We are contracted by the Ministry of Justice to provide Women’s Services across Derbyshire to women in the Criminal Justice System. Our services address offending behaviour and preventing re-offending, offering an alternative to custody. We provide a package of 1-1 support and group programmes, aimed to address criminogenic needs and to improve compliance with orders and licenses.

A women’s journey may start in prison where up to 6 support sessions can be offered around identified needs for Accommodation and Social Inclusion. In addition a release plan is jointly agreed with the Probation Practitioner, Substance Misuse teams and other specialist agencies. Relationship building is key so we aim for the same staff member that visits in prison to continue the support in the community around the full range of identified criminogenic needs.

Alternatively, women may be given Community Sentences by the courts.  Instead of going to prison the woman is referred by her Probation Practitioner into our service for support around a range identified needs such as Education, Training & Employment, Emotional Wellbeing and Dependency & Recovery.

At our centre we also offer many wrap-around services and all staff are trained to deliver holistic and person-centred support. There are a number of Women’s Work projects which can offer ongoing support once women have completed their orders, reducing the chances of re-offending. Often our support is the first time that the women attending have had the opportunity and dedicated support to address the issues which are holding them back in life and which led to their offending behaviour in the first place