WOMEN'S COMMUNITY SERVICES

SHE stands for Support, Help, and Engagement and is the name of the point of arrest diversion scheme for women in Avon and Somerset. SHE offers an opportunity for some women who have been arrested to avoid a charge, a court appearance and potentially a prison sentence by agreeing to engage with SHE and a range of support interventions.

We strive to help to reduce the potential for reoffending and ultimately avoid the women returning to the criminal justice system. Women can be referred in three ways:

1. If the crime is suitable for a community resolution or conditional caution. This means women have to engage during the three month window of their conditional caution or community resolution.
2. If the crime doesn’t quite fit the criteria for a conditional caution, the woman can request a voluntary referral.
3. The woman can refer herself by contacting a SHE worker or, an external agency working with the woman can refer her.

The Nelson Trust provides an in-reach service at Eastwood Park Prison. We are working with over a hundred women in prison, our project, funded through the HMPPS CFO3 programme, is helping just under half of those access courses to enable them to go into employment.

The HMPPS CFO3 programme is aimed at helping those individuals who are considered ‘hard to reach’. Although gaining employment is seen as a major step to progression the programme recognises the importance of social inclusion. Due to this recognition, CFO3 focuses more on the participants’ barriers such as health, relationships, finance and accommodation with the intention of providing a positive impact on securing employment in the future.

As part of the CFO3 programme, The Nelson Trust is working with women currently at HMP Eastwood Park providing both one-to-one and group support. The support offered is tailored to the individual and focuses on their specific needs. In addition to this, a through-the-gate service is also offered in partnership with The Nelson Trust keyworkers to ensure on-going support is provided upon release from custody.

The Re-unite Gloucestershire project helps mothers to be re-united with their children after serving a prison sentence.

The team offer individualised one-to-one support with the parent, child or young person, helping them recognise what signs of exploitation are and how they can keep themselves and their families safe.

Through our Sex Worker Outreach Project (SWOP), we work with some of the most vulnerable women in our society who have been drawn to selling sex to fund a Class A drug addiction. Through this service women largely ignored by society have been seen and noticed and are being provided with the resources to make positive changes in their lives and to keep safe.

The GEM Project is an employability and social inclusion programme, helping people in Gloucestershire to overcome challenges to employment and move them closer towards or into work.

It is a unique partnership of nearly 50 community based organisations, managed by Gloucestershire Gateway Trust on behalf of the lead organisation Gloucestershire County Council and is jointly funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and European Social Fund.

Individuals signed up to the GEM Project receive personalised one to one support from a Navigator Developer to help them achieve their career based goal, developing life skills, building confidence and self-esteem, whilst overcoming any barriers which prevented them from finding work previously.

The GEM Project has been operating since September 2016 and was initially due to end in December 2019. However, over the last three years, the project has continued to go from strength to strength, being recognised as an exemplar programme and has been awarded additional funding to run until the end of 2021.

For more information about the GEM Project visit www.glosgem.org

The Nelson Trust provides an in-reach service at Eastwood Park Prison. We are working with over a hundred women in prison, our project, funded through the HMPPS CFO3 programme, is helping just under half of those access courses to enable them to go into employment.

The HMPPS CFO3 programme is aimed at helping those individuals who are considered ‘hard to reach’. Although gaining employment is seen as a major step to progression the programme recognises the importance of social inclusion. Due to this recognition, CFO3 focuses more on the participants’ barriers such as health, relationships, finance and accommodation with the intention of providing a positive impact on securing employment in the future.

As part of the CFO3 programme, The Nelson Trust is working with women currently at HMP Eastwood Park providing both one-to-one and group support. The support offered is tailored to the individual and focuses on their specific needs. In addition to this, a through-the-gate service is also offered in partnership with The Nelson Trust keyworkers to ensure on-going support is provided upon release from custody.

The CFO3 programme is funded by

	part-funded by the European Social Fund

The ESF invests in people, with a focus on improving employment and education opportunities across the European Union. It also aims to improve the situation of the most vulnerable people at risk of poverty.

1 in 10 women are affected by mental health issues during pregnancy or after pregnancy yet few women are identified and receive adequate treatment. Up to 20% of women at some point during pregnancy and for the first year after birth are affected by common mental health problems such as perinatal depression and anxiety. Only around half of mothers with perinatal depression and anxiety are identified and even fewer receive adequate treatment. Most women are unaware of the mental health issues that arise during this time and so early intervention and consistent support are vital.

One major gap in provision that affects the women we support is that they do not have a sufficiently serious diagnosed problem to reach the threshold for support from crisis or secondary mental health services, but they are often too distressed, or lack the confidence and support to access the IAPT services which are primarily aimed at people with low-to-moderate levels of depression or anxiety. Without holistic support with interrelated needs, women find it hard to engage with therapy and the more readily-accessible CBT-based group programmes offered through the NHS.

A report, ‘No-one wants to see my baby’ ( November 2021), confirmed that new parents had high levels of anxiety specifically about the impact of Covid 19, and more worryingly the report stated “We know that when families face stress and adversity, it makes it harder for parents to provide their babies with safe, secure environments and the nurturing care they need to thrive. Factors such as, but not limited to, poverty, mental health problems, conflict and abuse can all impact early childhood development. Research and feedback from professionals have shown that the prevalence and severity of these risk factors have increased for many families over the last 18 months and therefore more children are at risk of experiencing challenges to their early social, emotional, cognitive and physical development.”

We fill that much needed gap with funding from the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group by providing an in-house Peri Infant Mental Health programme for women with complex needs:

1. To increase women’s awareness and understanding of perinatal mental health issues
2. To educate women on how perinatal mental health issues can affect both her and her child
3. To provide support and advice to women to improve emotional and mental health during the perinatal period
4. To improve women’s access to mental health services
5. To provide a platform of peer support for women who have experienced perinatal mental health issues.
6. To provide an opportunity to highlight the impact of a mothers behaviour on infant mental health and child development
7. To promote healthy and positive interaction between the mother and child