Blog

Seeing the whole person: why local partnership matters in improving outcomes for women

5 Aug. 2026

By Carrie Peters, Director of Justice Services, Ingeus 

Lives do not fit neatly into boxes. 

People are complex. Our experiences, relationships, health, confidence, opportunities and challenges are all interconnected. No two journeys are the same, and no single aspect of someone's life tells the whole story. 

For many women in contact with the justice system, that complexity can be particularly acute. Poor mental health, insecure housing, family relationships, financial hardship, addiction, trauma, unemployment and involvement with the justice system can all sit alongside one another, often shaping and reinforcing each other over time. 

Those of us working across justice, health, housing, employment and community services understand this. We see every day that people rarely arrive at a service with one isolated issue. They arrive with a history, a set of circumstances and, often, a series of barriers that no single organisation can address alone. 

The national picture reinforces the scale and seriousness of the challenge.  

According to the Prison Reform Trust: 

• Women entered prison on more than 4,700 occasions in the first nine months of 2024.  

• Women accounted for 27% of all self-harm incidents in prison despite representing just 4% of the prison population.  

• An estimated 17,000 children are affected by maternal imprisonment each year.  

• More than half of women in prison report having experienced abuse during childhood. 

Behind every one of those figures is a person, a family and a wider set of circumstances that cannot be understood through a single lens. 

This is where Holloway has created such valuable space for reflection. 

The documentary follows six women as they return to the now-abandoned Holloway Prison to reflect on their experiences of trauma, resilience, recovery and healing. Their stories are deeply personal, but the themes they explore will feel familiar to many professionals and organisations working with women across the country. 

Holloway does not offer easy answers. What it does do is bring into sharper focus the realities many organisations are already working hard to address and encourage reflection on how support is experienced by the people receiving it. 

That is why Ingeus is hosting Holloway screening and discussion events across the country, including in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, East Midlands and South Central. 

Across each region, we are bringing together partners from justice, health, housing, employment, local government, voluntary organisations, community services and lived experience to reflect on what the film raises and, crucially, what it means locally. 

Because while the issues may be national, the response has to be rooted in place. 

One of the strongest themes emerging from the events has been the value of connecting professional expertise with lived experience. Women are not simply the subject of Holloway; their voices shape it. That principle matters far beyond documentary-making. If services are to be effective, lived experience should help inform how support is designed, delivered and improved. 

Across every region, there is already significant expertise, commitment and compassion. The opportunity is to strengthen the connections between services so support feels joined up from the perspective of the women receiving it. 

For Ingeus, that is central to our mission of enabling better lives. 

The conversations sparked by Holloway are not about finding a single solution. They are about continuing to listen, learn and work together to build support that reflects real lives, sees the whole person, and creates better outcomes for women, families and communities.