Katy Swaine Williams discusses the new report she wrote for award-winning women’s charity Advance about what all agencies can do to help break the cycle of harm for mothers involved in offending who are survivors of domestic abuse, and their children.

“I fell into the wrong hands…I did it because I didn’t have any money.”

So Ezinne*, mother of two, told me during my research for Advance’s ‘A Place to Go Like This’ report, published on 13 March just before the Covid-19 lockdown.  The research was funded by London’s Violence Reduction Unit to help inform improvements in how the state and voluntary sector agencies respond to mothers involved in offending who are survivors of domestic abuse, and their children.

Ezinne is a Nigerian national.  She came to the United Kingdom as a visitor 20 years ago, married a British national and applied for a visa.  When the marriage broke down, her husband withdrew his support for her application.  Ezinne had two young children, no work permit, no recourse to public funds and nowhere to live.  She ended up squatting with her children in an abandoned flat, eventually losing them to the care system as she could not provide a safe environment. 

Ezinne fell into acquisitive offending to survive, including fraudulent use of store cards.  After many years of repeated convictions and community orders, she was imprisoned. On her release she was referred to Advance’s Minerva programme. 

The programme offers intensive one-to-one wrap around support to thousands of women each year, about 11% of whom are foreign nationals.  Advance works across 22 London boroughs in partnership with statutory and non-statutory agencies, in a whole system approach.  It offers safe, gendered, targeted support and advocacy to help women address their often complex needs in relation to offending behaviour, with women’s centres in North and West London.  The charity’s approach is holistic and woman-centred.  Keyworkers offer tenacious advocacy on behalf of their clients, practical help, frequent communication and support, access to peer support and one-to-one and group programmes.  For foreign national women, the charity works in partnership with Hibiscus Initiatives, to obtain immigration advice and other specialist support.

At the heart of the Minerva service is the keyworkers’ consistent, unconditional positive regard for the women they support.  This may be regarded as the professional equivalent of a close, positive family relationship or friendship.  With histories of poverty, trauma and abuse that often go back to early childhood, many women have never experienced such a relationship before and the effect can be transformative.

In the report we explore how violence against women and girls often lies at the heart of their offending and the intergenerational cycle of harm.  We set out how Advance plans to develop its services further to help break that cycle, through a Whole Family Approach.  We call on the police and social services to develop closer working relationships with women’s services like Minerva, to enable a more expert understanding of the dynamics of domestic abuse and the drivers of women’s offending; and we ask local and national commissioners to invest in early intervention for these mothers and their children in order to reap benefits in the long term. 

With her keyworker’s help, Ezinne has gained permission to remain in the UK for 2½ years, and was supported by Working Chance to obtain work.  However she is still without recourse to public funds; she will have to make further costly applications to obtain indefinite leave to remain, and her convictions may well be a barrier to this.  Her keyworker sums up:

“If Ezinne had been given appropriate support before … financial support in raising her children, access to mental health interventions, this would be very different.  The criminal justice effect on immigration status … perpetuates destitution forcing foreign nationals into desperate situations and exacerbating vulnerability to exploitation and abusive relationships.”

Services like Advance’s Minerva programme can make the difference that really matters to mothers like Ezinne and their children, reducing reoffending and helping families to be together.  The immediate and longer term impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the most vulnerable families means that these services are now, and will continue to be, needed more than ever and require sustainable long-term financial support.

Click here to find out about supporting Advance.

* Ezinne’s name and some details of her story have been changed to protect her anonymity.