Written by Amanda O’Mara
An insight into the work of Willowdene Rehabilitation and the importance of addressing the underlying causes of offending.
Rehabilitation is not simply about giving someone a second chance or an ‘easy option’. When it succeeds, it also protects the public by reducing the risk of further offending. As criminal practitioners, we are familiar with the often complex circumstances that bring defendants before the courts. We are perhaps less frequently afforded the opportunity to see, first-hand, what meaningful rehabilitation can look like in practice.
I recently had that opportunity when, alongside HHJ Gilmore and fellow barristers and Crown Court advocates, I visited Willowdene Rehabilitation in Shropshire.
Having heard positive reports from members of the judiciary across the West Midlands about Willowdene’s facilities and the work undertaken there, I was particularly interested to see the centre for myself.
We were welcomed by Willowdene’s CEO, Dr Matt Home, who gave us an insight into an organisation whose approach to rehabilitation is both ambitious and impressively holistic.
More than a rehabilitation centre
Set amongst the rolling Shropshire countryside, Willowdene occupies what was once a working pig farm. Established in 1988 by Dr Home’s father, it has developed into a rehabilitation facility combining therapeutic intervention, education, vocational training and meaningful practical work offering the UK’s only direct alternative to custody for women.
The day courses for men are available to men and women of West Mercia, quite often as part of a program requirement ancillary to a community order or suspended sentence order. The residential programme is available to anyone throughout England and Wales.
Its work extends far beyond treating substance misuse. It seeks to address the interconnected problems of addiction, offending, homelessness, poor mental health, trauma and social exclusion.
Following a presentation outlining Willowdene’s programmes and reported outcomes, we were taken on a tour of the facilities.
Our first stop was a newly established community shop, housed in a barn constructed by students and managed by a recent graduate of the day programme. The shop is frequently used by the residents of the local village. It was an early illustration to us of Willowdene’s philosophy: students are not simply recipients of support but active participants in developing skills, confidence and a sense of purpose.
Across the site are workshops offering opportunities in woodwork, forestry, livestock, engineering and welding, together with classrooms, ICT facilities and communal spaces.
The emphasis throughout is on equipping individuals with the skills and confidence to build a different future. There are 3 sites spread across 400 acres of farm land offering both day and residential facilities.
Day Students achieving change
One of the most memorable parts of our visit was meeting women participating in a woodwork class. They showed us some of the items they had made, including bird boxes and small decorative fairy houses. Their pride in their achievements was immediately apparent.
One woman described how she had taken home a fairy house she had made. Having spent much of her life being told that she incapable of achieving anything, she explained that whenever she felt low, she would look at it and remind herself, “I made that.”
Three simple words, but ones which conveyed something profound.
For her, the little wooden house represented far more than a completed project. It was tangible evidence that she was capable of learning, creating and achieving something of which she could be proud.
It is easy to underestimate the significance of such an achievement. Yet for someone whose life has been characterised by trauma, addiction and a lack of self-worth, developing confidence and a belief in their own abilities can be fundamental to lasting change.
What struck me was that the practical activities were not simply designed to occupy the women’s time. They were an integral part of their rehabilitation.
Residential Course
Many women who come into contact with the criminal justice system have experienced significant trauma, including domestic abuse and sexual violence. For some, substance misuse has developed as a means of coping with those experiences, with offending becoming part of an increasingly destructive cycle.
Willowdene’s approach recognises that treating addiction in isolation, without addressing the underlying trauma and circumstances, may do little to secure lasting change, something that the criminal justice strives to achieve.
Willowdene describes a structured twelve-week residential programme incorporating twice-weekly therapeutic sessions, daily purposeful activity, vocational and classroom-based skills training, and detoxification support where required. Its presentation also reported that more than two-thirds of the women it supports have experienced domestic abuse or sexual violence, and that more than 85% of offending within the cohort it described was substance-related.
As Willowdene puts it, students are given access to interventions which enable them to “step into the life they were made for.”
We subsequently met residential students undertaking a food safety course. They were at different stages of their rehabilitation: some had arrived only days earlier, while others were approaching graduation.
They spoke openly and movingly about their backgrounds, the difficulties they had faced and the impact that Willowdene was having on their lives.
Several described the programme as the opportunity they had spent much of their lives searching for: a chance to address the underlying causes of their difficulties, to understand themselves and to begin rebuilding their lives.
Their accounts were a powerful reminder that behind the offences which come before the courts are often deeply complicated personal histories.
The therapeutic work is intensive, as it needs to be. The women have a relatively short period in which to confront experiences and behaviours that may have developed over many years.
Yet the programme is not simply about addressing the past. It is equally concerned with preparing women for what comes next.
Holistic Approach
Perhaps one of the most impressive aspects of Willowdene was the extent to which every stage of the rehabilitation journey appeared to have been considered.
