Gaps in services
One in three local authorities has
no women's refuge. [Coy, M., Kelly, L., Foord, J., (2007) Map of
Gaps: The Postcode Lottery of Violence Against Women Support
Services. End Violence Against women campaign]
Most women in the UK do not have
access to a Rape Crisis Centre. [Map of Gaps 2005, 2006 2007]
There are now only half the number
of rape crisis centres that there were in 1984 and, without more
funding, more closures are likely. [Women's Resource Centre (2007)
The Crisis in Rape Crisis]
Over 50% of ethnic specific
violence against women projects have closed in the last five years.
['A Right to exist?' Imkaan 2006]
In London the average stay for a
woman in a refuge was 173 days in 2006/2007, which rose to 217 days
in specialist refuges for BME women. [Women's Resource Centre
(2007) Funding of London Women's Refuges: Report for London
Councils]
The violence against women charity
sector is fragmented and under-funded. The sector is mainly
comprised of many small charities and only a handful of 'large'
charities. The combined income of the largest 200 charities
tackling violence against women was £97m in 2007, compared to the
income of a single children's charity, Barnardo's, of £157m. [Hard
Knock Life, New Philanthropy Capital 2007]
Domestic violence alone costs
society £20bn a year. Yet three of the most prominent charities
helping to tackle domestic violence, Refuge, Women's Aid Federation
of England and Eaves Housing for Women, have a combined income of
just £17m. In contrast, the Donkey Sanctuary's income for 2006 was
£20m, with a further £30m in reserves. [Hard Knock Life, New
Philanthropy Capital 2007]
Most charities are small; a
combined £79m income for just the domestic violence charities is
spread across 117 charities, so the average income is just under
£700,000. The average income for sexual violence charities is
smaller still, at less than £140,000. [Hard Knock Life, New
Philanthropy Capital 2007]
Despite making up 7% of all
registered charities, women's organisations only receive 1.2% of
central Government funding to the voluntary and community sector.
['Why women-only?: The value and benefits of by women,
for women services' Women's Resource Centre 2008]
The third Law Society Gazette Legal
Aid Survey, undertaken in 2004, found that 74% of solicitors' firms
offering legal aid had turned away clients in the last year, with
the percentage rising to 86% in London. Almost 75% said they did
not expect to be doing the same amount of legal aid work in five
years time. [Survey available on the website of The Legal Aid
Practitioners Group at www.lapg.org.uk]
Family law provision is in
particularly dire straits - of the 20% of respondents to the survey
who had dropped an area of work, 19% had ceased doing family cases.
Overall, 91% of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the
system, with 88% feeling more pessimistic than they did last year.
[Survey available on the website of The Legal Aid Practitioners
Group at www.lapg.org.uk]
An estimated 500 women every year
experience violence from a partner and cannot access Housing
Benefit and other support, including places in refuges, because
they are subject to immigration control. [Southall Black Sisters
(2004), Domestic violence, immigration and no recourse to public
funds: A briefing to amend the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims
Bill, Southall Black Sisters: London]
