subscribe: Posts | Comments

Women’s safety in UK at risk from funding cuts

4 comments

Ivana Davidovic
WVoN co-editor

According to recent research by the False Economy website, more than 2,000 charities in the UK are being forced to close services and sack staff as local authorities slash their funding, or in some cases completely withdraw it.

Although ministers are still peddling the idea of the Big Society in which charities and voluntary organisation would take over public services, with funding cuts this deep it is obviously just empty rhetoric.

Now it appears that local councils are using violence against women as a soft target for funding cuts, begging quite a lot of questions about the government’s widely publicised strategic vision on tackling violence against women and girls published late last year.

According to the action plan, which can be found on the Home Office website: “the Government’s commitment to tackling VAWG is clear. Violence will not be accepted and we will not stop until it has been eradicated.”

It goes on to say that:

“We acknowledge that local authorities are facing difficult decisions about funding services but we are clear: VAWG services should not be the easy cut.

“We will lead by example,” adding that “the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice have pledged to provide direct, ring- fenced funding to these specialist services.”

Yet, according to data collected through Freedom of Information requests from 265 local authorities in England, numerous crucial services for vulnerable women are in danger.

The affected services include domestic violence projects, specialist support for ethnic minority women fleeing violence and counselling for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Considering that some large authorities, including Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds and Westminster, still have not provided their figures, the situation will probably be even even bleaker when they do.

Scarlet Harris of  the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said:

“The data uncovered by the False Economy website presents an alarming picture. In spite of government assurances about the importance of violence against women services, many of these crucial services are being forced to close their doors or scale back their services due to funding cuts.

“These are not “nice to have” services – these services are often quite literally a lifeline to vulnerable women and girls.”

Views echoed by Holly Dustin, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, the largest one of its kind in the UK:

“Violence against women support services are not a luxury that can only be afforded in good economic times, they are core services that all women should have access to no matter where they live.

“We are calling for local authorities to ringfence funding for specialist services as part of local violence against women strategies, as some are already doing.

“We also think it’s critical that all local areas have specialist Commissioners who have expertise on these issues, and for there to be a national oversight mechanism to end patchy provision.”

With three million women in Britain experiencing domestic violence, rape or stalking each year, their access to safety or justice is woefully inadequate.

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Map of Gaps, one in four local authority areas provides no specialised support services in their area for women who experience violence.

This means women’s access to crucial support is reduced to the level of a postcode lottery with some women who suffer violence offered no specialised support at all.

  1. Tina Bramhill says:

    I think it’s so important that women’s services are safeguarded from these government cuts. Unforunately there are many other organisations which serve the elderly, young people and others at risk that will be unable to survive with such harse cutbacks.

    I worked for a not-for-profit and was made redundant nearly two weeks ago. It wasn’t an essential service but I did work with unemployed young people.

    I know of several other organisations going under locally and the support that’s being lost for all of these groups is going to have a seriously negative effect on our communities over the next year or two.

    • Tina, so men are innately biased? If you look beyond the headline numbers in a lot of environments women earn the same as men, it tends to be occupational segregation (women not in the same work as men and vice versa), hours worked (10% difference on average across US / UK), and maternity / children that cause the main differences in salary.

      Also it shouldn’t matter the HR person’s gender (most I have ever met are female anecdotally) to look at some results and say “women are at a significant disadvantage” or “women are at a significant advantage”, facts rarely lie but the people using them do.

  2. Tina Bramhill says:

    In relation to the piece about HR Directors, I never mentioned or suggested that the HR Directors were a particular gender. For me that’s not the point of the piece.

    It’s an interesting bit of research which I think highlights how the success of some women has perhaps skewed the view of women in the workplace in general. There are particular occupations which women do excel in, and even in other, male dominated occupations there are some women who thrive there.

    But overall, women still earn less in their lifetime. This is not about them earning less doing the same job but rather that their often more complex working needs are not accounted for and supported to enable them to progress to higher levels within organisations.

    • Sorry for that, I believe I successfully replied to the wrong post here :(. Well that good at least I look like an idiot and I am one.

      I am not really seeing how this skews it for some women. Women who work in the same areas and the same way as men earn more, those that work fewer hours or in other fields earn less – this seems a reasonable statement. As long as the support is there for women who wish to work in that manner.

      As for more complex working needs? Women are fully capable of working in exactly the same manner and method as men. What needs are there that really need to be taken into account that aren’t personal choices?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *