Funding gap for women’s centres will mean more prison sentences
source: The Guardian
published: 22 December 2024
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A £5m funding gap for women’s centres will lead to more women being imprisoned and derail government reform plans, experts warn.
Women’s centres work with thousands in crisis, playing a central role in keeping vulnerable women out of prison. But two significant streams of government funding will end in March 2025, even though ministers have announced plans to reduce the number of women being locked up.
The National Women’s Justice Coalition (NWJC), whose 26 member organisations provide services including intervention programmes and community sentences, has told the Guardian they face a deficit of at least £5.1m in 2025 – and need an extra £500,000 to meet the increase in employers’ national insurance. With about 50 women’s centres in England and Wales, the funding deficit across the sector as a whole is expected to exceed those figures.
“Demand is growing at the time we’re facing this cliff edge,” said Rokaiya Khan, the chief executive of Together Women, a group of seven centres that supported 3,800 women in Yorkshire last year. “I have seen over the last 12 months more women in crisis, more women presenting with more complex needs, more women in dire straits with housing … and violence against women and girls is on the increase.
“When there are gaps, more women get arrested and end up in prison and on remand. You’re paying £50,000 a year to keep them in prison, when with £5,000 we could support a woman and help solve the prison crisis.”
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