Issues Papers

NWC Policy Updates – Election Edition: Summer 2024

12 August 2024

The year 2024 brought with it local and general elections across the country. For people in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, this included a unique opportunity to elect the first ever Mayor for the East Midlands Combined County Authority, and a Police and Crime Commissioner. A hugely important local election that will shape the lives of local communities for decades to come!

Nottingham Women’s Centre is excited to bring you this Election Edition of our policy updates, featuring our election campaign and current issues on our radar!

1. What We’re Working On

Prosecution for School Non-Attendance and Impact on Women

Prosecuting parents for their children’s non-attendance in school is yet another government intervention that has failed to consider and support the intersecting needs and experiences of women. In previous research by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 71% of the 16,406 people prosecuted for truancy in 2017 were women, 74% of those convicted were women, 80% of those given a suspended sentence were women, 83% of those given a community order were women, and nine of the ten people sent to prison were women.

Recently, through our Ministry of Justice project, Nottingham Women’s Centre has seen several women prosecuted and fined with huge sums of up to £2500 for their children’s absence from school. These women are often single mothers with no previous prosecutions. Our preliminary findings show significant negative impact, evidenced in the experiences of these women. These impacts include enormous financial pressure in the current high cost of living, damaged parent-child relationship, negative barriers to work due to a criminal record, and separation from children due to prison custody.

In the words of one woman:

I was trying to change jobs during the time and my new employer asked me, ‘What were you sentenced for?’

Another woman told us:

My daughter is being bullied in school and I have to choose between watching her get bullied and self-harm as a result, or face prosecution.

Research shows that reasons for school absences – which includes bullying, and lack of support for children’s mental health – are often beyond the control of parents/mothers and require a holistic and supportive approach, rather than the current punitive stance.

Our Actions

We have steered strategic meetings with Nicholas Lee (Director of Education, Nottingham City Council) and Councillor Cheryl Bernard (Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education), Councillor Georgia Power (Bestwood ward) and MP Nadia Whittome towards driving crucial change to support women and parents towards improving school attendance.

Following this, in February MP Nadia Whittome submitted two written parliamentary questions regarding school places and the waiting times for Special Educational Needs (SEN) Assessment which impacts on school non-attendance.

As part of our campaign on school non-attendance, we will be running listening sessions with women who have experience of this issue to learn what works and how to support parents, children and schools to improve school attendance.

Your Voice

We would like to hear from you (or if you are a group / organisation that works with women) if you:
• Have experience of prosecution or fines for children’s school non- attendance.
• Are passionate about this issue and would like to contribute to this campaign.
Please email ezinwanne@nottinghamwomenscentre.com.

WOMEN’S HEALTH MATTERS Project

We’ll soon be launching our Women’s Health Matters (WHM) project! Women’s Health Matters will run as a series of workshops aimed to raise awareness about gynaecological conditions and reproductive health issues, to educate and empower women on health issues, and to celebrate women’s health and bodies.

Your Voice

If you have specific topics on women’s health you’d like to hear about or would like to be involved in the project, please email ezinwanne@nottinghamwomenscentre.com.

2. What We’ve Achieved

The Impact of Alcohol Tags on Women

Since March 2021, courts in England have introduced Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirements (AAMRs) where drinking was a factor in a crime. An alcohol tag is imposed within an AAMR for adult offenders as a requirement of a community order or suspended sentence order for an alcohol-related offence, or an associated offence that is alcohol-related.

AAMRs ban offenders from drinking alcohol for up to 120 days and offenders must wear an alcohol monitoring tag as part of their community sentence. Compliance is monitored electronically through the alcohol tag which monitors the presence of alcohol in offender’s sweat. A recent report shows high compliance rates, however there is yet no evidence of their impact on offenders. It is reported that 70% of persons recovering from alcohol addiction will relapse during the first year, particularly the first three months.

Our Actions

Through its case work, Nottingham Women’s Centre has identified a case on the adverse impact of alcohol tags on women’s health and wellbeing. We submitted a request for a written parliamentary question on alcohol tags to MP Nadia Whittome. On our behalf, she asked the Secretary of State for Justice whether the Department conducted a women-specific impact and health needs assessment prior to the roll out of the use of alcohol monitoring tags.

