Women's Aid slam Highland Council plans for single domestic abuse service for all genders

Women’s Aid organisations across the Highlands have criticised council plans to introduce a single domestic abuse service for all genders.

Services across the region, including Women’s Aid in Inverness, Lochaber, Ross-shire, Skye, Caithness and Sutherland, have joined Scottish Women’s Aid in condemning the plans.

A Highland Council proposal for funding for a single service could mean the closure of Women’s Aid services, which collectively support over 1,000 women and 250 children and young people.

In a joint statement, organisations said the “badly judged” plans would “wipe out decades of support” for people in need.

Dr Marsha Scott, CEO of Scottish Women’s Aid, said: “Scottish Women’s Aid understands this is a challenging economic context in which local authorities are under increased pressure to make savings.

“However, women, children and young people living with domestic abuse cannot bear the burden of local government financial challenges.

“Keeping women and children safe should be a significant priority in response to Scotland’s current economic challenges.

“The local women’s aid services are grass-roots services that have grown out of their communities to help the women and children in local families. This proposed commissioning strategy wipes out decades of support for the people and the services your communities have developed and nurtured.”

‘Vital lifeline’

Lorraine Revitt, manager of Lochaber Women’s Aid, said: “If these changes go ahead, it will affect vulnerable women, children and young people who are already experiencing extreme trauma and crisis in their lives.

“Despite being underfunded for several years, local Women’s Aid groups provide a vital lifeline throughout the Highlands by providing a local, easily accessible and safe space for women.

“The distances involved in providing the service in Lochaber are vast, and we cannot contemplate how one provider throughout the Highlands could achieve and provide a sustainable or effective service.

“Whilst we acknowledge that men can be victims of domestic abuse, it is a gendered crime which has a detrimental effect on more women than men.

“The need for an individual service for men should not detract from the women’s only services that have been in place for many years in individual areas of the Highlands.”

Caithness & Sutherland Women’s Aid (CASWA) Board added: “Whilst we welcome the opportunity to tender for services in a properly accountable way that is right for the delivery of public money, we feel this process has begun with little to no consultation with service users, communities and indeed our uniquely skilled workforce.

“In Caithness and Sutherland alone, CASWA currently supports 200 women and 89 children and young people, covering distances annually of almost 30,000 miles and working with cross-sector partners.

“Our dedicated team understands the distinct challenges of delivering our life-saving service here. This is why we feel it is highly important that domestic abuse services continue to be locally based and delivered.

“As well as direct work with survivors and their families, CASWA also delivers several outreach and advocacy campaigns going into schools and businesses to educate and raise awareness. A cut to this would undoubtedly have long-term impacts on the lives of women and girls in our community.”

‘Potentially dangerous’

Leanne Maxwell, interim manager, Ross-shire and Skye Women’s Aid, commented: “We believe the region deserves local services to best meet local need.

“Local services, staffed by local women, with local knowledge and professional connections are best placed to understand and advocate for local women, children and young people affected by domestic abuse.

“Creating safer communities is key to Scotland addressing gender-based violence, and we are concerned that forcing communities to seek a centralised service during times of high-risk and vulnerability is both counterproductive and potentially dangerous.”

‘No final decision taken’

Highland Council said no final decision had been made on the region’s future funding and service delivery model but that several contracts for domestic services are currently under review.

“As part of this exercise, we are looking to maximise public value for our expenditure and have taken advice from our shared procurement service in relation to the contracts we currently have with the four Woman’s Aid groups that operate in Highland”, a spokesperson added.

“As we develop our approach to consultation, we plan to issue a Prior Information Notice (PIN) to test the market to see if there are potential service providers who could demonstrate a lead provider model which would cover all domestic abuse victims across all of Highland.

“This will enable us to reach out to wider partners to better understand the needs of our communities. This notification will help us determine whether a lead provider model is viable and will ensure that all potential providers can engage with us as we seek to deliver improved domestic abuse services across Highland.

“We recognise and acknowledge the concerns that have been raised by the Women’s Aid groups and will continue to take cognisance of their views and those of other stakeholders as we develop our model.

“No final decision has been taken on the future funding and service delivery model and the process of review outlined is very much in the ‘consultation’ stage.

“We hope that we can continue to work with stakeholders as we draft the specification and PIN and consult more widely before considering our next steps in any tender process.

“We will continue to support the current funding model during this process.”

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