My Lords, I shall speak in support of Amendments 89, 93, 102, 106, 107 and 108. It is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Rosser. I hope that I will not duplicate much of what he has said, but, clearly, we are on the same page.
The amendments would strengthen the statutory duty on local authorities to fund support and safe accommodation for survivors of domestic abuse. The desperate need to improve the funding system for life-saving measures for women refugees cannot be overstated. Every fortnight in England and Wales, three women are killed by a partner or ex-partner, yet in England there is currently a 30% shortfall in relation to the number of refugee bed spaces required by the Istanbul convention.
Fifty-seven per cent of referrals to refugee services were rejected between 2009 and 2020. Nearly one in five of all referrals received were rejected because the refugee centres had no space or capacity to support the women and their children. One-third of specialist refugee services for black, Asian and minority-ethnic women have been decommissioned since 2010, resulting in a 50% reduction in bed space capacity.
Secure funding for refugee services remains a critical priority, and this legal duty could be an important step forward in delivering that, but will it change the funding and commissioning crisis that these refugees currently face? There are serious concerns from the Women’s Aid Federation of England and Imkaan that it will not. Those organisations represent providers of refugee services who deliver far more than a roof over a survivor’s head; they provide holistic, specialist support, including that relating to physical and mental health, immigration status, children’s welfare, education, financial needs, and criminal and family justice, to meet the needs of survivors in a safe and secure environment.
The Istanbul convention makes it clear that such specialist services are best delivered by women’s organisations—by expert staff who have in-depth knowledge of violence against women and girls. They are specialist refugee centres, led by and for black, Asian and minority-ethnic women, and represented by Imkaan. These centres of excellence provide support and safety not only from violence and abuse but from racism, immigration control and other forms of oppression which remain structural and systemic in society.
However, as has been mentioned, those services face systemic inequalities in the current funding landscape. Competitive tendering is now commonplace for accessing local authority funds for refugee services. I know that it has been referred to but it is worth mentioning again that these competitive processes are toxic for specialist refugee services, as they favour large organisations over small. Specialist women’s services for refugees are expert in meeting survivors’ needs but are forced to compete against generic housing providers and housing
associations, which do not have the expertise to support survivors but can deliver services at a lower cost. Indeed, they might have entire bid-writing teams who can easily undercut specialist women’s services for refugee contracts.
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In particular, Imkaan has documented the long history of underfunding and political marginalisation for refugees led by these BAME groups. It reports significant discrimination and disadvantage in commissioning structures and approaches to funding because their specialism is often unrecognised, misunderstood and devalued. However, the duty provides very little direction or guidance to local authorities on how to tackle these problems, which is why these amendments are needed. They set out what a local authority must consider when assessing the need for safe accommodation, preparing a strategy and delivering funding. They will clarify that, when delivering the statutory duty, local authorities must ensure sufficient specialist support to meet the specific needs of women and children experiencing domestic abuse, including those with protected characteristics and insecure immigration status. These requirements mirror much of the existing language in the Istanbul convention. They will guide local authorities to deliver this duty more effectively and help to ensure that it works with the specialist needs of refugees and survivors.
Turning to Amendment 93, currently the Bill requires local authorities to fund domestic abuse support in relevant accommodation. However, it does not define either of these terms, as has been mentioned. Guidance supporting the Istanbul convention is clear that temporary accommodation—generally, forms of homelessness provision—is not sufficient to meet the needs of women and children escaping violence and abuse. There are serious concerns that without a clear definition of “safe accommodation”, unsafe and unsuitable forms of housing could be funded by this duty.
This is not an abstract fear: women and children escaping abuse are living in unsafe forms of emergency accommodation. Women’s Aid, for example, told me about the experience of a woman who contacted them this week after escaping domestic abuse. She is in her twenties, with a young baby, and was placed in mixed-sex accommodation where she felt unsafe and unsupported. There were people there openly using drugs. Thankfully, she found the support she needed in Women’s Aid for refugees. She said that if she had not been offered a place in the refugee centre, she would have returned home to her abuser—imagine that.
Imkaan and Women’s Aid have highlighted that, over the past year, there has also been a rapid rise in unsafe accommodation providers targeting survivors. Some of these have no experience in domestic abuse and cannot produce even the basic safeguarding and risk-assessment information. I am sure that no one in the House would wish to see public funding spent on unsafe forms of accommodation. I know that the Minister will point me to the draft statutory guidance published for the duty, which includes definitions of safe accommodation. However, I share Women’s Aid’s concern that these definitions do not align with existing definitions in the specialist support sector. More
worryingly, they do not even recognise that refugee services are women-only services that have to be provided in a confidential location.
