WUNRN
UK -
Domestic Violence Refuge Provision at Crisis Point, Warn Charities
Women's groups say broadscale
closure of safe houses is putting support for some of most vulnerable people
back 40 years
Silhouettes representing women
killed due to domestic violence stand near London's Tower Bridge for a campaign
to raise awareness of the issue. Photograph: Warren Allott/Refuge
Sandra Laville - The
Guardian, - 3 August 2014
Domestic
violence refuges are being closed across the country in a
crisis that is putting support for the most vulnerable women and children back
40 years, leading charities have warned.
Specialist
safe houses for women and children which were forged out of the feminist
movement in the 1970s are being forced to shut by some local authorities
because they do not take in male victims.
Clare Wood's murder led to
'Clare's law', a scheme which allows women to check police records to see if a
partner has a violent past. Photograph: Greater Manchester police/PA
In other
areas, refuges are facing closure in favour of preventive work and support in
the community or being replaced with accommodation provided by housing
associations.
The
threat comes from a competitive tendering process being adopted by local
authorities, which charities say is weighted towards larger housing
associations and businesses and ignores the lessons of four decades about the
need to provide specialist, therapeutic support in refuges for women forced to
flee for their lives.
The Home
Secretary, Theresa May, recently told a meeting of women's groups in London
that there was a great deal of ignorance about the way domestic violence
services were commissioned by local authorities. But she has repeatedly refused
calls to ringfence funding nationally for women's refuges.
Key
concerns raised by women's groups include:
The
breakdown of the national network of refuges through local authorities imposing
limits on the numbers of non-local women able to stay in them.
Time
limits on length of stay.
Funding
cuts because refuges do not take men.
Refuges
being shut without alternative accommodation being provided.
In a
snapshot of what is happening in England and Wales, the Guardian found that
refuges have closed, or are under threat of closure, in Gloucestershire,
Cheshire, Devon, Dorset, Sheffield, Nottingham, Somerset, Leeds, Leicestershire
and Coventry. Coventry and Wolverhampton are examples of cities where a new
focus on providing accommodation for male victims has led to funding being cut
for traditional women's refuges.
The
change in focus has been devastating for the Haven in Coventry, a charity which
has run the city's women's refuges for 43 years, but is fighting for survival
after its service was decommissioned by the council in favour of self-contained
accommodation units and new accommodation for male victims.
The
Wolverhampton Haven, which has run the refuges for 41 years, is having its
funding from the city cut by £300,000 and as it struggles to maintain
services has been forced to reserve some of its places for men, even though
it has had no male referrals to the accommodation so far.
Sandra
Horley, chief executive of the charity Refuge, said: "We are at crisis
point. Refuge provision is under serious threat as a result of ongoing cuts to
local funding and poor commissioning practices."
achael Slack and her son Auden
were murdered in their own home in 2010 by former partner Andrew Cairns, who
had a history of mental health problems. Photograph: Refuge/PA
The
country was in danger of "returning to the days of Cathy Come Home",
Horley said, referring to the BBC TV play that triggered public outrage at
homelessness in the mid-1960s.
"Without
adequate refuge provision, women experiencing domestic violence will be faced
with a stark choice: flee to live rough on the streets or remain with their
abuser and risk further violence or even worse. Refuges are so much more than a
roof over a head. Lives are transformed specialist refuge workers support
women to stay safe, access health services, legal advocacy and provide
immigration advice.
"Refuges
also provide peer support women are able to share their experiences and
understand what they have been through. They realise, often for the first time,
they are not alone, and they are not to blame for the abuse. Empowering women
and children to overcome trauma and rebuild their lives is highly specialist,
intensive work it takes longer than a few weeks."
Horley
called for an urgent review of the commissioning process across the country and
criticised the focus on male victims as deeply flawed.
"The
vast majority of domestic violence is perpetrated by men against women,"
she said. "Of those who experience four or more incidents
89% are
women."
The
closures come despite three parliamentary inquiries, in 1975, 1992 and 2008,
concluding that the provision of national refuges must be the priority for any
government tackling domestic violence.
Polly
Neate, chief executive of Women's Aid, said a dearth of experience on
commissioning bodies was putting the system back to when the first domestic
violence refuge in the world opened, in Chiswick, west London, in 1971.