Read the response from the government here

Your Voice

If you’ve worked with women undergoing alcohol tag monitoring, or would like to feed into our briefing to the government please email ezinwanne@nottinghamwomenscentre.com.

Our Letter to Nottingham City Council on Budget Cuts

Nottingham Women’s Centre wrote a letter to Councillor David Mellen, the previous Leader of Nottingham City Council, and Mel Barrett, the previous Chief Executive of Nottingham City Council stating the collective stance of women and women’s organisations on the proposed budget cuts. We expressed a deep concern for the disproportionate impact of budget cuts on women and women’s organisations, and emphasized the importance of considering gender equality implications in budgetary decision-making processes, urging the Council Leaders to prioritise the needs of women and marginalised communities.

3. What’s On Our Radar

Shortage of Refuge Spaces: Shortage of refuge spaces can put survivors of domestic abuse at risk. In addition to the lack of available spaces, refuge providers face significant challenges in resettling women with no recourse to public funds as they do not have access to housing benefits and therefore tend to stay longer in refuge spaces.

Lack of support for parents who have experienced child removal in Nottingham. Pause Practices that work to improve the lives of women who have had – or are at risk of having – more than one child removed from their care, closed their service in Derbyshire due to no further funding from the local authority. Other support organisations that serve England and Wales are Family Rights Group, and Post Adoption Centre.

Lack of school places for child survivors of domestic abuse. In a 2023 report from The Domestic Abuse Commissioner, “five key themes emerged from the discussions with frontline practitioners about the challenges they face while supporting child victims of domestic abuse. These were (1) a lack of professional understanding of domestic abuse, (2) a lack of co-ordinated multi-agency working, (3) a high level of local variation in approach, (4) a lack of knowledge and consensus regarding best practice and (5) a lack of support and funding.” According to Nottinghamshire Police, earlier this year, “an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill was made which once enacted will make it a legal requirement for all forces in the country to participate (with Operation Encompass). The hope is that the initiative will help reduce the long-term impacts of domestic abuse on children through providing them with early intervention and will enable teachers to gain a better understanding of the impact of domestic abuse on young people. It may also help partner agencies to direct resources where they are most needed, reducing risk to children and families.”

Women released from prison with no fixed abode are often assessed as not having priority needs, increasing the likelihood of their reoffending. This is despite recognition by The Prison Reform Trust that “appropriate accommodation for people who offend is the foundation of successful rehabilitation(… and) can provide the anchor for a previously chaotic life and act as a springboard for other crucial steps – such as getting and keeping a job, and accessing health care or drug treatment.” Despite this recognition, “an inspection of Through the Gate resettlement services for short-term prisoners by HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons, found that 13% of women were released from prison to no fixed abode and only 22% were released with secure permanent accommodation. Social housing can often not be applied for while the women are still in prison which means it has to be resolved at short-notice on release.”

4. Women’s Voices & Votes

Political Engagement Workshops

This March, we hosted two workshops to encourage women to be more politically engaged!

We Vote! Women in Nottinghamshire! was a brilliant workshop to celebrate the power of women’s voices & our right to vote! There was discussion on how Parliament works, voter registration, and how to vote.
Get to Know Women Councillors in Nottinghamshire was an inspiring and insightful event, where women could connect with local women councillors to discuss the experiences of being a politician and the different pathways to starting a political career.

Councillors in attendance at the second workshop were Councillor Audrey Dinnall (Leen Valley), Councillor Neghat Khan (Dales), Councillor Kirsty Jones (Mapperley), Councillor Faith Gakanje-Ajala (Bilborough), Councillor Shuguftah Quddoos (Berridge), Councillor Linda Woodings (Basford), Councillor Helen Kalsi (Bilborough) and Councillor Georgia Power (Bestwood).

Get to Know Women Councillors in Nottinghamshire

Check out this great blog about this event written by Penny, one of our volunteers…

Read Penny’s blog piece!

