful for being able to actually provide holistic support. On certain referrals we have very specific pathways that probation would like the woman to complete, however from the WRNA you are able to see the big picture and that there are other areas, sometimes more priority, that the client needs support with. This allows us to listen to the woman’s needs and make a more tailored and beneficial plan of support. Ellie – Anawim Caseworker.