Guidance

Women’s Policy Framework

Gender specific rules and guidance for prison and probation staff on how to manage and support women in custody and the community.

Documents

Women’s Policy Framework

Details

This Policy Framework sets out the duties, rules and general guidance for prison and probation staff who work with women offenders and sits alongside an accompanying guidance document ‘Working with Women in Custody and the Community’. This Policy Framework replaces Prison Service Order 4800: Women Prisoners.

The document ‘Working with Women in Custody and the Community’ looks to provide guidance to prison and probation staff on how they can deliver gender informed services to female offenders in a way that captures and reflects best practice. It also introduces, in a specific annex, more comprehensive guidance on ‘Caring for Perinatal Women in Prison’. This guidance is available internally to HMPPS staff.

There is separate instruction for mother and baby units:

Mother and Baby Units: PSI 49/2014

The Women’s Policy Framework will be subject to regular review and will be updated when appropriate.

Updates to this page

Published 21 December 2018
Last updated 26 June 2021 + show all updates
  1. Framework updated,

  2. First published.

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