funded by london councils 4 th iars annual conference 2015 ‘community-led solutions to gender...
TRANSCRIPT
Funded by London Councils
4th IARS Annual Conference 2015 ‘Community-led Solutions to Gender Inequality, Victimisation and Offending’:
‘The London VAWG Consortium – a partnership approach to the successful delivery of Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) services’
Solace Women’s Aid – one of the largest specialist providers of Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) services in London
Solace delivers a range of services across London including North London Rape Crisis; refuge provision, including one for women with complex needs; community advice and advocacy services; children and family services and Pan-London advice and counselling
Part of the London VAWG Consortium of 22 specialist orgs.
Solace leads the Ascent Advice and Counselling strand which provides services to women and girls across London.
Solace Women’s Aid
Provides advice & intensive case work for Middle Eastern women and girls including Iranian, Kurdish, Turkish, Arab and Afghan, at risks of ‘Honour’ Based Violence, Forced & Child Marriage, Female Genital Mutilation and Domestic Violence
Provides counselling in Farsi/Dari, Kurdish, Arabic and English
Provides training for professionals, schools, educational establishments such as Institute of Education, and for Middle Eastern communities to raise awareness of the above issues
Campaigns to change laws and policies for women’s rights & equality
Runs a specialist BME refuge for women and girls feeing from ‘Honour’ Based Violence, Forced Marriage and Domestic Violence.
European level work to share experience and learning with BME specialist organisations in Europe trying to influence policies in EU.
Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO)
Women-only services are:
Lawful and not discriminatory
Much needed and wanted by women and girls
Effective-value for money; social impact; helps reduce re-victimisation - According to the Home Office the minimum cost to the State of VAWG is £37.6 billion per year.
Recognised (including internationally) as a key mechanism to achieve women’s equality. (Women’s Resource Centre 2015)
Why Women?
It’s about
Safety and choice Recognising the gendered nature of VAWG
Recognising and evidencing the effectiveness of women-only services, led by and for.
Understanding the value of the expertise women-only services can bring providing services women trust.
Why Women?
Recovery is rarely linear and every woman’s journey is different (Ascent A&C Social Impact Analysis Nov. 2015)
Women described their experiences ofAscent A&C as continuous journeys, rather than astring of different, disjointed services.
It is important to offer a range of services, including specialist advice, counselling, advocacy and support.
- Many DV/SV services have a strong focus on safety/ risk reduction/ criminal justice and many short-term.
Why Holistic Services?
•Mainstream services significantly reduce the likelihood of accessing and effectively engaging BME women using their services
• BME women have intersectional needs – multiple issues such as ‘honour’ based violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, no recourse to public funds as well as domestic violence
• Specialist BME women services provide culturally sensitive service in community languages by specialist advisers who fully understand the full impact of particular experiences of violence, family community dynamics, experiences of racism and discrimination
Why specialist BME Women’s Organisations ?
•Focus on ‘local women’ and ‘one service for all’
•Cut backs across all sectors, most severely impacting BME specialist services
•BME services having to compete with generic services
•Lack of recognition of specialist services – multiple needs of BME women, long term support
Challenges that BME specialist women’s organisations face in the current Policy Landscape
• Partnership brings together a number of specialist VAWG organisations
• Partners have specialist expertise and experience in delivering services around harmful practices as well as domestic/sexual violence
• Partners offer services in 15 languages among themselves
• Some partners have been running Independent Domestic Violence (IDVA) service for a number of years
• Most partners run complementary services such as counselling, ESOL language provision, support groups and outreach services that will add value and work as match funding to this bid
• Partners are well connected in several boroughs of London
Partnership for Ending Harmful PracticesPartnership for Ending Harmful Practices
• Provide targeted, language-specific face-to-face intensive case work to women and girls who have experienced and or who are at risk of being exposed to harmful practices
• Provide specialist advocacy, advice and training to frontline professionals such as the police, social workers, midwives, health visitors, teachers to help them identify harmful practice cases and support them to provide appropriate case work to women and girls who have been and/or at risk of harmful practices
• Design and deliver targeted, tailor made specialist training in harmful practices to a range of professionals
• Attend regular local Harmful Practices Steering Groups to share learning acquired through project delivery and advise policy and practice improvements suggested by the partnership
Project ObjectivesProject Objectives
Training
• Multi agency training
- 20 half day training (8 in East London and 12 Trio-borough)
- 15 professionals in each training – 300 professionals in total
• Agency specific training
- midwives & maternity service staff
- health visitors
-social workers with responsibility for child protection
-3 agency specific trainings per pilot area
-2 days of agency specific training, up to 5 ½ days of follow up
-15 trainee advocates indented by end of the training
Project ActivitiesProject Activities
- Established in 2012 in response to changes in the commissioning climate to protect specialist services and develop a stronger VAWG ‘voice’ across London
- 22 organisations with predominant VAWG focus
- Led by and for Women and BME specialists
- Feminist ethos, shared principles and values
- Expertise and track record in all forms of VAWG including Harmful Practices
How London VAWG Consortium was formed.
The London VAWG Consortium is made up of 22 specialist organisations working in partnership to deliver comprehensive, cost effective, high quality services to all communities across London. This innovative partnership strengthens referral pathways between organisations and identifies trends and emerging need.
What is the London VAWG Consortium?
- Agreeing criteria for membership and deciding who was in - Getting round the table to develop a shared vision and ethos- Resolving differences and embracing them- Learning to trust one another - The size of London and the Partnership- Enabling an equal voice - Balancing needs and requirements- Maintaining a ‘User-focus’- Developing a vision
Some challenges in setting up and delivering!
