mental health
Today, 55 co-signatories working across the women and girls’, criminal justice, mental health, and youth work sectors, including Barrow Cadbury Trust, are calling SOS on the crisis facing women and girls across Britain.
Agenda Alliance has written to the leaders of the four main political parties, to ask that whoever forms the next government creates a stand alone Secretary of State for Women and Girls in their Cabinet.
The letter – sent to Sir Keir Starmer (Labour), Rishi Sunak (Conservatives), Sir Ed Davey (Liberal Democrats) and Carla Denyer/Adrian Ramsey (Greens) is in full below:
“Policymakers need a kick up the butt. They need to do something, and they need to do it fast otherwise there are going to be so many more disadvantaged women; more suicides, homelessness, child removal. It needs acting on and it needs acting on fast.”
Nici, member of Agenda Alliance’s Women’s Advisory Network
“We are writing from Agenda Alliance, a coalition of over 100 member organisations working to make a difference to the lives of women and girls at the sharpest end of inequality. Our Alliance includes large national bodies and smaller, specialist organisations, working in collaboration to influence public policy and improve the response to women and girls experiencing multiple unmet needs. As the 4 July General Election approaches, we are writing to ask you to commit to a central ask to improve the lives of women and girls. We want the next government to create a dedicated Secretary of State for Women and Girls, matching the seriousness of women and girls’ needs with serious political resource.
There is a strong case for ensuring women and girls are represented at the highest levels of politics – especially women and girls experiencing multiple disadvantage. Multiple unmet needs are often interconnected, complex and gender-specific. They may include contact with the criminal justice system, poverty, using substances to cope, having no recourse to public funds and having no safe place to call home. For many women and girls these challenges are underpinned by extensive experience of abuse and violence throughout their lives. However, single issue policy responses which try and address these problems one at a time ignore the connections between them, causing these problems to escalate.
Far too often, women experiencing disadvantage and misogyny are stigmatised, labelled as just ‘victims’; ‘criminals’; ‘bad mothers’, ‘addicts’, ‘poor’ or ‘useless’. These labels stick, and they ignore the fact that women and girls experiencing multiple unmet needs are whole individuals, who are hopeful, inspiring, joyful, aspirational and caring.
Early intervention from relational, cross-cutting services which provide gender-, age-, culture- and trauma-responsive support is critical – but without senior political backing, effective, gendered prevention won’t have a lasting transformative impact. Political focus on the issues women and girls face has been diluted for too long: since the inception of these roles, ministers assigned to support women and girls have only had a position in Cabinet because they also hold other full-time government roles, such as Home Secretary; Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; or Secretary of State for Business and Trade. Responsibility for women and girls facing the greatest disadvantage shouldn’t be a bolt on to other more senior roles.
We all want society to be safer and more functional – polling tells us that the majority of Britons, whoever they vote for, think public services are in a very bad state. A Secretary of State for Women and Girls would work across Government at the most senior levels to reshape public services and embed a preventative approach. They should draw together healthcare, education, housing, violence against women and girls and justice policy to deliver lasting change which addresses how women and girls’ problems are often multiple and interconnected. Primarily, we believe that a Secretary of State for Women and Girls should:
– Centre prioritisation and prevention. A cross-cutting, Cabinet level women and girls’ representative will work across government departments to embed early intervention and hold them accountable for ensuring that all policy responds to gender, age, culture and trauma as a matter of course.
– Share their power. Women and girls with lived experience have the answers to so many persistent policy problems – but they are so rarely included. This role should hold a core focus on designing future solutions alongside women and girls with lived experience, from consultation to legislation, service delivery to service evaluation.
– Champion the sector. After decades of declining investment in vital services, women and girls need high level political advocacy to bring departments together and address the distinct issues the specialist sector supporting them faces. We need funding models which embed full-cost recovery, articulate the cost-savings of prevention, and provide ring-fenced resource for specialist and by-and-for organisations.
