This research sought to address the following questions:
• How do voluntary sector agencies working with women offenders currently perceive partnership work?
• What is the current and emerging National and Statutory policy with regards to working with women offenders, and how does that impact on the partnerships in Bradford District?
• What barriers are there to successful partnership work?
• What impact does the contracting of services have on partnership activity for women offenders?
• How can partnerships sustain and develop in future to improve outcomes for women offenders?
The approach to this research combined both qualitative and quantitative data.

This research looked at the reasons that women return to custody following a breach of licence (recall). Its purpose was to find out more about why women come back to custody; to see if there were discrepancies in the reporting; and to find out whether there were certain women more at risk of being recalled than others. The research also asked whether women who had been recalled had particular difficulties resettling into the community.

This research evaluated The Freedom Programme - a group work support programme for women in prison. Three research questions were addressed: does the programme
help women to develop ways of thinking and behaving that protect themselves, their children and others from harm; is the programme of equal value for BME women, lesbian women etc. as it is for white heterosexual women; and to what extent do women value the process of being able to discuss, share and explore issues with other women? The research questions were addressed through 14 interviews with women who attended the programme, four interviews with facilitators and observation of two sessions.

The Women’s Turnaround Project (TWTP) provides female offenders and those at risk of offending with a gateway to multi-service support on a voluntary basis. Each client is
allocated a key worker to facilitate support in a wide variety of areas. The purpose of this research was threefold:
• To explore attachment to parents during childhood and adolescence in the clients engaging with TWTP: Was a ʻsecure baseʼ lacking in childhood/adolescence and prior to intervention?
• To examine whether attachment needs are addressed by TWTP: Does the key worker and client relationship provide a ʻsecure baseʼ for female offenders during the
resettlement process? If so, how is this achieved and what are the difficulties faced?
• To highlight good practice and make suggestions to improve future practice for TWTP, the Probation Service and other agencies working with women during the resettlement process.

The original aim of this research was to examine the efficacy of the gender specific community based provision offered to young women by Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire youth offending services. It was also to consider whether girls responded more positively to a gender specific approach. During the preliminary preparations it became apparent that this would require research with a larger sample size. Accordingly, taking into account the limitations of the sample group, and without a matched
cohort who had not attended the gender specific programmes, sustainability became the main focus of the research proposal.