Domestic Violence Refuges: Funding

Alex Norris Excerpts

Tuesday 12th December 2017 Westminster Hall

[Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)]

This is the first time I have served under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson, and I am grateful for the chance to raise an issue that I care deeply about. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley (Jess Phillips) on securing this important debate. She has long fought for survivors of domestic violence and abuse, and I am glad that I can join her in that fight today.

For six years before coming to this place I held a number of special responsibilities on Nottingham City Council, one of which was commissioning Nottingham’s excellent, well-run domestic violence services. Whether Equation and its nation-leading prevention services, Women’s Aid with its advocacy and survivor support, our sexual violence support service, which is only ever one call away for survivors whatever the time, day or year, or the women’s centre, which acts as a fulcrum for those critical services, there is an excellent range of things happening in Nottingham. I rise today to speak up for those services, and for the thousands of survivors of domestic abuse who we believe live in my constituency.

I learned a lot during those six years, but one thing that particularly stuck in my mind is that this is a complex and fragile ecosystem of services, and that change in one part of the system can have an unintended consequence in another. There is also a complex interrelationship with other communities, which we mess with at our peril. Often a well-meant, slightly tangential piece of public policy can have a catastrophic impact, and the issue under discussion today is a clear example. We understand why Ministers want to consider short-term housing in line with wider work on universal credit, and we understand that that is a wide-ranging piece of work. We also understand that refuge provision is just 1% of that sector, but for survivors who take that difficult step and need those services, it is about 100% of their lives on that night.

There are two unintended flaws in the current plans that I hope Ministers will reflect on. First, it has been proposed to group refuge provision with other short-term housing services, but refuges fulfil a completely different function from other services such as those for people with substance abuse issues or care leavers. I fear that aggregating refuges will lead to generic commissioning and risk losing the value of refuge provision.

My second point concerns local devolution of the funding for services. I am a big fan of devolution and I believe that decisions should be taken at the lowest appropriate level. I do not believe, however, that the lowest appropriate level for refuge provision is local authority level. Domestic violence services are a complex local ecosystem, but they have a significant impact across local boundaries. The safest place for a woman in Nottingham who is fleeing a violent relationship may well be Birmingham—again that is completely different from the rest of the services in that local devolution plan.

Such measures run counter to the strategy for ending violence against women and girls that was outlined by the then Home Secretary, now Prime Minister. On page 29, that strategy references the need for services to

“collaborate across local authority and service boundaries”

and page 32 states:

“We will strongly encourage local areas to collaborate with one another through the fund so that partnerships join up across borders to meet the needs of women who may flee to seek support.”

I cannot see how the proposals that we are being consulted on support that aim.

I hope the Minister will shine some light on the ongoing funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government that was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Julie Cooper). Support has been given in the past and has been greatly appreciated, but those running Nottingham central Women’s Aid refuge do not yet know whether the funding will continue from 1 April for the next two years. I know Ministers are evaluating the success of the previous two years, but they need answers because we will soon get to the cliff edge of 90-day redundancy notices. It is a question of good planning for 1 April, so I hope something can be done, perhaps even today.

I recently completed my first six months in this place. Progress can be slow and frustrating, but things can be done immediately about this issue. This week refuges could be told about DCLG funding, so that they can plan properly, and by 23 January the well-meant but bad idea that we have been debating could be shelved.

[Several hon. Members rose—]