The twelve-week duration of the residential programme has a practical significance. We were told that it is designed, in part, to minimise the risk of women losing their existing accommodation through the operation of housing benefit rules during a residential placement.
For those who arrive without stable accommodation, assistance with benefits, housing and resettlement forms part of the support provided.
According to the figures presented to us by Willowdene, typically 40% of women enter with no fixed abode, while 100% of women leaving the programme move into safe and secure accommodation. Willowdene also described ongoing resettlement support to help sustain progress beyond the residential placement. These figures should be understood as Willowdene’s own reported outcomes, with the relevant cohort and period to be confirmed.
This is not a peripheral consideration. The absence of stable housing can undermine even the most successful therapeutic intervention. A woman who has worked intensively to overcome addiction and trauma but leaves rehabilitation without somewhere safe to live faces considerable obstacles to maintaining that progress.
The same attention to detail was apparent in the arrangements for accessing the programme.
Women attending day services can be collected from their homes, while those entering the residential programme from custody can be collected directly from prison or court.
These arrangements are intended to remove practical barriers and reduce the risk of individuals falling through the gaps between services.
It was this joined-up thinking which impressed me most. Therapy, education, vocational training, accommodation, family relationships and resettlement were not treated as separate issues but as interconnected parts of a single rehabilitation journey.
Does it work?
For Judge and those working within the criminal justice system, the question of effectiveness is inevitably an important one. Willowdene’s reported outcomes are encouraging.
Willowdene cited a 2022 Willowdene/probation data review reporting that only 22% of women who completed its programme reoffended within twelve months.
Willowdene further reported that 100% of students gain nationally recognised qualifications. This is an organisation-reported outcome and its denominator, qualification definition and reporting period should be confirmed before publication. The organisation operates across three main sites and regional offices in West Mercia, offering support that extends beyond the residential programme.
Of course, statistics alone cannot convey the full impact of rehabilitation. They cannot readily measure the significance of a mother rebuilding a relationship with her children, an individual securing stable accommodation, or a woman developing a sense of self-worth for the first time.
Yet those outcomes may be essential foundations for reducing the risk of future offending.
An alternative to custody
Women account for only a small proportion of Crown Court defendants, but many of those who appear before the courts present with complex and overlapping needs.
The presentation also contrasted the programme’s outcomes with a figure attributed to the Prison Reform Trust: that 64% of women leaving prison reoffend within twelve months. That particular figure requires verification against the original publication, including whether it measures proven reoffending, reconviction or another outcome, and which prison-release cohort it covers. It should not be treated as a like-for-like comparator with the Willowdene figures without that clarification.
For appropriate offenders, residential rehabilitation can offer an opportunity to address those needs in a way that a relatively short custodial sentence may struggle to achieve.
This is not to suggest that rehabilitation is appropriate in every case, or that punishment, deterrence and public protection cease to be relevant considerations.
Rather, it is to recognise that rehabilitation and public protection are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, where rehabilitation successfully reduces the likelihood of further offending, the two objectives are closely aligned.
The women we met at Willowdene were undertaking demanding work. Confronting trauma, addressing addiction, developing new skills and accepting responsibility for the future are not easy tasks.
The programme requires commitment and perseverance, and there is no guarantee of success.
But the potential benefits are considerable: fewer victims of crime, stronger families, reduced pressure on public services and individuals who are better equipped to contribute positively to their communities.
A lasting impression
I left Willowdene impressed not simply by its facilities or the range of opportunities available, but by the thought and care that had gone into creating an environment in which meaningful change might be possible.
Most of all, I was struck by the women we met: their openness, their determination and their willingness to speak candidly about some of the most difficult experiences of their lives. Their stories brought into sharp focus the human realities behind the cases we encounter in court.
As advocates, we rightly focus on the evidence, the law, the seriousness of offending and the principles of sentencing. Visits such as this provide an important opportunity to understand more fully what rehabilitation can involve, and what may be achieved when the underlying causes of offending are addressed.
I am grateful to Dr Matt Home and everyone at Willowdene for their hospitality, and particularly to the women who generously shared their experiences with us.
I suspect that, of everything we saw and heard, the words which will remain with me longest are those of the woman proudly describing her little wooden fairy house: “I made that.”
A simple achievement, perhaps, but a powerful reminder of what rehabilitation can begin to restore: confidence, dignity, hope and the belief that a different future is possible.
And ultimately, when that different future means an individual does not offend again, it is not only that individual who benefits. It is society as a whole.
References:
Willowdene Rehabilitation – Official website
https://willowdenefarm.org.uk
Ministry of Justice – Justice Data Lab, April 2025
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/justice-data-lab-statistics-april-2025/willowdene-residential-report-html-version
TONIC – Willowdene Rehabilitation Service Evaluation
https://www.tonic.org.uk/willowdene-rehab-eval
Prison Reform Trust – Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile
https://prisonreformtrust.org.uk