We strongly welcome the duty placed on local authorities in the Bill to support victims of domestic abuse and their children through providing support in accommodation-based services. This group of 12 amendments aims to strengthen and add necessary detail to this duty. The amendments would clarify what factors authorities must consider when assessing need and preparing a strategy, define refuge services, ensure wide consultation and put a national oversight mechanism on the face of the Bill. I thank the noble Lords, Lord Woolley of Woodford, Lord Young of Cookham, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hussein-Ece, whose names also appear on all or one or two of the amendments in the group. I would also like to thank Women’s Aid and Imkaan for the briefings they have provided.
6.30 pm
Refuge services are a national network providing holistic specialist support for survivors of domestic abuse in a safe and secure environment. That specialist support is related to, for example, physical and mental health, immigration status, children’s welfare and education, financial needs, including debt, and criminal and family justice.
As it stands, the Bill provides that the duty covers support provided to survivors who reside in “relevant accommodation”. “Relevant accommodation”, however, is not defined in the Bill, which simply says that it is
“accommodation of a description specified by the Secretary of State in regulations.”
Draft statutory guidelines have been published, but the definition leaves scope for temporary or generic forms of accommodation with limited housing-focused support, which would not deliver the safe environment and support abuse survivors need. Guidance supporting the Istanbul convention is clear that temporary accommodation and general forms of homelessness provision are not sufficient to meet the needs of women and children escaping violence and abuse. The definition of “relevant accommodation” should align with definitions established in the UK-wide violence against women and girls service directory, which is part-funded by the Government. The only accommodation-based domestic abuse service in the directory is a “refuge service”, which can encompass a range of accommodation types, including shared houses and self-contained and dispersed accommodation. This definition is achieved in this group by Amendment 93, which would insert a short definition of refuge services in the Bill, making clear that they are provided separately for men and women, within single-sex services, and that the address of a refuge cannot be made publicly available or disclosed.
The Bill also gives no assurance about the safety or quality of the support being provided. The draft statutory guidance lists the types of support that need to be provided in safe accommodation, but does not specify which organisations can deliver this support. Consequently, we could see a very wide range of organisations that have no experience or expertise in
supporting survivors being funded by a local authority under the duty in Bill. The definition of support must be strengthened to ensure that that support is specialist, in line with the Istanbul convention, which requires states to provide specialist services to meet the specific needs of victims and children, including specialist refuge provision. Without clear definitions there is a real risk that the duty will encourage some councils to fund generic accommodation-based services which do not offer the required specialism and expertise in relation to the needs of women and children escaping domestic abuse. There is already evidence that this is increasingly happening under arrangements currently applicable. This group of amendments would define “specialist domestic abuse support” as delivered by organisations whose organisational purpose is to support victims and/or children and young people impacted by domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls.
Amendment 89 would strengthen the requirements for what must be included in a strategy for the commissioning and provision of domestic abuse support. While discussing this issue, I note that the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, has a subsequent amendment to ensure that strategy documents are published and provided in accessible formats—something all too often overlooked but crucial. I wholeheartedly support the noble Lord in what he is seeking.
These amendments would also ensure that a strategy under this part takes note of any ministerial strategy on preventing violence against women and girls. This issue is vital, and we will have the opportunity for a fuller debate on it in a later group, thanks to my noble friend Lady Lister of Burtersett.
A key issue that has been raised throughout the Bill is the need to ensure support for all victims. A later debate will focus on this need for non-discrimination. The provision of specialist services, such as those for survivors from black and minority ethnic communities, is key to this.
Competitive tendering for service provision has increased in recent years. This has been damaging for specialist refuge services, as procurement processes have favoured larger organisations and contracts above small specialist women’s refuges which are expert in meeting survivors’ needs, including those services run by and for black and minoritised women. This group of amendments requires, among other things, that in undertaking their duty local authorities arrange provision of accommodation for all victims, regardless of their status, as set out in the Istanbul convention.
The Bill requires local authorities to establish local partnership boards to oversee how they deliver their statutory duty. While in some areas effective multi-agency partnership arrangements are well established, in others that is not the case, including the exclusion of specialist services in the planning and delivery of services. These amendments seek, among others things, to make it clear that the purpose of the local partnership boards is to establish an equitable partnership that reflects the needs of those impacted by domestic abuse in the local area and works to deliver quality services that meet victims’ needs.
Refuges are a national network of services which, by necessity, support survivors from outside their local area. Local needs assessments cannot be based on local data alone. Over two-thirds of women resident in a refuge are from a different local authority area. This national network of services cannot be assessed, planned, commissioned or funded on the basis of local need alone. The Government have committed to establishing a ministerial-led national steering group to monitor and evaluate delivery of the new duty on local authorities. Amendment 108 would put such a national oversight mechanism in the Bill. It would establish a national oversight group, to include the domestic abuse commissioner, national organisations representing providers of specialist support for women and girls affected by domestic abuse and violence, and representatives from local government, policing and justice, and health bodies. The requirements placed on this group would include undertaking a national needs assessment for refuge services, including a review of provision for victims with protected characteristics, and ensuring that local authorities and local partnership boards were effectively discharging their duties, including ensuring the sustainable funding of specialist high-quality services which meet the needs of victims and their children.
We cannot have this debate without addressing the issue of funding. Refuges have faced a funding crisis for a decade. Women’s Aid has estimated that nearly £175 million is required annually for a safe and secure national network of refuge services that will meet demand, alongside just under £220 million for wider community-based services, which are the subject of a later debate. The organisation to which I referred earlier, Imkaan, estimates that at least £57 million annually is needed to ensure that existing specialist support services for black and minoritised women are sustainable. In the light of these figures, it is not clear how the Government’s funding of £125 million for the existing statutory duty of local authorities to support accommodation-based services in 2021-22 was calculated or assessed.
Adequate, ring fenced and long-term funding for the provision of specialist refuge services will be essential to underpin the statutory duties set out in the Bill. If the finances are not provided, the objectives of the Bill will not be achieved, as statutory duties will not be properly delivered. The funding provided for these statutory duties must meet the full costs. This group of amendments therefore places duties on the Government both to deliver sufficient funding to local authorities to ensure that the needs identified in the national needs assessment are met and to consult organisations representing providers of specialist services in relation to domestic abuse and violence against women and girls when the Government make regulations and guidance to underpin the duty.
The Bill has raised real hope that it will lead to a transformation both in how as a nation we regard and deal with domestic abuse in all its forms and in the determination we show in seeking to stamp it out and provide full support for all victims of domestic abuse. Significantly reducing domestic abuse in all its forms, providing full support for those affected and changing attitudes and culture will lead to significant societal and financial benefits which should not be underestimated.
However, achieving that goal cannot be done on the cheap, and the required provision of specialist refuge services is one key area where the resources must be provided if the Bill is to lead to the transformation that we all want to see delivered. I beg to move.