Barred from being a mum

What would it take for you to break the law? This is the question Ashley Horsey, chief executive of charity Commonweal Housing, is considering. The answer is either a lot, or not much - depending on your perspective.

‘If people were putting barriers in the way of me being reunited with my family, I too would be tempted to commit a crime,’ he concludes. ‘Imagine the only thing stopping you from being with your children was a cash deposit - I can understand the cry from the heart that leads people back down a path of illegality.’

This moment of empathy he refers to sounds like a last resort. But for many women stepping out of prison for the first time, this desperate act is often the first and only option they feel they have if they are to be reunited with their children. When the prison gates open, mothers are sent on their way with just £46 in their pockets and often no home to go to. What follows is a cruel Catch 22 situation.

Since they don’t have full custody of their children on day one, if mothers leaving prison apply to and are accepted as homeless by their local authority, they are eligible for nothing larger than a one-bedroom property - but because they only have a one-bedroom property, they are denied access to or custody of their children. Mothers will often return to crime in order to raise the deposit for privately rented accommodation in which their children can join them.

Heading home

Re-unite, a project which houses mothers released from prison, is an attempt to break this cycle. As the name suggests, the ultimate goal is to reunite mothers with their children by intervening on day one and providing a home and support for women to bond with their children.

The programme was launched in 2008 by south London-based housing association Housing For Women and funded by social justice charity Commonweal Housing. It is a response to the 2007 Corston report which first revealed the red tape paradox that has left many mothers with few alternatives but to return to crime.

Now, two years down the line, its founders are heading for next month’s Chartered Insititue of Housing’s annual Harrogate conference and exhibition to pitch the merits of the Re-unite model to the housing sector. Armed with an independent report from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge, which is introduced by Baroness Jean Corston - the original author of the Corston report on vulnerable women and the criminal justice system - they aim to persuade housing providers that Re-unite is a blueprint for the future.

But delegates could be forgiven for requiring a bit of convincing to adopt the model. At a glance, it is hard not to wonder how much sympathy women offenders should receive when there are already long housing waiting lists for people who have lived crime-free lives. Is being a mother enough to prioritise these women above other groups desperate for housing?

Children first

The first point both Mr Horsey and Liz Clarson, chief executive at housing association Homes for Women, make is that this is not principally about the women: it is about their children.

‘Children are the forgotten victims in this - it is so easy for them to slip into this cycle of crime too,’ says Ms Clarson. ‘We are talking to one woman who is coming to the end of a six-year sentence at the moment and another who had one of her children in prison. They will have to restore bonds with their children which they barely got a chance to start. We are trying to help the whole family - not just the women.’

Despite this, attitudes remain a problem. ‘Some local authorities will say that because a woman has been in prison, that demonstrates they have made themselves intentionally homeless. I think that needs to be challenged.’

Ultimately, Ms Clarson concludes that female offenders are not on the agenda because they are relatively low in number. Of the 4,242 women prisoners counted in June last year, 60 per cent were mothers - many of whom were lone parents.

However, as the only programme of its type in the UK, Re-unite is massively oversubscribed. With 10 properties, it operates in just three London boroughs and has become something of a release-date lottery. It is on this basis that Mr Horsey and Ms Clarson are making their bid to roll-out their model elsewhere.

On many levels, the case they will make in Harrogate is a strong one. So far, 12 mothers and 18 children have been reunited as a result of the programme and there have been no criminal charges brought against any of the mothers - although one woman broke her bail.

However, with public sector cuts set to define the coming years, there is little on the horizon to suggest any state backing of the Re-unite project - or bank-rolling by housing associations. Both Mr Horsey and Ms Clarson are realistic in their outlook.

‘We know we are going to have an especially hard task selling this in the current climate,’ admits Ms Clarson who is in the process of raising additional funds for second support worker.

‘Cosy anecdotes and harrowing stories won’t persuade ministers that this is something that requires funding,’ agrees Mr Horsey. ‘It has to stand on its own two feet with a plausible business case. The challenge is in pointing out the savings that can be made. We do not have a fully calculated social return, but we appreciate its importance and have some indicatory figures.’

Covering costs

Re-unite is arguably not very expensive. Overall, Commonweal has invested around £2 million into the project. That has paid for its 9 properties - five two-bedroom properties, three three-bedroom properties and one one-bedroom flat for single mothers who do not yet have custody of their children. It requires just one dedicated support worker, Sarah Johnson, who works with the women for up to 12 months ahead of their release from prison, and then for the next two years until they are willing to move on to either social rented or private rented homes.

The cost per family per year comes out at £14,828. This compares very favourably with the £41,084 think tank the New Economic Foundation estimates it costs to keep a female prisoner in a local prison or the £32,529 in a closed prison. Re-unite also expects to save the public purse by cutting re-offending and so reducing crime relating to fraud, forgery and drug trafficking and the subsequent bill for dealing with it. Overall, Ms Clarson and Mr Horsey claim that Re-Unite can save society £86,084 per mother over two years and £93,646 per mother over a decade.

Other less tangible savings have not yet been, and might never be, tallied up. For example, as Ms Clarson points out, children that do not fall into a life of crime as a result of this project could save the state a lifetime of expenditure. She refers to a Home Office study of 1,766 women prisoners; 61 per cent had children under 18-years-old and 33 per cent had children under five living with them before they were imprisoned. The study showed that these children were twice as likely to develop anti-social behaviour and experience mental health problems than other youngsters.

But while these things outline possible savings, they don’t touch on the potential benefits. These include what the mothers can give back to society; for example, one of the scheme’s success stories is a woman called Kathleen who has launched her own IT business. Her company provides basic IT qualifications to prisoners to improve their chances of finding employment when they are released. ‘She, like most of the women, is determined to give something back and not be a drain on society,’ says Ms Johnson.

‘The report is clear,’ says Mr Horsey. ‘As long as these women can be reunited with their children it gives them incentive to stick to the straight and narrow. We don’t need a Re-unite programme in every city - we just need between 12 and 15 schemes in regions around the country. There are lots of potential funders out there; we know that there is a network of housing associations that would be interested in replicating Re-unite elsewhere.’

One already has. Nexus Housing Association, part of West Mercia Housing Group in Worcester, has teamed up with Asha Centre, a ‘one-stop shop’ to help vulnerable women, to replicate the Re-unite project. After months of consultation with Commonweal Housing and Housing for Women, it has just received board approval and is waiting for its first referral.

This is impressive progress given that the project is just two years old. The question Harrogate delegates will have to ask is: what would you be prepared to do to be reunited with your children? Assuming the answer is ‘whatever you had to’, then the merits of the Re-unite model could prove hard to ignore.

Hear Ashley Horsey and Elizabeth Clarson talk about Re-unite at the Housing 2010 Conference and Exhibition in Harrogate, from 9.30-10.30am on Thursday 24 June.

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