Inverness Women's Aid under threat after losing council funding

A long-established domestic abuse refuge in the Highlands is in serious doubt after losing funding from the local council.

Highland Council is instead awarding its annual domestic abuse services contract to the local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).

Inverness Women’s Aid (IWA), which is now pondering its future, says the bureau has “no domestic abuse credentials” and branded the council’s decision “bizarre and reckless”.

The council claims support services for women and children affected by domestic abuse across the Inverness and “south Highland area” will be stronger as a result of its review.

In a statement, IWA chairwoman Muirne Buchanan said the charity was concerned to learn that the new provider of domestic abuse outreach services in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey “is an organisation with no specialist knowledge or experience of working with victims of domestic abuse”.

Inverness Women's Aid — Inverness Women’s Aid STV News

On its website, the local CAB branch says it provides “information and advice on a number of different areas of enquiry,” and refers to work, debt, complaints about faulty goods, benefits and maximising income, housing and “much more besides”.

IWA acknowledged that CAB “does excellent work in its sector,” but that the council’s decision “would impact on the quality of support victims receive”.

The Inverness-based charity has 70 years’ experience working with victims of domestic abuse.

Highland Council launched a review in 2024 in a bid to move to a single provider covering men and women for the region. IWA spent two years trying to secure the new grant.

But the council had issued a draft contract that included clauses the IWA board deemed “unsafe and unclear”.

The charity claims the council declined to clarify points they had raised and “refused point-blank to negotiate”.

It said the draft contract contained provisions that would have compromised its affiliation with the national organisation Scottish Women’s Aid, along with service-user confidentiality, and “would have left us wide open to wider claims under employment and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) legislation”.

The IWA board reluctantly declined to sign the draft contract in 2025.

It added: “We understood that by not proceeding with these procurement processes on the terms presented, we would not receive the funding.

“However, we are disappointed that Highland Council did not engage further with us to address our concerns and reach an agreement that would have enabled an experienced specialist domestic abuse organisation to continue delivering these vital services.”

A bedroom at an Inverness Women's Aid refuge — A bedroom at an Inverness Women’s Aid refuge STV News

At present, IWA continues to receive council funding specifically for its refuge service, but that arrangement expires in September.

The charity is, meanwhile, seeking alternative sources of funding.

Its refuge is currently at capacity, and the number of referrals has been increasing month on month.

Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey CAB will join partners as part of a Highland-wide domestic abuse service from July.

Councillor David Fraser, chairman of the council’s health and social work committee, said: “The Highland-wide service will strengthen support for all victim-survivors across Highland through a more joined-up and collaborative approach.

“By working together, the partners will be able to share expertise and connect people to the right support more quickly.

“I hope this gives victim-survivors confidence about the future of domestic abuse services across the Highlands.”

Speaking to STV News in May, service user “Elizabeth”, who had experienced problems at home, said of Inverness Women’s Aid: “Without them, I probably wouldn’t be alive because I didn’t know how quickly things were escalating.”