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#BringOurRefugeHome: A Service User Response

J Stein

#BringOurRefugeHome #RiseUp #StopStonewaterSteal #CancelContracts 

By Ali Ceesay, Rise Up! Campaigner & service user

Women gathered this week on Brighton beach to display a 25,000 strong petition The petition, more than 30 metres long, represented a powerful and astonishing action led by three Brighton women, two of them service users. Attended by two MP’s, a TV crew and local reporters, the fast response to this call to action goes some way to illustrate the groundswell of support for this campaign.

So what happened and how did we get here?

On Friday 13th of Feb Brighton & Hove City Council announced that Brighton’s domestic abuse charity RISE had lost their contract to run Brighton’s DV refuges and casework across the city.  More bad news followed when it was announced a few days later that the contracts had been awarded to National, non-specialist providers who, despite Tier Four lockdown, would be taking over in only 6 weeks. 

This news has placed the Council, RISE and women of Brighton into crisis,  a spectacular failure with untold and deeply worrying consequences. 

Awarding essential specialist VAWG services to the lowest bidder is part of a wider national trend. Large organisations with ‘procurement departments’  identify and pursue specialist contracts worth millions of pounds. Using the theory of ‘economies of scale’  they can underbid current providers. This trend is described as  ‘mission drift’. A process where generic housing associations make an inauthentic change of service focus in order to chase funding pots. This creates an untenable and hostile environment for smaller localised specialist providers and can only be described as a disaster for women who rely on expert providers to support them through the complexities of abuse and domestic violence. Only last week a similar provider in Glasgow lost their contract in an almost identical situation.

Service users in the city are in shock and are fighting back with their campaign Rise UP #BringOurRefugeHome

‘I just couldn’t believe it when I heard. I went cold.  My whole body was cold. I was so distraught. I picked up the phone straight away and spent hours on the phone to my friends, some that use RISE. We cried together and we raged together, we comforted each other. It seemed unbelievable to us that RISE, a charity that is loved by such a large,  but often silenced population of our city, that has delivered so many award-winning services would be defunded by our Council. That during COVID, and during a lockdown the Council would be redesigning the refuge service and handing the contract to a lower bidder with little experience. Our services are stretched enough. The council is taking away the organisation that knows us, that knows me, who I have built a relationship with. I just can’t understand why the Council would treat survivors like this. I’m not exaggerating at all  to say that I went into shock….

….I just couldn't stand by and do nothing, it was  RISE that helped me find my voice again, they saved my life and I had to DO something.’ - Nicola Benge Rise Up! Campaigner and service user

Within hours of those phone calls Nicola Benge started a petition (now at 27,000 names).  And from those emotional phone calls  three women united together in action. Working in unison Nicola Benge, Brighton feminist and co founder of Brighton Pride, Dani Ahrens, and service user Ali Ceesay launched Brighton Rise UP! , their campaign website where they launched an email campaign, a tweet campaign, the Hands Up for RISE campaign, gathered & hosted testimonials and over a period of weeks met continually with councillors across the city. 

The campaign has grown, with women from all walks of life contacting us daily and joining our service user campaign group. We have been mentioned in the house of Lords, with coverage in the national press such as The Times, The Telegraph and The Sun.

‘We have to be clear with the council. RISE is the organisation that service users want. 

Discovering how the new contract was arrived at is only part of our task. 

We are being very clear with the council that we want the contracts paused, the procurement evaluated, and a fresh procurement process to begin. Although Brighton Council is currently resistant to this we have every hope that we can persuade them that women are not acceptable collateral in the Council’s failure to procure appropriate, women-centered services’. - Ali Ceesay Rise Up! Campaigner and service user

So can they #CancelTheContracts? We think so. Failures in the procurement process are not uncommon. Read here to see how Next Link in Bristol won back the contract for domestic abuse services.

The loss of this seven-year contract worth 5 million leaves a worrying hole in RISE’s finances. They are now left without office premises when their contract ends in the coming weeks. 

As for the new refuge contractor, their presence as provider not only represents a regressive fragmentation of previously fully integrated services, but a worrying downgrade in terms of quality.  We have asked Brighton & Hove Councillors to ‘Spot The Difference’ between Rise and Stonewater.

