All Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic and Sexual Violence Inquiry:
The Changing Landscape of Domestic and Sexual Violence Services
1. Organisation:
Welsh Women’s Aid
2. Contact names:
Tina Reece – Public Affairs Manager, Welsh Women’s Aid
Eleri Butler – Chief Executive Officer, Welsh Women’s Aid
3. Contact emails:
4. Contact phone:
02920514551
5. Contact address:
Welsh Women's Aid, Violence Against Women Centre of Excellence, Pendragon House, Caxton Place, Pentwyn, Cardiff CF24 2JS.
6. Type of organisation:
Charity – umbrella organisation for 27 frontline domestic abuse and violence against women and girls service providers across Wales.
7. Do you provide domestic and sexual violence services?
Yes.
Welsh Women’s Aid is the lead, national membership organisation in Wales which represents the views and experiences of Welsh domestic abuse and sexual violence services. Our membership comprises 27 independent specialist domestic abuse/violence against women services across Wales which provide a range of front-line services: refuges, community-based outreach, support and advocacy through one stop shops, drop-ins, group-work, independent advocates (IDVAs and ISVAs), and support for children and young people.This role allows us the unique position to represent the violence against women and girls sector in Wales, as experts on the many devolved areas of policy and practice in Wales, which as are now divergent in areas such as strategy and funding, from services in England.Member services include specialist support for survivors from Black and minority communities and LGB&T communities; support for survivors or those at risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation, FGM, forced marriage and so-called ‘honour-based violence’;support for women involved in the criminal justice system, and interventions with perpetrators and associated women’s safety work.
Welsh Women’s Aid also delivers front-line services for female and male survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence, and services for children and young people who are affected by domestic abuse or experience abuse in their own teenage relationships. These services are provided by two refuge and community based domestic abuse services in North Wales (Wrexham and Colwyn Bay), and throughdelivery of the All Wales Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Helpline.
Welsh Women’s Aid runs the ‘Children Matter’ project which coordinates and delivers training, support and funding for local services to deliver the S.T.A.R (Safety, Trust and Respect)suite of servicesfor children and young people at a local level. These include prevention education work in schools for children and young people, and support/group-work programmes for children and young people who are either at risk of or directly experiencing abuse in local communities (through refuges, domestic abuse community outreach and other third sector services). The Children Matter project supportsprofessionals and children and young people between the ages of 0 to 25 years.
Welsh Women’s Aid also delivers a national accredited training service and a survivors/services users ‘Champions Programme’ to enable women’s and young people’s involvement in service development, policy and campaigns work.
Our response to this Inquiry is written from the perspective of our own direct service provision and following consultation with our national network of specialist services across Wales.
8. Have changes to funding affected the deliverability of your domestic violence service, or any services that you are familiar with, over the last five years?
Yes.
We welcome the Inquiry’s consideration of the changing landscape and its impact on domestic and sexual abuse services across Wales and England, and think it is vitally important that the challenges and different experiences of services in both countries are highlighted at this crucial time.
Funding arrangements for front-line domestic abuse services in Wales have been structured differently to funding arrangements in England. In 2009, Supporting People in England lost its ring-fencing and local authorities were able to spend the funding as they deemed appropriate, which meant many local specialist services lost their funding or were replaced by generic housing associations or other providers. In Wales, the Supporting People Programme Grantcontinued to bering-fenced by the Welsh Government, through 2012-2014 whilst it moved from provision-based to needs-based allocation (although this only transferred to minimal changes in practice). Although overall the grant programme was largely protected, and continued to contribute fundingfor Welsh Women’s Aid member services (women’s refuges and domestic abuse floating support services), this review led to substantial changes in funding levels for local authorities between North and South Wales.
Specialist services in Wales are considerably fewer and the vast majority are much smaller than most services in England, and many face pressures to mergeor diversify provision. Further changes in commissioning arrangements and proposed cuts from next year’s Supporting People budgets meansspecialist services in Wales face an even more uncertain future and greater risk of take-over or disappearing altogether, should domestic abuse funding through Supporting People Programme Grant not be ring-fenced and should commissioning arrangements fail to effectively take into account the needs and experiences of survivors, the high-quality provision delivered by specialist services and their impact on violence against women prevention locally and nationally.
