The government’s recent provision of £9.5 million to establish demonstration projects to provide integrated community services for female offenders was a welcome development. It is unlikely that continued special funding will be available for such projects so it is essential that lessons learned from these projects are disseminated widely to facilitate the mainstreaming of good practice. This paper considers the context for this development and presents the results of a recent review of provision for women offenders (Gelsthorpe, Sharpe and Roberts 2007) and recommendations for future developments.