“They are not a specialised service, have a 20% pay gap, refer to service users as 'customers' and are not Women's Aid accredited. Women endure, on average, 35 attacks before they seek help. When they seek help they often increase the risk they and their children face. Trust is the key here, women must be able to trust those that they have to run to. There are women in this city that would have sought help last month who now will not.” - Anon service user

‘They can’t even pay women correctly, and they want us to trust them with our services?’ -  Nicola Benge

The elephant in the room: Single-sex exceptions

Where it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

Equality Act 2010 C1 , Schedule 9, Part 1

RISE (Refuge, Information, Support and Education) grew out of the very first refuges in Brighton. Run by women, they recognise the gendered nature of sexual abuse and domestic violence, in that the vast majority of perpetrators are male, the vast majority of victims are female. The statistics are even more exaggerated when looking at the most serious and fatal incidents. That isn’t to say that this is the whole picture, and RISE has responded to the need and developed award-winning LGBT services.

Yet according to a statement by Brighton and Hove City Council on why RISE didn’t win the contracts:

Equalities impact assessments (EIAs) identified the need for a broader focus on inclusive service provision that caters for the needs of people with all the protected characteristics. These highlighted the need for more support for both heterosexual and gay male survivors as well as the specific barriers to service experienced by the trans community.” 

The RISE response can be read here.

So there we have it, despite an award-winning LGBT service and specialist VAWG services women are now left with a unisex refuge and a loss of specialism. 

“I note the Council’s comment that they wanted a service that “caters for all the protected characteristics”.  Councillors and council officers should remember that Sex is a protected characteristic under the law and that the law continues to permit women-only services, where required. The Council, having made its decision, has an absolute obligation to provide effectively and safely for the many thousands of women and children who require safety and who are not at liberty to lobby council personnel. Institutional sexism, incompetence and the demands of sharp elbowed pressure groups should not be permitted to place women and children at risk.” 

Jean Calder co-founder of Women’s Refuge Project, later to become RISE

RISE is the third refuge to have lost their contract to Stonewater UK. Although the specifics of these procurements are unclear it is worth noting that at their South Asian Refuge Stonewater does not use single-sex exceptions when it comes to hiring staff. They employ a male ’mental health worker’ at the Refuge in what can only be described as a staggering departure from best practice. Why, when women state over and over again that they want women-only refuges and therapeutic services, are they not listened to? Karen Ingala-Smith, CEO of Nia makes the case as part of her expert witness statement to The Women’s Equality Party. 

‘...if Brighton Council actually understood its legal duty to take steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people, then they would have made sure they asked for a refuge service that understands the gendered nature of domestic abuse, so that women who have had their spirits crushed by male violence and patriarchal domination in their relationships can be helped to find their power again in a space designed specifically for them. But none of these things actually happened and so I conclude that our elected councillors either don't care about abused women, don't mean what they say, don't have the power to put their policies into effect, or don't understand the law. Or all four. If any party wants women's votes in the forthcoming by-elections, they had better quickly find a way to earn back our trust ‘.

Dani Ahrens Rise Up Activist & Rebel Yarns



Please support the Rise Up Campaign

  • Watch service users hold Brighton Council to account at the next TECC council meeting 11th March 4pm. The meeting can be viewed live or after the event here.

Please be assured RISE will **not** cease to exist after the 1st April! We lost funding for our refuge and casework (which will be delivered by other providers), but our vital prevention and recovery work will continue!  Latest statement here.

Our bid carefully detailed how we will support all protected characteristics, with dedicated and specialist services. We began as a service for women and children 26 years ago, then 14 years ago, in close partnership with local community organisations, initiated what became one of the country's first dedicated LGBTQ+ domestic abuse casework services. Four years ago, we co-piloted an innovative LGBTQ+ refuge. Both projects are still working effectively to safeguard LGBTQ+ people in Brighton and Hove today.

We have built trusted connections between our specialist Black and Minoritised workers and local community organisations and have specialist staff dedicated to outreach work for disabled people and older victims of domestic abuse. Our health advocate contributed to national research on older people and domestic abuse, and our child to adult violence programme has been featured at a national level.