These definitions must be tightened in the Bill and must include refugee services. Separate or single-sex services must be provided, with a confidential address. As I have said, a refugee service is far more than a roof: it is specialist support offering physical and emotional safety—an empowerment for women and children that makes it utterly unique. However, the Bill defines domestic abuse support as:
“support, in relation to domestic abuse, provided to victims of domestic abuse, or their children”.
Again, I am sure the Minister will refer to the guidance but this draft does not define specialist support services and therefore could result in a wide range of organisations with, as I have said, no experience in supporting survivors being commissioned by the local authority.
It is positive to see that local authorities will be required to commission support that meets MHCLG’s quality standards, the Women’s Aid national quality standards or Imkaan’s accredited quality standards, but the MHCLG standards do not make any requirements about the types of organisation which should be funded. This is in contrast to the Istanbul convention, which makes it clear that specialist support is best ensured by women’s organisations which have experienced staff with in-depth knowledge of violence against women. Will the Minister commit to working with Imkaan and Women’s Aid to update these standards to ensure that they require organisations to have specialist expertise? I also respectfully submit that the guidance alone will not be enough. The Government already have a National Statement of Expectations and commissioning guidance, which make it clear that local authorities should fund specialist services. Sadly, this does not stop local authorities and other commissioners funding generic services at the expense of specialists. The Bill is an opportunity to change that, and I urge the Minister to accept that, along with the more robust definitions that are needed.
On Amendment 102, the Bill will require local authorities to establish local partnership boards to oversee how they are delivering the statutory duty. While in some areas, strong multiagency partnership arrangements between specialist women’s services, commissioners and other partners are well established, this is far from universally the case. Again, Imkaan and Women’s Aid have highlighted some extremely poor practices in partnership working, including the exclusion of specialist services, particularly those led by and for black, Asian and minority ethic women. I am sure that this House will agree that the expertise and knowledge of these groups is essential for meeting survivors’ needs. These amendments would guarantee that they have a place on the partnership board and that these voices can be heard, so that partnership works effectively to meet the needs of survivors.
Amendments 106, 107 and 108, on national oversight, propose absolutely vital changes to the statutory duty. As noble Lords will know, the Bill will place significant responsibility on local authorities to make the arrangements for refuge provision, but refuges are a national network of services which by necessity support survivors from outside their local area, as the
Minister said. Women escaping to a refuge are often fleeing from their local area in order to be safe from the perpetrator. Women’s Aid makes it clear that two-thirds —68.4%—of women resident in refuges are from a different local authority. Can the Minister please explain how requiring local authorities to do a local needs assessment for safe accommodation will work when the majority of the survivors who need it will not be from the area? I am particularly worried about how a purely local duty will work to sustain services led for communities discriminated against because of their protective characteristics, including black, Asian and minority ethnic women, disabled women and LGBT women. These services face challenges in fully localised funding systems and are often run across different local authorities that meet the needs of survivors across geographical areas. The need for these services may therefore not be identified in local needs assessments at all, but they are a vital national resource.
I refer the Minister to a joint report by the Work and Pensions Committee and the Communities and Local Government Committee in 2017, which concluded:
“It is essential that refuges are able to operate as a national network, unrestrained by admission restrictions imposed by individual local authorities and with appropriate coverage across the country.”
The national network of services simply cannot be assessed, planned, commissioned or funded on the basis of local need alone. I recognise that the Government have committed to establishing a ministerial lead and a national steering group to monitor and evaluate delivery of the duty, and this is made clear in the guidance. These important amendments would establish a national oversight group in the Bill and set out key responsibilities. This would include delivering national needs and assessments for services, including the review of provision for victims with protected characteristics, and would require the Government to deliver adequate funding so that the need is met.
Finally, we come to the funding, which has been mentioned before, but we should go over it again. The Government have committed £125 million to support the duty in 2021-22. Women’s Aid estimates that £393 million annually is required, including £173 million for a national network of refuges. Dedicated funding, or specialist refuges led by black, Asian and ethnic-minority women, is essential. As my noble friend mentioned, we estimate that £57 million is needed for those groups.
At Second Reading, the Government stated that the Women’s Aid estimate includes the cost of all services, including those covered by existing funding. Can the Government clarify that they have estimated the cost of providing unmet need for support in safe accommodation? What guarantees can the Minister give us that, once the funding for the statutory duty is delivered, local authorities will be able to continue funding refuges from their core funding, given the enormous budget constraints they already have?
I think we can agree that funding for the duty must be met; it must meet its forecast. I hope the Minister will consider the important concerns that Imkaan and Women’s Aid have raised about this duty and the challenges involved. This is an important opportunity to ensure that no survivor is turned away from the specialist refuge services they need. Changes are clearly needed to ensure that happens.