LOCAL ELECTIONS: EAST MIDLANDS COMBINED COUNTY AUTHORITY AND POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER (PCC)

In May, Nottinghamshire had two important elections. That of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the new East Midlands Mayor for the Combined County Authority.
Nottingham Women’s Centre would like to extend our congratulations to Claire Ward for her recent victory in the mayoral election for the East Midlands Combined County Authority and Gary Godden for his win as the new Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire. We look forward to collaborating with the Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner to bring about meaningful change for women in our communities.

She Votes: Nottingham Women’s Manifesto for the Mayor & PCC
Nottingham Women’s Centre launched a manifesto, aimed at ensuring that women’s needs were not only heard but also prioritised at the Mayoral and PCC elections. Being our first Mayoral election, it was an opportunity to ensure that the voices of women fundamentally shape the policies and operations of the new Mayor and Combined Authority.

This manifesto is a reflection of the diverse challenges and aspirations of women in our communities, on issues that fall within the powers of the Combined Authority: housing, transport, skills and economic development, and net zero.

Our Overarching Asks to the EMCCA Mayor & PCC

Establishment of mechanisms through which women’s voices in all their diversity are heard and consulted in decision making across the region with representation from a diverse range of women’s groups and organisations.
Funding for specialist women’s organisations and groups who provide valuable support to women across these policy areas and are often best placed to deliver the right services, at the right time to those who need it the most.
Transparency and accountability through the publication of comprehensive equality impact assessments for all decisions, especially where investments are being made, and collection of disaggregated data across gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and other protected characteristics.

Read our full Mayor/PCC Manifesto for Women here:

Read the #SheVotes Manifesto

She Votes Women’s Hustings in April

Nottingham Women’s Centre was delighted to welcome candidates standing for Mayor and PCC from across the political spectrum to our She Votes: Women’s Hustings on 24th April. This included: Claire Ward (Labour), Frank Adlington Stringer (Green), Helen Tamblyn-Saville (Liberal Democrats), Alan Graves (Reform UK) and Matt Relf (Independent), for the East Midlands Mayor Election, and Caroline Henry (Conservative), Gary Godden (Labour) and David Watts (Liberal Democrats) for the Police Crime Commissioner Election. It was a well-attended event that provided a space for women to question the candidates on issues that impact their lives. Those who could not attend sent questions in advance through the Centre.

Read about the Hustings here:

Read about the #SheVotes Hustings

THE GENERAL ELECTION

Nottingham Women’s Centre would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to the elected Members of Parliament (MPs) in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. We are keen to work with the new government to ensure the needs of women are at the centre of policy. The 2024 General Election brings us closer to the goal of 50/50 representation as women now make up 40% of the House of Commons. Now the election is over, we ask the elected MPs to take tangible steps to address the Women’s Organisations Network Manifesto asks for women in Nottingham and ensure that the needs of women and girls are at the heart of policy making.

Nottingham Women’s Organisation Network (WON) Women’s Manifesto

The Women’s Organisations Network (WON) is the largest coalition of women’s groups and organisations in Nottinghamshire, with over 100 members. We launched our first combined women’s manifesto before the general election. There are proposals for achievable change to improve the lives of women and girls in Nottinghamshire and beyond. The manifesto was developed by a steering group of five organizations (Nottingham Women’s Centre, Juno Women’s Aid, Equation, Nottinghamshire Sexual Violence Support Services, and POW Nottingham). It incorporates contributions from WON member organisations, survey responses from our wider network of women, and current research on women, by women.

This manifesto includes and supports the policy asks of many other women’s organisations and coalitions nationally that we are connected to – the #SheVotes24 Coalition, the National Women’s Justice Coalition, Agenda Alliance, Women’s Resource Centre, End Violence Against Women Coalition, Women’s Budget Group, and Rape Crisis England and Wales amongst others.

Nottingham Women’s Organisation Network calls on the new Government for a commitment to:

A dedicated role for a Secretary of State for Women and Girls in cabinet to champion and prioritise the needs of women and girls, at the highest level of politics as called for by Agenda Alliance.
Policy making that centres women through a gendered approach to the design, monitoring and evaluation of policies. Central to this is the collection of disaggregated data at the local and national level.
Sustainable funding for community-based women’s centres and specialist women’s organisations, especially those that are run by and for specific groups (such as Black women’s organisations).

