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| The latest costly frivolity to be wound down? Domestic violence services The latest costly frivolity to be wound down? Domestic violence services | |
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| “We’re simply focusing on how to survive.” Those are the words of a domestic abuse worker in Nottingham – but the survival Chloe Cheeseman is describing refers to that of an organisation built to help women and girls in danger, rather than the women and girls themselves – an indictment of what’s happening to domestic violence services in this country | “We’re simply focusing on how to survive.” Those are the words of a domestic abuse worker in Nottingham – but the survival Chloe Cheeseman is describing refers to that of an organisation built to help women and girls in danger, rather than the women and girls themselves – an indictment of what’s happening to domestic violence services in this country |
| Equation, the charity Cheeseman works for, offers the sort of services any of us would want in our community: training frontline workers – police, midwives, social workers – about domestic violence; supporting men’s services to help male survivors of abuse; and going into local schools to teach young people about healthy relationships to tackle abuse before it starts. | Equation, the charity Cheeseman works for, offers the sort of services any of us would want in our community: training frontline workers – police, midwives, social workers – about domestic violence; supporting men’s services to help male survivors of abuse; and going into local schools to teach young people about healthy relationships to tackle abuse before it starts. |
| For over two decades, it’s been funding from the city and county councils that’s made this work possible. But as of this financial year Equation has had its funding reduced by 20%. That translates to a cut of over £50,000 over the past year. The latest local authority contracts, Cheeseman tells me, don’t even fully cover overheads as basic as rent, heating, and phone bills. | For over two decades, it’s been funding from the city and county councils that’s made this work possible. But as of this financial year Equation has had its funding reduced by 20%. That translates to a cut of over £50,000 over the past year. The latest local authority contracts, Cheeseman tells me, don’t even fully cover overheads as basic as rent, heating, and phone bills. |
| More than 60 schools in the city are currently relying on Equation to deliver projects for pupils. (Sex and relationships education is still not a part of the national curriculum – despite the fact it is young women aged from 16 to 24 who are most at risk of domestic violence). “We’ve built relationships with these schools for 14 years,” Cheeseman says. “Now we’re in a situation where we either ask the schools for more money, or fundraise ... Or we have to cut it.” | More than 60 schools in the city are currently relying on Equation to deliver projects for pupils. (Sex and relationships education is still not a part of the national curriculum – despite the fact it is young women aged from 16 to 24 who are most at risk of domestic violence). “We’ve built relationships with these schools for 14 years,” Cheeseman says. “Now we’re in a situation where we either ask the schools for more money, or fundraise ... Or we have to cut it.” |
| It would be convenient for Theresa May and colleagues, keen to distance themselves from austerity cuts, for this to look like an isolated case, a council shirking its responsibilities. In truth, Nottingham’s budget cuts are the result of a government ideologically set on squeezing local authorities over key services, and it is happening up and down the country. | It would be convenient for Theresa May and colleagues, keen to distance themselves from austerity cuts, for this to look like an isolated case, a council shirking its responsibilities. In truth, Nottingham’s budget cuts are the result of a government ideologically set on squeezing local authorities over key services, and it is happening up and down the country. |
| This gets grimmer still when you consider that money the government’s set aside to help local councils is largely finding its way to wealthy, Tory-run areas, such as Surrey, Hampshire and Oxfordshire. Nottingham, like Liverpool, Manchester and others, sits on the list of councils that have received nothing. | This gets grimmer still when you consider that money the government’s set aside to help local councils is largely finding its way to wealthy, Tory-run areas, such as Surrey, Hampshire and Oxfordshire. Nottingham, like Liverpool, Manchester and others, sits on the list of councils that have received nothing. |
| “Nottingham city council has tried so, so hard because they recognise how important this is,” Cheeseman says. “But the reality is, the pot is shrinking. There’s ever decreasing pots of money available.” | “Nottingham city council has tried so, so hard because they recognise how important this is,” Cheeseman says. “But the reality is, the pot is shrinking. There’s ever decreasing pots of money available.” |
| In this climate Equation has been left – in Cheeseman’s words – to “plug the gap” of the cuts. Where it could once dedicate its time to tackling domestic violence in the city, the charity has been forced to fundraise for the money it needs to pay for it: anything from marathons, cake-baking, or bathtubs of beans. Cheeseman joined Equation as a fundraiser in 2012 – the organisation’s first one. “There was no need before then,” she says. “Now we’ve had to recruit two.” | In this climate Equation has been left – in Cheeseman’s words – to “plug the gap” of the cuts. Where it could once dedicate its time to tackling domestic violence in the city, the charity has been forced to fundraise for the money it needs to pay for it: anything from marathons, cake-baking, or bathtubs of beans. Cheeseman joined Equation as a fundraiser in 2012 – the organisation’s first one. “There was no need before then,” she says. “Now we’ve had to recruit two.” |
| Last year, in a bid to find more income, the charity had to make customers pay for its training services, rather than providing them for free. It is now approaching private companies to make Equation their “charity of the month”, but it’s an uphill battle: cancer and animal charities are “an easier choice” for companies in a society that still routinely hides domestic violence. | Last year, in a bid to find more income, the charity had to make customers pay for its training services, rather than providing them for free. It is now approaching private companies to make Equation their “charity of the month”, but it’s an uphill battle: cancer and animal charities are “an easier choice” for companies in a society that still routinely hides domestic violence. |
| Nottingham as a city was recently praised for its efforts to tackle gender-based harassment, with its police force becoming the first in the country to make misogyny a hate crime. Cheeseman herself was one of the first women to report such an incident to the police this summer when three men yelled sexually aggressive comments at her as she walked through a secluded wooded area in the city. She was on her way to work at the time. | Nottingham as a city was recently praised for its efforts to tackle gender-based harassment, with its police force becoming the first in the country to make misogyny a hate crime. Cheeseman herself was one of the first women to report such an incident to the police this summer when three men yelled sexually aggressive comments at her as she walked through a secluded wooded area in the city. She was on her way to work at the time. |
| There’s an irony that, as the city works to police abuse, violence and harassment, the choices of central government mean a service that’s tackling the problem is having its funding squeezed. | There’s an irony that, as the city works to police abuse, violence and harassment, the choices of central government mean a service that’s tackling the problem is having its funding squeezed. |
| As with the closure of women’s refuges around the country, this isn’t just shortsighted or even dangerous. It sends a message that domestic violence services – much like children’s centres and social care for disabled people and the elderly – are now a frivolity that the state feels free to discard. | As with the closure of women’s refuges around the country, this isn’t just shortsighted or even dangerous. It sends a message that domestic violence services – much like children’s centres and social care for disabled people and the elderly – are now a frivolity that the state feels free to discard. |