Women offenders – a role for housing associations

Acknowledging that “Mr Matheson’s decision was bold and brave”, Mr Milne called upon those implementing the new policy to be equally imaginative in reallocating funds when considering service delivery.

Noting that the former lord advocate Dame Elish Angiolini QC’s report on women offenders had recognised “service redesign and reintegration into the community” Mr Milne expressed the view that in many areas certain housing associations such as Kingdom could be well suited to assisting or co-ordinating the types of service reconfiguration that Dame Elish envisaged.

He said: “Housing associations certainly have the skills to contribute to the lateral thinking which will be needed to seriously tackle the complex issues surrounding women offenders and which presently leads to repeated periods in custody for many.

“And housing associations have the local knowledge and technical ability to deliver the capital infrastructure which may be needed to provide more appropriate accommodation and also have the staff to support women returning to the community in sustaining their own tenancies.”

Whilst recognising this was a complex issue with no straightforward solutions, Mr Milne added: “We also have the expertise to support women to deal with the variety of issues which may have contributed to their offending and also assist them building confidence, education and the life skills to avoid a return to custody.”

Mr Milne also welcomed the support which had been offered by the other political parties and expressed the hope that “this would allow longer term planning to be achieved with the funds to support the change in policy being committed long term irrespective of which party controls the parliament”.