Read our WON manifesto asks here

The WON Manifesto & Asks

OUR QUESTIONS TO PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES

Nottingham Women’s Organisations Network wanted to know about the commitment of all political parties to the issues affecting women and girls. We asked six questions to all parliamentary candidates in Nottingham/ Nottinghamshire to find this out. Read our six questions and the responses we received from candidates:

Responses from Candidates

COUNCILLOR NEGHAT KHAN & MAYOR CLAIRE WARD AT WON MEETING IN JUNE

Nottingham Women’s Centre congratulates Councillor Neghat Khan on her appointment as the new Leader of Nottingham City Council. We were excited to welcome Councillor Neghat Khan and Mayor Claire Ward to the Women’s Organisation Network Meeting in June. This was an opportunity to hear about the priorities of the two new local leaders, and share perspectives from the women’s sector. We hope to continue this collaborative relationship to ensure that women’s voices are heard in all decision making!

Women’s Organisations Network Manifesto: Responses from Candidates

1 July 2024

We sent all candidates standing in the General Election in Nottingham these six questions, about issues that women in Nottingham care about, alongside our Women’s Organisation Network manifesto.

Questions for candidates from the Women’s Organisation Network. 

With the completion of the independent review of the Nottingham Maternity Service, completed, how will you fix the maternal care scandal with attention to the disparity and additional risk for Black and minoritized women during pregnancy, labour and post-natal care?
Trauma can make us more vulnerable to developing mental health problems. Women who have experienced sexual assaults are currently experiencing astronomical waiting time to access trauma related support in Nottingham, leaving them at further risk of developing mental health problems. How do you plan to improve access to these crucial services?
How will you protect and support women’s organisations and groups in Nottinghamshire, who are at constant risk of closures due to funding cuts, increase in running costs, and high demand? Women’s organisations and groups are often best placed to deliver the right service, at the right time, to those who need it most, and need access to long-term ring-fenced funding for this work in order to continue supporting our communities.
How would you ensure women who are at the risk of offending or have offended receive appropriate rehabilitation and support in the community rather than in prisons which do not meet women’s needs or prevent re-offending? Especially for women on short sentences and considering that women are non-violent offenders?
What actions will you take to ensure safety for women across private, public and online? What prevention and support strategies would you advocate for to ensure all forms of violence against women is eliminated and survivors can access appropriate and timely support?
Many women are being prosecuted for their children’s non attendance in schools or experiencing punitive approaches that are shown to cause greater harm. How do you intend to deal with this issue in a way that supports women and their families rather than punishing them? What actions will you take to support families and schools to deal with issues of school attendance for children who are struggling?

Here are responses from candidates we heard back from.

Alex Norris

Labour & Co-operative Candidate for Nottingham North & Kimberley

With the completion of the independent review of the Nottingham Maternity Service, how will you fix the maternal care scandal with attention to the disparity and additional risk for Black and minoritized women during pregnancy, labour and post-natal care?

The stories that have emerged in recent years following failings in maternity services have been truly shocking. The pain and anguish suffered by so many deserve a proper review and I was glad when Donna Ockenden was selected to lead the inquiry in Nottingham. Donna has been fearless in her pursuit of the facts and the truth of what happened to all of those who have been affected. Along with other local MPs, I am in regular contact with Donna as she provides updates on her work. I think it is important to not pre-empt any of Donna’s conclusions and wait for the full review to be published. The review is in regular contact with the NHS locally to ensure that as the review’s work progresses, lessons are learned and information shared with the NHS ensuring changes are implemented speedily.
Trauma can make us more vulnerable to developing mental health problems. Women who have experienced sexual assaults are currently experiencing astronomical waiting times to access trauma related support in Nottingham, leaving them at further risk of developing mental health problems. How do you plan to improve access to these crucial services?

