Blog

Beyond conversation to change: Reflections from the Women's Whole System Approach Event

13 Jul. 2026

By Katie Guest, Partnership Manager and Regional Development Lead 

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Women's Whole System Approach Event at Leeds Beckett University. Bringing together organisations from across the criminal justice, health, housing and voluntary sectors, alongside women with lived experience. The event provided an important space for honest conversations about how we better support women who have contact with the criminal justice system. 

While many valuable insights were shared, one message stood out above all others: we need to intervene earlier, work together more effectively, and ensure women are genuinely involved in shaping the services designed to support them. 

Throughout the day, women with lived experience spoke candidly about the challenges they had faced. A recurring theme was not feeling heard. Too often, women described being passed between services, having to repeat their stories multiple times, and struggling to trust systems that they felt weren't designed around their needs. 

What resonated particularly strongly with me was the number of women who talked about early warning signs being missed. By the time support was available, many had already reached crisis point. It reinforced the importance of identifying challenges earlier and providing support before situations escalate. Prevention must be just as much a priority as intervention. 

The event also highlighted the complex and often interconnected needs many women face. Experiences of trauma, poor mental health, substance misuse, domestic abuse, housing instability and financial hardship rarely exist in isolation. No single organisation can meet every need, which is why a whole system approach is so important. 

For me, a whole system approach means shared responsibility and accountability. It requires organisations to move beyond silo working and actively collaborate to create joined-up pathways of support. This can be particularly challenging across the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, where funding pressures often create competing priorities. However, the event reinforced that partnership working isn't simply desirable – it's essential if we want to achieve better outcomes. 

Another powerful discussion focused on the role of lived experience in shaping services. The value of lived experience was evident throughout the event, with women providing insights that professionals alone could never replicate. Their stories highlighted gaps, barriers and opportunities for improvement in ways that data and reports cannot. 

However, an important challenge was also raised. We must recognise that repeatedly asking people to share their traumatic experiences can be re-traumatising. If organisations are asking women to contribute, they must ensure those contributions lead to meaningful action. Co-production cannot be a tick-box exercise; it must involve people with lived experience in genuine decision-making and service design. 

It leads to the question of: what can organisations do differently? 

The event provided many learnings that can be taken forwards into my role and the roles of my colleagues, the further services that we deliver at Ingeus, and the wider sector. 

Firstly, we need to move beyond simply describing ourselves as trauma-informed and demonstrate what this looks like in practice through our actions, processes and culture. 

Secondly, we need to involve people with lived experience from the outset when designing and improving services. With an important caveat that when they are sharing their own experiences, they have the support in place, so this does not become re-traumatising for them. 

Thirdly, we need to improve communication and information sharing between organisations to reduce the need for women to repeatedly tell their stories. 

Finally, we need to focus more on strengths, opportunities and early intervention, rather than waiting until situations reach crisis point. 

These reflections have direct relevance to our work at Ingeus. They reinforce the importance of the person-centred approaches we already strive to deliver and the need to continue building strong partnerships across sectors. They also strengthen our commitment to listening to the people we support and ensuring their voices influence how services evolve. 

Most importantly, the event reminded me that while conversations like these are happening more frequently, we must be able to demonstrate the impact they are having. We all have a responsibility to turn discussion into action, measure progress, and continue challenging ourselves to do better. 

When organisations work together, listen to lived experience, and intervene early, we create the conditions for women not only to overcome challenges but to build stable, positive futures. That's a responsibility we all share. 

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Katie Guest is a Regional Development Lead for Yorkshire and Humber, working on our Commissioned Rehabilitative Services and specialising in partnership development and service improvement. Working closely with employers, community organisations and operational teams, Katie is passionate about collaborative approaches that create meaningful opportunities, strengthen support networks and help individuals overcome barriers to achieve lasting positive change.