9. If YES, what was the percentage of the funding reductions or increases experienced?
There was an average decrease of 5% for Welsh Women’s Aid’s 27 member organisations in Supporting People funding for refuge and floating support. The experience of member organisations in different regions was extremely variable – some receiving cuts of 20%, some only 1%.However, much more significant cuts of up to 20% are anticipated in the Supporting People Programme Grant allocationfor the next financial year.
Housing Grants were cut by up to a third for one of our member organisations in April of this year, with a further third to go in 2015. Funding for children’s services from Children in Need were alsowholly revoked for Wales in 2009 due to understanding that it would be statutorily funded, which has not been implemented.
Nationally, the same funding levels have been provided for Welsh Women’s Aid services over the past two year period, which means that there has been no allowance for salary increments or cost of living increases and funds have therefore decreased in real terms.
In contrast to the money spent directly on domestic abuse specialist service provision in Wales, a large part of which is £10 million from the Supporting People programme (from £136 million of the total Supporting People budget for Wales), the cost of domestic abuse to the Welsh economy is estimated at £826.44 million, which includes £303.5 million to public services and £522.9 million in human and emotional costs.
There were also some funding increases, with the Welsh Government increasing their Domestic Abuse/Violence Against Women Capital Program Budget by £200,000 to £500,000 total for 2014, which is open to community domestic abuse services. The Dyfed Powys Police and Crime Commissioner also commissioned 6.5 extra IDVAs for the region, along with two new SARCs for mid-Wales to fill a service gap in that area.
Presently Ministry of Justice funding has not yet transferred to Police and Crime Commissioners in Wales, but this is planned for April 2015.
10. If YES, which services were affected and how?
Children’s services:Fully funded specialist domestic abuse services for children and young people ceased in refuges and other emergency safe accommodation for many of our member organisations in 2009, and has not been replaced. However, provision is sought through other funding and arrangements to allow for some children and young people work to continue in the majority of our member groups. This has been described as a difficult and unsustainable model by the services.
Refuge services: Manyservicesreport being able to spend less time with survivors to provide support and advocacy to women in refuges and emergency accommodation due to resource pressuresleading to less capacity and higher demand on services.
Social Housing grant: This reduced the subsidised funding pot available for refuge accommodation used by Housing Providers, which lead to less opportunity for new-build refuges and wider improvements in accommodation based support.
Community-based Services: Along with an increase of 6.5 extra IDVAs for the Dyfed Powys region, and two new SARCs for mid-Wales, The Welsh Government’s Domestic Abuse/Violence Against Women Capital Program Budget increase of £200,000 to £500,000 for 2014stic abuse services. The new grants include £116,000 funding to a one-stop shop proposal at Bridgend civic centre, a £82,014 boost for Rhondda Cynon Taff council for an extension to its Oasis Centre, which hosts a one-stop shop, with a view to develop voluntary group work with male perpetrators, and a £56,244 payment to Hafan Cymru in Swansea to renovate, furnish and buy IT equipment for its one-stop shop. Funding will also go to projects in Newport, Cardiff, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Gwynedd and Anglesey, Caerphilly, Denbighshire and Merthyr Tydfil.
11. If YES, what impact has this had on service users?
Some funders have placed greater focus on commissioning ‘high-risk’ domestic abuse services[1] at the expense of a needs-led and primary prevention approach which means that survivors whose perpetrators are identified as ‘medium’ or ‘standard’ risk of harming them have less access to holistic support services to meet their needs. In 2013/14, Welsh Women’s Aid member services supported 9,337 women, and 2,263 women were supported in refuges; in the same year the All Wales Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Helpline supported 27, 972 callers.
The impact that reduced capacity and an increase in demand for services has on women in refuges is that women with higher support needs may not have their needs fully met. This includes, for example, women with more complex or multiple support needs associated with experiencing a combination of domestic abuse, mental ill-health and problematic substance use: with having no recourse to public funds or insecure immigration status; with support needs with language or other access issues; with being involved in the criminal justice system in addition to being survivors of abuse;and if women have experienced multiple forms of violence and abuse currently or in the past they may need additional support to minimise their trauma, build resilience and recovery.
Women in refuges who have children will also not receive direct support relating to their children e.g. safeguarding and parenting support, support for women who have had their children removed, support with residency and contact issues and proceedings following separation.