After 14 years of mismanagement by the current Government, the NHS is on its knees. Whilst the pandemic placed the NHS under serious strain, waiting lists were at record high even before the pandemic struck. We are seeing the impact of this not just locally but right across the country too. Labour is determined to build an NHS fit for the future. We will reform the NHS so that mental health receives the same attention and focus as physical health. Labour will also bring waiting times down and intervene earlier. We will recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults through our first term. As part of our mission to reduce the lives lost to suicide, these new staff will be specially trained to support people at risk.
How will you protect and support women’s organisations and groups in Nottinghamshire, who are at constant risk of closures due to funding cuts, increase in running costs, and high demand? Women’s organisations and groups are often best placed to deliver the right service, at the right time, to those who need it most, and need access to long-term ring-fenced funding for this work in order to continue supporting our communities.

In so many ways, after 14 years of the current Government, public services are crumbling. Too often it feels as if nothing seems to work in the country anymore. It will take time to fix these issues so Labour has been clear that if we are elected we will lead a decade of national renewal. To achieve this we have set out five bold missions to restore stability and change the country for the better. I hope this will provide a much better environment for women’s groups to operate in, with well-run public services and support provided where it is needed.
How would you ensure women who are at the risk of offending or have offended receive appropriate rehabilitation and support in the community rather than in prisons which do not meet women’s needs or prevent re-offending? Especially for women on short sentences and considering that women are non-violent offenders.

Prisons in England and Wales are in crisis. Judges are being advised to delay sentencing. Prisoners are being released early. And fewer dangerous criminals are locked up because of a lack of space.

Labour will act to reduce reoffending. We will work with prisons to improve offenders’ access to purposeful activity, such as learning, and ensure they create pre-release plans for those leaving custody. We will support prisons to link up with local employers and the voluntary sector to get ex-offenders into work. The children of those who are imprisoned are at far greater risk of being drawn into crime than their peers. We will ensure that those young people are identified and offered support to break the cycle.

After 14 years of chaotic reorganisations, the national probation service is also struggling to keep the public safe. A lack of co-ordination between prisons, probation and other local services also means prison-leavers are not getting the right support, raising the risk that they go straight back to crime. In some areas of the country, we have seen Labour Mayors pioneering a more joined-up approach to reduce reoffending. In Greater Manchester, probation is linked up with housing and health services to ensure offenders leaving custody receive the support they need. Labour will conduct a strategic review of probation governance, including considering the benefits of devolved models.
What actions will you take to ensure safety for women across private, public and online? What prevention and support strategies would you advocate for to ensure all forms of violence against women is eliminated and survivors can access appropriate and timely support?

Violence against women and girls is a stain on our society that shames all of us. For too long this issue has been ignored so Labour is determined to tackle it. That is why we have made it part of our mission to halve levels of violence against women and girls.

That starts with tougher enforcement and protection. With Labour, there will be specialist rape and sexual offences teams in every police force. The most prolific and harmful perpetrators will be relentlessly targeted, using tactics normally reserved for terrorists and organised crime.

Prosecution rates for rape are shamefully low with many victims dropping out of the justice system when faced with years of delays. Labour will fast-track rape cases, with specialist courts at every Crown Court location in England and Wales.

Victims deserve better support. Building on the success of the approach adopted by Labour Police and Crime Commissioners, we will introduce domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms so that victims can talk directly to a specialist, and ensure there is a legal advocate in every police force area to advise victims from the moment of report to trial.

Violence and abuse against women and girls does not come from nowhere. Misogyny is one root cause, and therefore Labour will ensure schools address misogyny and teach young people about healthy relationships and consent. We will ensure police forces have the powers they need to track and tackle the problem.

Stalking has not been treated with the seriousness it deserves. Labour will strengthen the use of Stalking Protection Orders and give women the right to know the identity of online stalkers. Spiking is a devastating crime for victims, leaving many women feeling vulnerable when they go out. Labour will introduce a new criminal offence for spiking to help police better respond to this crime.

We will strengthen the rights and protections available to women in co-habiting couples, as well as for whistleblowers in the workplace, including on sexual harassment.
Many women are being prosecuted for their children’s non-attendance in schools or experiencing punitive approaches that are shown to cause greater harm. How do you intend to deal with this issue in a way that supports women and their families rather than punishing them? What actions will you take to support families and schools to deal with issues of school attendance for children who are struggling?