- Over time built trust and got to know one another- Mobilising to respond to the London Councils bid- Constant dialogue! - Very resource intensive but worth the investment- Establishing a Delivery Model for Ascent - Successfully submitting and winning the bid for LCs
funding- Losing some partners along the way and gaining others!- Moving from set-up phase to delivery and beyond. - It’s a journey!!!
Overcoming the challenges
Ascent is a project undertaken by the London Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Consortium, delivering a range of services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, under six themes, funded by London Councils. Ascent improves service provision for those affected by sexual and domestic violence in London through front-line services as well as support to voluntary and statutory organisations.
What is the Ascent Project?
A holistic delivery model including:
-Prevention
- Advice, counselling, outreach, drop-in and support for access to services
- Domestic and sexual violence helplines
- Specialist refuge
- Ending harmful practices
- Support services to organisations – 2nd tier support
The six themes of Ascent
The Ascent Advice and Counselling Partnership
-Funded by London Councils
•Advice and counselling services to women and girls affected by all forms of violence across all of London (age 14+), legal advice and training and small fund to support NRPFs women.
•Delivered via a Hub and spoke model - via 2 London Hubs; 1 in Ealing operated by the WGN 1 in Islington operated by Solace, as well as from spokes across London boroughs.
•Pan-London, designed to plug gaps and increase access to specialist services, to compliment local provision.
The Ascent Advice and Counselling Partnership
Ascent Advice & Counselling Dec 2015
Ascent Advice and Counselling Impact Analysis
-Trust for London funded a Social Impact Analysis of the Ascent advice and counselling services - Provided a great opportunity to measure impact and value of the services alongside delivery
-Using Social Return on Investment (SROI) methodology
-Utilising data collected for London Councils along with qualitative data from interviews/surveys with stakeholders
-Evolving a Value Map; working with stakeholders to value the interventions and analyse the impact of our services with credible methodology
Ascent Advice & Counselling Social Impact Analysis Nov. 2015
Ascent Advice & Counselling Dec 2015
Service users identified three main outcomes from the services they received.
These were: • Increased autonomy, independence and capability
• Improved mental health and self-care
• Better parenting and relationship with children
Service users also cited the importance of seamless services from women who they could trust and who understood!
Volunteers identified two main outcomes from their volunteering experience.
These were: • Increased work skills leading to improved career prospects
• More fulfilled – many talking of life-changing experiences
Approximately 13,000 volunteers worked in a variety of roles in Ascent A&C and went on to secure paid work within the field.
Ascent A&C partners identified one main outcome from their inclusion in the Partnership. This was:
• A platform for more joint working and future partnership working:
- building trust - improving quality and expertise, enhancing services - developing shared principles and passion - building capacity and sustainability of specialist services
BME Partner Organisations identified one main outcome from the Partnership.
This was:
• Specialist BME organisations are better able topreserve services under commissioning
BME partners identified that the Partnership enabled them to continue to provide culturally specific domestic and sexual violence services to their own populations.
External stakeholders working with Ascent A&C identified one main outcome from the services they received.
This was: • Reduced pressure on other services
-Easing the pressure on their own services of dealing with women who have experienced domestic and sexual abuse -Sharing space/ resources in return for expertise/ services.
Borough commissioners identified one main outcome from the services they received.
This was: • Improved response to service users adding value to locally commissioned services
-Improved access for service users via Hub and Spoke
-Additional specialist services locally, including therapeutic
-Helping communication and info sharing at a local level.
Ascent Advice & Counselling Dec 2015
Findings and recommendations .
Service Model -Pan-London delivery of Ascent A&C is highly effective.
-A partnership approach enables high quality, consistent standard of delivery, enhancing services to women and girls.
-Services led by and for specialist ‘women and BME-led’ organisations enhance access and quality of services. -A ‘needs-led’ approach enables support to be tailored to each service user needs. Recovery is not always a linear process!
Ascent Advice & Counselling Dec 2015
Findings and recommendations .
Data collection and monitoring
-Data collection to show the number of women who are parents and the outcomes for them and their children.
-Further research on the impact of Ascent A&C on children of SUs.
-Streamlining of data collection methods – need to focus on outcomes for SUs
Findings and recommendations .
Service Delivery
-Ensure that routes into Ascent A&C are as clear and simple as possible for all service users and that these are well advertised.
-Collect and share good practice widely to encourage shared learning and foster continuous improvement.
-Strategic integration of Pan-London services such as Ascent A&C to maximise effectiveness at a local level would be beneficial.
In conclusion… - All 22 members have worked hard to make the Consortium a success!-All 14 Ascent A&C partners have worked in partnership to embed services-We’ve faced a variety of challenges in setting up and delivering across all 33 areas of London, but have persevered! -The delivery model has worked well and we met all monitoring targets-The Impact Analysis has enabled us develop a robust tool to measure the value and impact to recipients which is invaluable. -The Analysis evidences that we have improved the quality and access to services for some of the most marginalised women and girls in London. -The Analysis also shows the value for money of the services -i.e. £6 value for every £1 spent and nearly £27m of Social Value.
Ascent available in every borough-open to any woman (14+) affected by DV/SV.
Solace HubEast London
Free phone:0808 802 5565
[email protected] Advice Line open
Mon-Fri 10am-4pm Tues 6pm-8pm
Women and Girls Network
HubWest London
Free phone:0808 801 0660
[email protected] Advice Line open
Mon-Fri 10am-4pm Wed 6pm-8pm
Iranian &Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO)www.ikwro.org.uk
[email protected]: 0207 9206 460
Solace Women’s Aid – www.solacewomensaid.orgGill Herd – [email protected]
Tel. 0207 619 1354
Contact detailsContact details