We are attaching to this letter detailed policy recommendations which set out our ambitions for what a senior political focus on women and girls could achieve. If we are bold enough to address gendered multiple disadvantage with fresh eyes, the returns will be huge. The 55 organisations who are signatories to this letter are urging you to pledge your support, and call for dedicated political focus on women and girls now.
We would welcome the opportunity to meet you or a member of your team and discuss this manifesto ask further; do not hesitate to get in touch with our Policy and Public Affairs Officer Tara on [email protected] to arrange a meeting.
Yours faithfully,
Indy Cross
Chief Executive of Agenda Alliance
Mental health services across England are failing women by not asking about their experiences of domestic abuse, according to new data in a report published today by Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk.
The findings – based on results from Freedom of Information requests – show that more than a third (15) of NHS mental health trusts that responded (42 of 58) have no policy on ‘routine enquiry’ about domestic violence and abuse – in spite of The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.[1]
The report says that mental health services should be asking about domestic abuse in recognition of the high rates of violence and abuse experienced by people who access them. This is especially true for women; 38 per cent of women who have a mental health problem have experienced domestic abuse.[2]
The evidence in the report points to a postcode lottery in the support mental health services are providing to survivors. One trust said they asked just three per cent of patients about domestic abuse – when guidance says they should be asking everyone.
Agenda’s report, Ask and Take Action: Why public services must ask about domestic abuse, is supported by a group of charities, practitioners and other leading experts, and argues that while some health services are already required to ask about domestic abuse, this should be happening in a much wider range of public services if we are to truly protect women and offer appropriate support.
Some 1.3 million women experienced domestic abuse last year in England and Wales alone.[3] Research shows eighty five per cent of survivors sought help five times on average in the year before they got effective support, four out of five victims never call the police, but many will visit their GP as a result of the abuse they’re experiencing.[4] All public services could play a crucial role in recognising and responding to signs of abuse.
A recent National Commission of leading experts warned of the potentially devastating consequences for women who don’t get the support they need from public services because the signs of abuse are not picked up by professionals.[5] Without support, many go on to develop mental health problems or use drugs and alcohol to cope.
Agenda is calling for the Government to amend the Domestic Abuse Bill to put a duty on all public authorities to ensure staff across the public sector are making trained enquiries into domestic abuse.
[1] The National Institute for Health and Care and Excellence https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ph50/chapter/1-Recommendations#recommendation-6-ensure-trained-staff-ask-people-about-domestic-violence-and-abuse
[2] Agenda (2016) Hidden Hurt. Available here: https://weareagenda.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Hidden-Hurt-full-report1.pdf
[3] ONS (2018) Domestic abuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2018 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/domesticabuseinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2018
[4] SafeLives (2016) A Cry for Health: http://www.safelives.org.uk/sites/default/files/resources/SAFJ4993_Themis_report_WEBcorrect.pdf
[5] National Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence and Multiple Disadvantage (2019): https://weareagenda.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Breaking-down-the-Barriers-full-report-FINAL.pdf
The provision of mental health services for young people at risk of or engaged with offending behaviour is inadequate, according to a report released today.
A partnership between the Transition to Adulthood Alliance and Young Minds, Same Old… is a cross-sectional qualitative research project carried out by City University London in three T2A projects in London, West Mercia and Birmingham. Interviews were carried out with young people as well as T2A, CAMHS and AMHS staff and commissioners.
The report reveals that little has changed over the last 20 years; young people within the criminal justice system still receive highly inadequate mental health care. Both young people and the professionals working with them highlighted distinct problems with mental health provisions which included waiting lists being too long, which results in many young people self medicating, are gaps in service provision between young people’s and adult mental health services and support centred around medication.
Same Old… outlines eight recommendations to ensure that young people offender with mental health needs get the support and intervention they require. Amongst these suggestions is targeted commissioning for at risk 16-19 year old, east access to services and information, and training for all professional working with children and young people at risk of offending.
Read the full report here.