As the Chair of the Board of Governors at a local primary school, I know school absence is often a symptom of deeper problems in the education system. It important that we look at this issue in the round to ensure that every child receives the education they deserve.

For instance, one problem facing children is a lack of mental health support. I therefore support Labour’s plans to provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate.

Breakfast clubs can improve attendance, behaviour and learning. Labour will fund free breakfast clubs in every primary school, accessible to all children. This will also support parents through the cost-of-living crisis.

By addressing these other important issues, I believe we can develop a holistic approach to tackle school attendance problems and ensure every child receives a good education.

Shaghofta Akhtar

Independent Candidate for Nottingham South

With the completion of the independent review of the Nottingham Maternity Service, how will you fix the maternal care scandal with attention to the disparity and additional risk for Black and minoritized women during pregnancy, labour and post-natal care?

The biggest scandal in NHS history stands in Nottingham. As a mother of 7 children, I value the vital life saving services during the entire journey of pregnancy. I have faced difficult decisions with very little support during a time, when I was informed to expect a neo natal death or at best a baby that would not expect to survive beyond a few weeks. I share your concerns and would do everything in my power to support all women facing any maternity related issues. I would like to propose a special task force set up for maternity related complaints, these would be picked up at the first point of a distressed call being made and women would not be placed in a queue to jump through many hurdles in order for their complaint to be heard. The Ockendon enquiry talks about professionals not listening to families. There needs to be accountability. Those charged with breaching their duty of care need to be prosecuted. Its as simple as that. Our lives and that of our unborn or newly born child are to be protected at all costs.

A dedicated hotline number should be available for those using maternity services 24 hours a day, dedicated to listening to those using maternity services and trouble shooting problems.

The ratio of midwives per patient should also be addressed. So midwives are not understaffed or left rushing around looking after too many patients. I have also spoken with nursing students, who claim that securing a place at university for midwifery is very competitive and many future midwives are prevented from joining the profession.
Trauma can make us more vulnerable to developing mental health problems. Women who have experienced sexual assaults are currently experiencing astronomical waiting times to access trauma related support in Nottingham, leaving them at further risk of developing mental health problems. How do you plan to improve access to these crucial services?

I have 10 years experience of working on an acute mental health ward. I am on the frontline facing patients and their families. I therefore fully appreciate the concerns you are raising. Many patients and their families complain how difficult it is to access mental health support. This is even more difficult as a female and also if you belong to a minority community.

I am proposing for GP surgeries to be able to offer in-house mental health services, rather than sending vulnerable women to services where the waiting list is just too long. It is not acceptable that vulnerable women should be waiting as long as they are to access some basic support. I have personally referred women to Nottingham’s women’s centre. The ladies have given me very positive feedback of the support you have offered them. There’s another lady that I’ll be signposting over to yourselves. If elected I will ensure that funds are ring fenced for Nottingham’s Women’s Centre and I will champion all the work that you do. Women suffering from trauma, abuse, discrimination, and violence should be prioritised.
How will you protect and support women’s organisations and groups in Nottinghamshire, who are at constant risk of closures due to funding cuts, increase in running costs, and high demand? Women’s organisations and groups are often best placed to deliver the right service, at the right time, to those who need it most, and need access to long-term ring-fenced funding for this work in order to continue supporting our communities.

Fundamentally, I will advocate for funds to be ring fenced for women’s organisations who have a track record of delivering on the ground. I have worked with POW during my time at New Deal for Communities as a community engagement worker. I have also signposted ladies that I know to Juno Women’s Aid. I have also been the head of an Asian women’s group consisting of almost 150 ladies. They regularly speak to me about their issues, and I am always signposting them to women’s groups for support. Therefore, I will be making women’s issues at the top of my priorities. I will ensure you get the funding you so need.
How would you ensure women who are at the risk of offending or have offended receive appropriate rehabilitation and support in the community rather than in prisons which do not meet women’s needs or prevent re-offending? Especially for women on short sentences and considering that women are non-violent offenders.

I believe there is no safe place in prisons for ladies who are pregnant.