"There
are areas where there aren't any refuges, other areas are specifying beds must
be for local women only and some areas are commissioning so-called refuges
which are not refuges," she said. "We thought we had won the argument
that refuges need to be a national network but we are having arguments of 40
years ago all over again. There has to be a national network and national
funding to support it."
Specialist
refuges that take in victims of violence in forced marriages and of female
genital mutilation have been particularly affected. This comes as the home
affairs select committee report on FGM has called for better services,
including refuges, for those at risk.
In
Sheffield, the Ashiana refuge for black and minority ethnic women victims has
shut after 30 years.
Rachel
Mullan-Feroze, of the charity, said: "These women have very specialist
needs and need specialist refuges. They have been trafficked, or involved in
forced marriages, are victims of FGM, or so-called 'honour' crime. Many of them
have unsettled immigration status and all the evidence shows they suffer more
severe and enduring violence because they are stuck between abuse and
destitution."
But one
of the biggest housing association providers in the UK, Home Group, said none
of its 23 refuges had been closed.
Rachael
Byrne, director of care and support at the association, said: "Local
authorities have the unenviable task of coping with shrinking budgets and
increased demand for services. We've developed more flexible services, which
include floating support for survivors of domestic violence, [many of whom]
tell us they do not want or need to upturn their lives by moving into a
refuge."
Casey Brittle, 21, was beaten to
death by her violent ex-partner after police failed to intervene 11 times,
according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Photograph: IPCC/PA
Norman
Baker, the crime prevention minister, said: "Decisions regarding the
funding of local refuges are matters for local councils. We are helping local
councils by drawing together best practice on commissioning."
'I fear
what is happening now will mean more women will die'
Chris
Collier is almost wistful as she remembers the place of safety for victims of
domestic violence which she dedicated so much of her life to.
"Ours
was a fabulous refuge," she says. "We had room to take in 100 women
and even more children each year. We had a playroom that was Ofsted registered,
we had a lovely garden for the children to play in, and we had women on duty
24/7, so it was really safe.
"A
refuge shows women they are not alone, and that is a great support system which
might persist after a woman has left the refuge. I fear what is happening now
will mean more women will die."
Maria Stubbings, from Chelmsford,
Essex, was strangled by former boyfriend Marc Chivers less than a year after he
was freed from prison. Photograph: Essex police/PA
After
almost 40 years the refuge in Exeter run by Stop Abuse For Everyone (SAFE) the
organisation Collier works for, closed in March when the county council
decommissioned its services.
The same
has happened in Gloucestershire, Cheshire, Dorset, Somerset, Sheffield,
Nottingham, Leeds and Leicestershire, to name just a few. Specialist domestic
violence refuges, which were born out of the women's movement 40 years ago are
being decommissioned and closed in favour of accommodation provided by housing
associations and others, or by nothing at all.
Local
authorities are not obliged to put domestic violence services out to tender,
but many are doing so increasingly in response to pressure on their budgets and
in a desire to focus more prevention measures and early intervention work as
part of a government strategy.
Domestic violence protection
orders
In Devon
the women's groups running the two refuges lost out to a Wiltshire-based firm,
Splitz Support Services, which did not provide a refuge in its tendering bid
and instead promoted the use of preventative measures like the government's new
domestic violence protection orders.
Katie Summers, also known as
Katie Boardman, who was stabbed to death by Brian Taylor at her home d in
Farnworth, near Bolton.
Photograph: Greater Manchester
police/PA
The
orders exclude an alleged perpetrator from the women's home for between 48
hours and 28 days and are seen as a way of keeping a victim in her own home.
But Sue
Wallis of North Devon Against Domestic Abuse says the orders did not always
keep women safe. "We have had cases including a woman from Wiltshire who
was supported by Splitz who was given one of these orders and the perpetrator
came back within 48 hours and broke her back.
"So
we have evidence that its not always the answer, it can help and it is another
tool, but sometimes a woman needs to leave home quickly for her own
safety."
Murdered in their own home
Specialists
point out that high-profile cases of women who have been murdered by violent
men in recent years have almost all taken place in the women's home including
Rachael Slack and her toddler son, Auden; Maria Stubbings; Casey Brittle; Katie
Summers; Clare Wood; and Christine Chambers and her two-year-old daughter,
Shania. This is further evidence, specialists add, for continued need for a
national network of women's refuges as a place of safety.
