London: Threats From All Directions
The mood in the small meeting room in Portcullis House, the building opposite parliament housing MPs’ offices, is truculent. It is crammed with leaders and workers from refuges for black and minority ethnic (BME) and refugee women throughout the country who are angry and scared at what they see as a threat to their existence.
They are gathered for the launch of a report from Imkaan – an advocacy group for a network of refuges for BME women and children experiencing domestic violence – that claims that local authority commissioning is squeezing out small, specialist providers. “Our services are in danger of being cut, lost or swallowed up and subsumed in mainstream organisations,” says Amrit Wilson, chair of Imkaan. “And once they are lost, it will be almost impossible to replace them.”
Wilson says a shift in local government commissioning – particularly through Supporting People, a policy and funding framework for supported accommodation – means that specialist services are having funding cut or are being forced to merge with non-specialist organisations.
“We’ve heard a lot of fine words from the government about fighting domestic violence,” she says. “But Supporting People, and its focus on mainstreaming and cost saving, are responsible for decommissioning specialist refuges and abolishing outreach work and advocacy.”
In England, 40 of the approximately 400 refuge support services are specialist, including 28 Asian refuges providing a total of 265 bed spaces. The Imkaan report, A Right to Exist, reveals that at least seven refuges have been taken over by larger providers in the last three years. In 2007, the organisation learned of the closure of two specialist BME services and two services attached to a specialist refuge, and many others face possible funding cuts or mergers in the near future.
The situation is all the more critical, the organisation suggests, because of a dearth of existing specialist provision for vulnerable women from BME groups. A report last November from End Violence Against Women revealed that fewer than one in 10 councils has specialist services for BME women to deal with issues such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation, as well as other domestic violence.
One BME organisation under threat is Southall Black Sisters (SBS), a resource centre in west London. From April, Ealing council is proposing to take away its core funding of £100,000. “They argue that there is no need for a specialist service for BME women and that services in the borough need to be streamlined, with only one refuge provider,” says Pragna Patel, coordinator at SBS. “But this doesn’t take into account the unequal social, economic and cultural context that make it difficult or impossible for BME women to access generic services.”
In response, Ealing council says SBS, among others, has been asked to submit a bid to provide borough-wide services for all victims of domestic violence, and says it cannot pre-empt the process by “indicating that any one organisation will have an advantage”. Council leader Jason Stacey says: “The council strongly believes that every woman, no matter where they live in the borough or their ethnic background, should be able to access domestic violence support services.”
It is ironic, Patel says, that the deputy prime minister, Harriet Harman, praised SBS in a House of Commons speech in July last year, promising to “work on the issue of empowering women in black and Asian communities” by working with organisations such as SBS. “It’s depressing, and we are very angry,” Patel says. “There are national government initiatives, but local scenarios are at loggerheads with that.”
Imkaan argues that recommendations from a Commission on Integration and Cohesion report published in June 2007, that single-group funding should be the exception not the rule, puts BME refuges in danger. The report says such funding, for particular ethnic or religious groups, fosters a “sense of separation” and is “a hangover from old identity politics”. But BME victims of domestic violence need specialised support, with workers who have an understanding of their culture and language, says Wilson. “BME women in generic refuges often face racism from other clients or staff and their cultural needs are not met.”
Unlike larger organisations, such as housing associations, small refuges often do not have the staff or experience to submit competitive bids, according to Imkaan. The organisation says the criteria for the quality assessment framework does not take interpreting and translating costs into consideration, and that the new national outcomes framework are “one size fits all” assessment tools that do not appreciate the specialist nature of BME domestic violence provision.
Imkaan has launched a campaign against policies that it says place women and children in danger. Linda Riordan, supported by fellow MP John McDonnell, has tabled an early day motion on the threat to BME refuges in the House of Commons, and Wilson says Imkaan is calling on the government to increase funding for BME services and to ringfence funding for all domestic violence services. She also wants an inquiry into the effects of Supporting People policies. “This is one of the most brutal policies going … and it is leading to women being placed in extreme danger,” she claims.
With councils under pressure to cut budgets, streamline services and provide “concrete” outcomes, it is little wonder BME organisations are first to feel the pressure, Patel says. “These groups are invisible and voiceless. It’s easy to target the most vulnerable without any backlash.”
Source: The Guardian – 13 February 2008
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