Alternative arrangements need to be made for women to serve their non violent, short term sentences from a place of safety. They should be offered counselling and rehabilitation within a safe place where a working relationship is formed to support them. There should be a medical team, probation and social workers involved in this. The needs of the unborn child also need to be prioritised. Root causes to their issues need to be identified and appropriate and targeted support given in a timely manner. I believe such a package should be known as, “Caring for offenders”. I believe nobody sets out to be a criminal; its their social and economic environment that leads some women to engage in criminal activity. I believe an attitude shift is needed in treating root causes of criminal behaviour, which hopefully will lead to a drop in reoffending. I do believe some women are victims and not criminals, they are acting from a place of desperation, therefore those individuals should be identified and supported, so they do not reoffend.
What actions will you take to ensure safety for women across private, public and online? What prevention and support strategies would you advocate for to ensure all forms of violence against women is eliminated and survivors can access appropriate and timely support?

Misogyny should be addressed very early in schools; I believe education is the way forward. I believe a new innovative approach is needed, whereby there are male ambassadors right across the public, private and voluntary sector to challenge peer bias and coercive controlling behaviour. For our male ambassadors to be present in the workplace, in the same way we have first aiders. Gender bias and prejudice impact on how safe women feel. Women who suffer from domestic violence need specialist support, which is best provided by women’s organisations. I believe the police should prioritise domestic violence and the courts should hand tougher sentences; the threshold for CPS should be set at a level that cases can be prosecuted and the burden of proof should not be set so unrealistically high, that no prosecution can be made. I will work with the police crime commissioner to look into this.
Many women are being prosecuted for their children’s non-attendance in schools or experiencing punitive approaches that are shown to cause greater harm. How do you intend to deal with this issue in a way that supports women and their families rather than punishing them? What actions will you take to support families and schools to deal with issues of school attendance for children who are struggling?

Punitive measures should only be applied as a last resort. For parents who consistently show no interest in their child’s education and future, they should face up to their responsibilities and as such I support the measures that are already in place.

However, we have single mums who are struggling in extraordinary circumstances and desperately need help and support. There are other instances when young children are pushing boundaries, here I believe parents need support and the schools need to show sympathy and work with single mothers to support them through these difficult times. As a former parent governor, I understand the legal duty schools have on enforcing attendance. Having faced these truancy officers myself, I fully sympathise with mothers who are put through this ordeal. We have all been there, there is always one black sheep in the family, who takes it upon themselves to be as wild as they possibly can be. Lets work together and get through this. I am here to support you through these challenges, and will do everything I can to be of real assistance.

Nadia Whittome

Labour Candidate for Nottingham East

With the completion of the Independent Review of the Nottingham Maternity Service, how will you fix the maternal care scandal with attention to the disparity and additional risk for Black and minoritized women during pregnancy, labour and post-natal care?

While I don’t want to prejudge the outcome of Donna Ockenden’s review, which is due in September next year, she has been sharing learning and recommendations from her work with NUH as she has carried it out. I have met regularly with both Donna and the senior leadership at NUH to receive updates on the review, communicate feedback from constituents, and hold the trust to account over the improvements that still need to be made – for example, inequality in the provision of care. I would continue to do this if re-elected.

I want to see the next government implement all the essential actions recommended in the two reports into the Shrewsbury maternity scandal. These must include tackling staff shortages and putting more money into maternity services.

I also think action on maternal health inequality is a key priority. In April 2023, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee’s ‘Black maternal health’ report identified multiple, complex causes for disparities in maternal mortality, including pre-existing health conditions, socio-economic factors like deprivation, and bias and racism in the healthcare system. Action to tackle all of these must take place. I support the Five X More campaign and their calls for more research into maternal health outcomes of Black women. I believe that medical professionals should receive compulsory targeted training that addresses the needs of women of colour.

I am pleased that Labour has committed to ensuring that trusts failing on maternity care are robustly supported into rapid improvement. We will also train thousands more midwives as part of the NHS Workforce Plan and set an explicit target to close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap.
Trauma can make us more vulnerable to developing mental health problems. Women who have experienced sexual assaults are currently experiencing astronomical waiting times to access trauma related support in Nottingham, leaving them at further risk of developing mental health problems. How do you plan to improve access to these crucial services?

