Committee publication · Correspondence · 28 January 2026 · HC 702
Correspondence to and from The Nelson Trust, dated 10 December
From: Welsh Affairs Committee
Summary
The Nelson Trust, a charity delivering criminal justice support services in Wales, responds to the Welsh Affairs Committee's inquiry into prisons, probation, and rehabilitation. The organisation outlines its experience delivering the ONE Wales service, identifies systemic gaps in support for women and young people (housing, mental health, neurodiversity support, whole-family approaches), and strongly opposes building a women's prison in Wales, arguing instead for investment in community-based Women's Centres and trauma-informed alternatives.
Key findings
- The Nelson Trust reports positive experience delivering the integrated ONE Wales contract but identifies inefficiencies in data systems integration across police, probation, and prison touchpoints, requiring keyworkers to use multiple incompatible platforms.
- Critical support gaps identified: lack of safe mixed-gender housing, inconsistent mental health provision, siloed services, limited early intervention (especially for under-10s), inadequate whole-family support, and poor neurodiversity identification and support.
- Location is critical to rehabilitation success—community-based services close to home build trust, support local reintegration, and reduce reoffending; however, rural and coastal Wales have limited access.
- The Nelson Trust opposes building a women's prison in Wales, citing evidence that 31% of Welsh women sent to HMP Eastwood Park receive sentences under 6 months, and that gender-responsive community support produces lower reoffending rates than short custodial sentences.
- Proposed Residential Women's Centre in Swansea should serve all Welsh women (not just Swansea residents), integrate with community services, and include move-on housing and step-down support to prevent reoffending and homelessness on release.
Tone
CriticalTopics
Key actors
The Nelson Trust, Christina Line (Chief Executive, The Nelson Trust), Ruth Jones MP (Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee), Prison Advice & Care Trust (PACT), Welsh Government, UK Government, HMP Eastwood Park
Notable line
“No. The policy solution is not to build a Women's Prison in Wales. The solution is to address Women's root causes of offending through properly invested Women's Centres and local whole system approaches.”
Key Quotes
“This new integrated contract brought together three previously separately commissioned services under one umbrella. This has given a real opportunity for effective partnership working, reducing siloed working, sharing learning and best practice, and ensuring that people get the right service at the right time.”
“Further progress is required to efficiently integrate the systems and data capture points, ensuring that the most amount of resource is spent directly on frontline service delivery to support individuals in moving away from crime and achieving positive outcomes.”
“Housing: For women one of the most significant gaps in support is safe and suitable accommodation. Options are typically mixed gender supported housing, where women are particularly vulnerable to further exploitation, harm, and increased risk of reoffending.”
“… location is a critical factor in successful rehabilitation, particularly when services are rooted in the communities that women and young people live in and return to. Effective rehabilitation depends on more than managing risk or compliance. It relies on belonging, identity, and connection, all of which are well-established factors in desistance.”
“65% of women are victims of domestic abuse and that is likely to be an under-representation, 54% report having been sexually abused either as a child, adult of both. 100% of women have experienced some form of trauma in their lives.”
“We know that Women's Centres are more effective than short prison sentences and come at less cost to women and their families as well as the public purse”
“A suspended sentence with no access to support is also not the policy solution to reduce Women's re/offending. Women need access to holistic, gender and trauma responsive support meeting her individual needs and ultimately preventing further contact with the Criminal Justice System.”
“Prison should be the last response, when all other opportunities for successful community rehabilitation have been exhausted. We are still meeting women in prison who should not be there.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