Campaigners are demanding the reversal of a controversial North Lanarkshire Council decision to remove annual funding of £352,000 from the area’s Women’s Aid organisations.
A recently-tendered contract for specialist domestic abuse services, lasting up to four years and worth £1.4 million, was instead awarded to new provider Sacro at a meeting of the authority’s education and families committee last week.
New campaign group Support North Lanarkshire Women’s Aid called the decision “shocking and shameful” and want it reversed, while Scottish Women’s Aid are considering legal action and say: “We are appalled at the callous steps ... that have pulled the rug out from under the feet of long-established, trusted services.”
Monklands Women’s Aid say they are “devastated at the council’s decision to remove funding from proven specialist women’s aid services”, but insist: “We will survive because of separate funding and will continue to offer women’s, children and young person’s services, as well as refuge provision.”
Nearly 2500 people have signed an online petition asking that the council decision be reconsidered, while almost £5000 has so far been pledged to a crowdfunding webpage set up by Monklands Women’s Aid, aiming to collect up to £100,000.
Airdrie parliamentarians Neil Gray MP and Alex Neil MSP have also expressed “extreme disappointment” that the Women’s Aid groups did not win the contract, calling it “a backward step in dealing with the issues of domestic abuse and violence”.
The number of domestic abuse incidents recorded by Police Scotland across North Lanarkshire rose by 12.5 per cent between April and September last year compared to the same period in 2019; with Scottish Women’s Aid saying the 2681 incidents in those six months were “the tip of the iceberg”.
North Lanarkshire will be the only local authority in Scotland not to commission domestic abuse services from Women’s Aid in its area once the new contract begins in June.
Councillors say they are unable to “influence or interfere” with the tender outcome but that they want to ensure the local experts are “integrated into the new approach to service provision”.
Support North Lanarkshire Women’s Aid was launched by Margaret Lynch, a founder member of Monklands Women’s Aid, who said: “To remove all local authority funding is shocking and shameful.
“Monklands Women’s Aid has been providing refuge and support for women victims of domestic violence and abuse for 38 years; almost every woman in North Lanarkshire will know another woman who has needed their services over the years. We’re asking all women to write to councillors to urge them to reverse this.”
Group organiser Margaret Ann Pearson added: “This decision means the ability of Women’s Aid to provide counselling, refuge and support will be seriously compromised – and women and children will suffer as a result.
“Monklands Women’s Aid will still be the first port of call for women victims of domestic violence, because that is the organisation local women know and trust.”
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The campaign group has contacted all of the area’s elected representatives, and have requested an urgent meeting with council leader Jim Logue on the “inexplicable decision”, writing: “For very vulnerable and frightened women to seek help – even to take that first step – requires that they trust the service. Women’s Aid is a trusted service.”
Dr Marsha Scott, the chief executive of Scottish Women’s Aid, criticised the council’s “unnecessary and competitive tendering process” – and says that as well as being in contact with elected representatives, “we are also carefully considering the legal options available, given the severity of the situation and the direct risk to the rights and protections of women and children experiencing domestic abuse”.
She said it took place “while Women’s Aid services were busy responding to Covid-19 to continue providing their vital support”, continuing: “Women in Scotland have felt a disproportionate impact of [the pandemic], whether in unpaid care work, homeschooling, job losses or homelessness – all those impacts are compounded for women and children living with domestic abuse.
“It is incomprehensible that North Lanarkshire Council have taken the decisions they have, in the full knowledge that this will further disadvantage those women and children by disrupting their access to specialist support.”
She called the council’s decision “a sad reflection of their complete lack of understanding of the complex nature of domestic abuse, and an upsetting dismissal of decades of work by grassroots local services who are trusted and respected within their communities”.
The application process for the new contract followed an independent review of domestic abuse support which “identified gaps in service provision”.
A spokesperson for North Lanarkshire Council said: “Approval was given to carry out a commercial tendering exercise to procure a specialist domestic abuse service that ensured compliance with statutory and legal obligations.
“That was concluded adhering to the normal procurement process and regulations, and Sacro was the successful bidder.
“It is simply untrue for Women’s Aid to suggest that the council has anything other than the welfare of people who require support in mind.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, the council has not withdrawn any grant from Women’s Aid – a tender was issued and Women’s Aid chose to bid on a commercial basis [but] were not successful in their bid for the contract.
“We will continue to work with local Women’s Aid groups for other services such as refuge provision.”
Scotland’s domestic abuse and forced marriage helpline is available 24/7 on 0800 027 1234.
