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Imkaan Training

Challenging Public Bodies - Public Law and Gender Equality Duty Training Workshop held 1st August 2008.

Free Training workshop held in Birmingham
Louise Whitfield, project solicitor at the Public Law Project has provided legal advice and support to Southall Black Sisters and Saheli in Manchester. Both these services have been involved in successfully challenging local authority decisions that negatively impacted them. Louise will be bringing the lessons learned from these cases to this training as well as providing broader information and advice regarding how to use public law and the gender equality duty to sustain your service from the threat of merger, decommissioning or funding cuts.

This is a MUST for any group immediately under threat and extremely useful background for all groups. All projects are encouraged to send a member of staff to this training and please bring any issues from your project for discussion.

For more information or a booking form contact Imkaan on:

Phone:	020 7250 3933
Email:	finance@imkaan.org.uk
Website:	www.imkaan.org.uk

Previous Imkaan Training

There was a Training Workshop on Domestic Violence, Immigration Law and No Recourse to Public Funds Rule, held on 22nd May 2008. See below:
There was a specialist refuge training event on Surviving and Commissioning: Managing the New Funding Landscape, held on 16th May 2008. Please see attached documents for full details. See below:

The Guardian reports on the crisis in BMER VAW funding. A link to a template letter from IMKAAN is also available to send to MPs. Download the letter

Cost of violence to women estimated at £40bn a year

More people would call the police if someone was mistreating their dog than if someone was mistreating their partner; and the British public gives more to a Devon-based donkey sanctuary than the most prominent charities trying to combat violence and abuse against women, a report released earlier this month by a leading philanthropy watchdog reveals...Read more

Update from Southall Black Sisters on their funding situation

From Southall Black Sisters: Victory against Ealing Council

'There is no dichotomy between funding specialist services and cohesion; equality is necessary for cohesion to be achieved.'

Lord Justice Moses

On 18 July at the High Court, in a dramatic turn of events, Ealing Council withdrew their case after one and a half days of a hearing which saw their defence rapidly unravelling. From the outset, it became apparent to the presiding judge, Lord Justice Moses and to all those present in the courtroom including the packed public gallery, that Ealing Council was skating on really thin ice in attempting to justify its decision to cut funding to SBS and to commission instead one generic borough wide service on domestic violence on the grounds of 'equality' and 'cohesion'.

Amongst other things, Ealing Council was charged with the failure to:

Have proper regard to the race equality legislation and other equalities duties or its own policies when it made its decision to end funding to SBS. It failed to carry out a full and proper equality impact assessment and when it did, it was only to justify its decision;
Interpret correctly the race equality legislation by deciding that our very name and constitution (to meet the needs of Asian and African-Caribbean women) was in breach of the Race Relations Act because it 'excluded' white women;
Interpret correctly the cohesion agenda by assuming that it was contrary to the race equality legislation.

As the two days wore on, Ealing Council found it difficult to maintain its defence in the light of extensive evidence which showed that it had committed a series of fundamental errors and was in fact close to being regarded as having conducted the matter in 'bad faith' - a very serious allegation. The judge was disturbed by the way in which the Council had behaved and was demanding that it account for aspects of its actions which he found 'blood curdling'. The Council had misinterpreted statistics which showed that black and minority women have rates of reporting domestic violence in Ealing that are disproportionate to their size of population and a crucial letter from the author of a report on gaps in domestic violence services in Ealing was not taken into account by the Council when deciding to provide a generic service, leading her to make a formal complaint.

The Council eventually decided to withdraw its case thereby denying SBS the opportunity of having a full judgement setting out the facts of the case and the litany of failures on the part of the Council - which would have been devastating for the Council and in particular for its leader. But we were able to secure a shorter judgement (pending) - which will take the form of guidance to Ealing and hopefully to all other local authorities so that in future they comply properly with the racial and other equalities legislation. Essentially the principles that will be reiterated are:

Local authorities must have proper regard to the Race Relations Act which also means undertaking proper equality impact assessments at the formative stage of the decision making process;
Cohesion does not mean disregarding the need for equality. Local authorities cannot hide behind cohesion arguments to cut specialist service provision;
Positive action is an essential part of the duty to promote racial equality. Special services run for and by BME groups (whatever their name) are not contrary to the Race Relations Act.

Government response to the Home Affairs Select Committee Report on Domestic Violence, Forced Marriage and honour based violence

The Government's response was published 23 July 2008. See report

No recourse to public funds - update (Source: Women's Aid Newsletter)

The Home Office has unveiled plans for new funding for women with no recourse to public funds. Women with no recourse who make an application for indefinite leave to remain under the domestic violence rule - and are successful - will be able to claim back accommodation and living expenses from the date of the claim to the date the decision was made.

However this will not, however, be of use to women whose application for ILR is unsuccessful, or for women who are unable to apply for ILR e.g. students or overstayers. As yet the government has not developed the process or timetable for making this funding available.

Maps of Gaps

Map of Gaps: The Postcode Lottery of Violence Against Women Support Services (published jointly with Equality & Human Rights Commission November 2007)
Download the executive summary report

Map of Gaps (2008) shows graphically for the first time the real postcode lottery in violence against women support services such as Rape Crisis Centres and domestic violence refuges. A third of local authorities across the UK do not have specialist services for women. Only one in ten local authorities have services for ethnic minority women, leaving many without the support they deserve.

Violence against women costs £40 billion a year

Research by New Philanthropy Capital shows that violence against women costs society £40 billion each year. It says that charities offering specialist support to women are grossly under-funded and urges donors and government to support their vital work.

Gender Equality Duty action (January 2007)
Find out what you can do to make sure that police forces, schools, health trusts and other key public sector organisations address violence against women.

UN calls upon UK to set up a Commission on Violence Against Women

In April 2008 the UK was urged by the UN to set up a Commission on Violence Against Women or other strategic oversight body to ensure greater coherence and more effective protection for women. The recommendation from India was made during the Universal Periodic Review of the UK in Geneva. The Government has yet to publish its response. Click here for info about the Universal Periodic Review process and the UK's report to the UN.

The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008

This Act received Royal Assent in May. It includes a new criminal of offence of incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation, and a new offence of possession of ‘extreme pornographic images’. Read more...

If you have any VAW news, information or publications please e-mail: sbegum@nawp.org

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