Sandra
Rudd, president of Chester Women's Aid, believes preventative work with
perpetrators is a "complete waste of time" and has not been proven to
work.
"I
feel we have gone back 30 years. Domestic violence is much more prevalent now
than it has ever been yet they are cutting back the places and not only that
they are stopping women coming in from other areas. If you flee you need to
flee often from your area, from the perpetrator and from his friends. If you
stop women from outside using your refuge, then other areas will do the same
and the whole network breaks down."
Rudd's
refuge in Chester is to close in September, along with those in Ellesmere Port
and Northwich, which provided accommodation for 17 women and their children.
Modernising old-fashioned
services
Cheshire
West and Chester council says it is "modernising old fashioned"
services. It plans to replace the refuges with a "hub" offering eight
places, and four units in the community for male and female victims. It is not
known when this will open.
Access to
women from outside the area has been capped at 20%, and the period of time
families can stay limited to 12 weeks.
Councillor
Brenda Dowding, executive member for adult social care and health at the
council, says: "We are trying to move away from reactive services to get
more proactive, to see if we can prevent the abuse or at least stop it at the
point it is detected. When people have gone into refuges they have been there
for quite a long time, and that is not desirable because they can become
institutionalised."
Other
local authorities which have decommissioned longstanding women's refuges in
favour of accommodation provided by housing associations include:
Leeds,
which cut funding for the refuge run by Leeds Women's Aid for 40 years and
capped the number of non-local women at 20%
Wigan,
which has a target of six weeks on the period women can stay in its one- and two-bedroom
flats
Nottingham, where the refuge for south Asian and minority ethnic women was
closed
Leicester where a housing association won the tender against the local
specialist service which had existed since the 1970s
Somerset, where Taunton Women's Aid were prevented from bidding to run a refuge
it owned and managed for 15 years because it did not have enough resources
under the tender criteria.
Problems with tendered support
Evidence
from Somerset, however, suggests there can be problems with the handover to
housing associations which could put women at more risk. The Taunton contract
with a housing association, Chapter 1, was terminated this year after an
independent report and unannounced inspections exposed concerns about the way
the refuge was being run.
The
Guardian understands these included a worrying spike in the number of women who
were returning to violent partners because they were not properly supported.
The shift
away from providing refuges, traditionally seen as the last sanctuary for women
at risk of serious violence or murder, is starkly illustrated in the words of
Mike Bedford, domestic violence programme manager for Splitz Support Services.
"We
provide domestic violence outreach services, children's services and
perpetrator programmes," he says. "My personal view is we shouldn't
need refuges anymore, we should be dealing with the cause, which are the
men."
Operating
in Devon and Wiltshire, Splitz has also won the contract to run domestic
violence support provision in Gloucestershire, where three refuges closed as a
result.
A
spokeswoman for Gloucestershire county council says the contract awarded to
Splitz bought support in the community rather than in refuges.
She
added: "Where its appropriate its best to support people to stay in their
own homes. Where that's not possible we provide a range of accommodation
options including temporary accommodation with friends and family and emergency
B&B accommodation with support. In the past refuges have not been able to
provide support for all victims, particularly male victims."
Long-term care needed
Erin
Pizzey, who open the world's first women's refuge in Chiswick, west London, in
1971, says: "The closing down of refuges over the last two years is a
source of great worry for me. The majority of women coming into my refuge
needed long-term therapeutic care with their children.
"My
therapeutic model included long-term shared accommodation for vulnerable
mothers and children. That is still needed."
In
Barnstaple, with her funding stream cut, Sue Wallis is drawing on the fighting
spirit exhibited by Pizzey four decades ago to try and keep her refuge open on
its reserves, donations and a small grant from the district council.
"We
have gone back to basics here to survive," she says. "Some of the mothers
here are little more than children themselves, they have never been parented
themselves. They need mothering so they can learn there is a future for
themselves which is better than returning to a violent perpetrator. That is
what a women's refuge is for."
If you have been affected by
any of the issues in this article you can contact Refuge http://refuge.org.uk