Issue details

The Greater Manchester Women’s Support Alliance (WSA) is a registered charity whose vision is to see an approach to women facing multiple unmet needs which emphasises early intervention and prevention, diverting women away from statutory intervention. It is known that women within the justice system have significantly poorer health outcomes than the general population and the provision of health workers to support primary care health needs and outcomes is designed to reduce the health inequality for these women.

The WSA was awarded the contract to deliver the Women’s Support Service as part of the GMIRS commissioning process. They also deliver health worker service for women who access the support of the Women’s Alliance. This health support worker service forms an important part of the support to enable women to access health services either because they have previously chosen not to, or not been able to access them for a variety of reasons. It also assists recovery for women who have faced trauma to help them cope, recover and move forward with their lives as well as helping to address health inequalities for women who are in the justice system across Greater Manchester.

For the first year of delivery this service was funded via ICM health budgets. At the March 2023 JRE these budgets were aligned to the Police, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire Team and overseen by the Tackling Health Inequalities and the Criminal Justice System Joint Operational Group. This arrangement was supported by GMCA providing a grant to the women’s Support Alliance to deliver a health worker support service. This funding ends in June 2024. To ensure service delivery and protect funded posts this DN sets out the need to provide supplementary ‘transition’ funding as we move from a CA grant funded mechanism to GMMH mainstream funding budgets that deliver health outcomes for people in contact with the justice system. Once this transition period has ended the service will be funded by GMMH.

Transition to GMMH funding.

The new delivery and funding proposal is that the WSA will align its health workers support service for women to meet the requirements of: -
• RECONNECT (an in-custody service to assist with resettlement of people with health and substance misuse issues),
• Liaison and Diversion (a service to provide support to people in contact with the justice system from point of investigation to disposal [police and court]).

These services are currently provided by GMMH (funded by NHSE through the ICB). By transitioning these roles to the WSA it will provide improved gendered support for women who are in the justice system, improve outcomes, make service delivery more seamless and provide secure long-term funding opportunities.

The proposal is this funding will allow the transition to a ‘secondment’ model whereby the posts are owned and managed by the WSA but paid for by GMMH.

This model has been chosen because: -
• there is an evidence base and successful model in West Yorks
• it brings together multiple pathways (across L&D and RECONNECT) with the Women’s Support Alliance
• enhances benefits of partnership working for women and services
• the model will ‘fit’ with GMMH governance structures and have the potential to develop further if successful.

The staffing structure will be up to 4.00 FTE from Learning and Development establishment, and potentially 1.00 FTE from RECONNECT with a target date for completion of September 2024.

Reporting.

Alongside on-going delivery of the women’s health support service and the potential protection of jobs this ‘bridging’ funding provides reporting will be monitored through monthly and quarterly meetings. The WSA will report through-put and outcomes data to support performance management and begin the transition to future GMMH delivery requirements.

The key reporting areas include: -
• Assessment and identification of additional needs.
• Recommendation / support offered.
• Support received.
• Feedback from women using the service.
• Case studies

This information will be submitted to GMMH for onward reporting to the ICB via quarterly reporting arrangements. The Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice at the University of Northampton.