With International Women’s Day approaching, this year’s theme – Give to Gain – highlights the power of reciprocity and support. When we contribute knowledge, time, advocacy, resources, and care to women’s advancement, everyone benefits. When women thrive, we all rise.

 

To co-incide with International Women’s Day, we’re launching a new research project exploring the experiences of women working with and supporting women living in Independent Approved Premises (IAPs).

 

This study seeks to better understand the day-to-day realities of this vital work, with particular focus on the emotional labour involved – the need for empathy (and its cost), balancing risk management with trauma-informed practice, and the often “invisible” work that comes with supporting justice-involved women.

 

Alongside this, we are exploring psychological safety, recognising that such intense and high-risk environments depend on strong, well-supported teams.

 

To unpack these issues, we are conducting interviews with CEOs, managers, and frontline staff across Women’s IAPs.

 

Led by Kerry Ellis Devitt, our Head of Research, and delivered in collaboration with several women’s Approved Premises across the sector, this project aims to shine a light on women who are too often invisible in wider society.

 

“Though the safety, wellbeing and support of justice-involved women is a paramount, and should always be of the highest concern, we believe the same energy and focus must also be given to the tireless frontline female managers and staff who make that support and care possible.”

What is this research about? 

While attention has been given to the issues faced by female practitioners who supervise women on probation little focus has been given to the demands of professionals working with women in other community justice environments.

 

Given the evidence of the emotional challenges that come with supporting women under probation supervision, there is a notable gap in the knowledge base when it comes to understanding the experiences of professionals working with women in 24-hour justice environments – specifically, Women’s  IAPs. This research is seeking to address that gap.

 

The current project aims to explore the day-to-day realities of operating and working in a women’s IAP, with a specific focus on better understanding what the associated emotional demands are of such work (e.g., emotional labour, vicarious trauma, gendered work).

 

For this research we are speaking to both managers and staff, from multiple women’s IAPs, to see what their experiences are.

Who is doing this research? 

The Practice Research Unit (PRU) is a small team of researchers based within Interventions Alliance.

 

The lead researcher on this project is Kerry Ellis Devitt (Head of Research). Support will be provided from Jess Lawrence (Senior Researcher).

What will taking part involve? 

Taking part will involve interviews with female practitioners in IAPs over Teams or in Person.

 

The interview will cover the following topics:

• What are the demands and realities of operating and working in a women’s AP?
• How do managers and staff explain the emotional demands of working in a women’s AP, and how their wellbeing and psychological safety is supported?
• What lessons can be learned from this for policy and practice? How can we support staff retention, and better address psychological and emotional safety for staff working in the Women’s AP estate.

Timelines

Data collection will run until April 2026, with the full report due in early summer.