The impact this has on children and young people in refuges is that many do not receive targeted, individual support to enable them to discuss their experiences, build their resilience and recover from abuse, and on a practical level there are also fewer or no activities provided for them due to lack of dedicated children’s work time within the service.
Where children’s support still exists, the services that children receive are dependent on attracting additional funding; most services however do not have capacity to undertake significant fundraising to sustain core services.
12. If NO, what has the stability of funding meant for the organisation and the survivors of domestic violence accessing your service?
13. How have commissioning practices affected your domestic violence service or any services that you are familiar with, over the last 5 years?
Please cover:
- Which services delivered by the organisation(s) were affected and how?
- What impact this had upon service users?
- Whether you experienced positive or negative commissioning practices
It is very positive that Welsh Women’s Aid has been funded for core service delivery and for our Children Matter programme by the Welsh Government, and this financial support has been consistent over a number of years, which is very welcome. This has enabled us to deliver a wide range of support services for our members and enabled greater engagement and representation of member services and survivors at a national level. This funding is annually subject to grant applications, which makes it difficult to undertake long term strategic planning and development. It is also very positive that the Welsh Government has committed long term funding for the national helpline, over many years; this is currently out to tender with plans for a new 3-5 year contract to be delivered from April 2015.
The largest funding source for front-line domestic abuse services in Wales is still Supporting People Programme Grant, commissioned by local authorities/Supporting People partnerships;this funds the majority of 27member organisations’refuge and floating support services. Some local services are also increasingly funded by local Police and Crime Commissioners, for example, to deliver independent advocacy for survivors.
Supporting People commissioning practice tends to vary across different local authorities and there appears to be little consistency across Wales. For example, one of our member organisations who responded to these questions praised their Supporting People team for their commissioning practice, who are very proactive and choose to consult with service providers when any budget changes are necessary to ensure the model of delivery is fit for purpose and remains effective to the needs of its service users.
However, another member organisation NDAShad their funding reduced by one bed-space within their refuge without consultation recently. This has proved problematic as, this unfunded room, now covered through the organisation’s reserves,has been one some occasions the only bed space leftvacant in the whole of North Wales for women to access. Our member organisation told us this situation would continuefor as long as financially viable.
A consistent issue with Supporting People is the short notice period for service providers of cuts to funding. This financial year, Supporting People did not confirm budgets until January 2014, which then needed to be implemented starting 1st April 2014. We have been told by our members that it is incredibly difficult for service providers to implement large, unexpected cuts within this short timeframe. This also provides significant challenges for domestic abuse services to undertake strategic business planning and service development.
This is a problem with all funders, which has been consistently highlighted by ourmember organisations across Wales. One member received grant funding for children’s services from Social Services which was revoked with five months’ notice. The reason given for this change in funding was that the aims of the project no longer fit with the Child and Family Services strategy objectives. This service has told us that the impact of the lack of children and young people’s services has been devastating locally.
14. Do you have any examples of poor commissioning practices for domestic violence services?If yes, please explain and provide further details.
See Q13. Supporting People teams can provide good commissioning services, but short time frames for budgeting as well as a lack of consistency across the Supporting People teams in Wales makes it a difficult and disjointed process. As further funding is announced, some Supporting People teams and commissioners are back-tracking on confirmed commissioning processes and are insisting on remodelling services very early in to the new grant agreement, sometimes without consultation. One service, for example, which is currently sourcing an alternative refuge building as the previous location was no longer fit for habitation, have been told they cannot proceed with the previously agreed search until a review of local need has been carried out.Wales is currently operating at 25% below the Council of Europe Taskforce to Combat Violence Against Women’s final report recommendation of 1 family bed space per 10’000 of population.
15. Do you have any examples of good commissioning practices for domestic violence services? If yes, please explain and provide further details.
No examples have been forthcoming from local commissioning arrangements at this time.
Nationally, as stated above, the Welsh Government has financially supported a range of domestic abuse and sexual violence initiatives that include supporting Welsh Women’s Aid to help capacity build; strengthening and supporting local member services through funding one-stop shops, financing building extensions, renovations, furnishing and buy IT equipment; as well as engaging in policy work and publicity and other campaigns. It is also very positive that the Welsh Government has committed long term funding for the national helpline, over many years; this is currently out to tender with plans for a new 3-5 year contract to be delivered from April 2015.