Support for those who have experienced trauma is something I care deeply about. I was forced to seek private treatment for PTSD myself due to the lengthy waits for NHS-provided support. As an MP, I regularly received casework from people who have been waiting months or even years to access specialist mental health support.

Labour has committed to bringing mental health waiting times down. We will recruit an additional 8,500 new staff in our first term. While further details are yet to be set out, it is vital that these should include specialists in sexual violence and trauma-related support.

I also recognise that specialist women’s organisations are often best placed to provide or host this support, and so sustainable funding for the sector is crucial.
How will you project and support women’s organisations and groups in Nottinghamshire, who are at constant risk of closures due to funding cuts, increase in running costs, and high demand? Women’s organisations and groups are often best placed to deliver the right service, at the right time, to those who need it most, and need access to long-term ring-fenced funding for this work in order to continue supporting our communities.

I have been outspoken against the cuts to women’s organisations over the last 14 years, especially those that provide support to women who have experienced domestic abuse and sexual violence.

I support sustainable, long-term, ring-fenced funding being provided to women’s organisations and groups and would advocate for this as an MP.
How would you ensure that women who are at risk of offending or have offended receive appropriate rehabilitation and support in the community rather than in prisons which do not meet women’s needs or prevent re-offending? Especially for women on short sentences and considering that women are non-violent offenders?

The statistics on prison leavers re-offending speak for themselves: it is clear that prisons are not rehabilitating those who have committed crimes, with many people being sucked deeper into a cycle of re-offending instead.

Labour has committed to working with prisons to improve offenders’ access to purposeful activity, such as learning, and ensure they create pre-release plans for those leaving custody. A Labour government would support prisons to link up with local employers and the voluntary sector to get ex-offenders into work.

I would like to see a greater use of alternative sentences to prison, especially for non-violent offenders. I have also supported campaigns against births in prison, for the decriminalisation of sex work, the repeal of laws criminalising those who are homeless, the reform of drug-related offences, the decriminalisation of abortion and against the prosecution of parents for their child’s non-attendance.
What actions will you take to ensure safety for women across private, public and online? What prevention and support strategies would you advocate for to ensure all forms of violence against women is eliminated and survivors can access appropriate and timely support?

Labour’s landmark mission is to halve violence against women and girls in a decade through a wide range of measures. One of the most important, from my perspective, is about tackling the root causes: Labour will ensure that schools address misogyny and teach young people about healthy relationships and consent.

A Labour government would also fast-tracking rape cases, with specialist courts at every Crown Court location, to end the scandal of victims waiting years to their case to be heard. We would introduce domestic abuse experts in 999 control rooms and ensure there is a legal advocate in every police force area to advise victims from the moment of report to trial.

As mentioned in a previous answer, I am also keen that those who have experienced violence are able to get the support they need quickly. This means ensuring that specialist organisations and services have the funding they need and increasing the number of mental health staff working in this area.
Many women are being prosecuted for their children’s non attendance in schools or experiencing punitive approaches that are shown to cause greater harm. How do you intend to deal with this issue in a way that supports women and their families rather than punishing them? What actions will you take to support families and schools to deal with issues of school attendance for children who are struggling?

I know that almost all parents whose children have low attendance rates believe it is important that their child attends school and would like their attendance to improve. Punitive approaches have been shown to be ineffective and even counterproductive: they fail to address the root causes of why a child might not attend school.

Crucial for improving many children’s attendance is effective mental health support. Labour will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. A Labour government would also introduce Young Futures Hubs, to make sure every community has an open-access hub for children and young people with drop-in mental health support.

Another of Labour’s flagship policies, free breakfast clubs in every primary school, aims to help improve attendance, and I’m pleased that Labour will reinstate the School Support Staff Negotiating Body to help address the acute recruitment and retention crisis in support roles.

For children and young people with persistent non-attendance, I would like to see a supportive rather than punitive approach, with schools working with parents, mental health professionals, SEND specialists, youth workers and others to develop specialist plans which target the root causes of a child’s non-attendance, rather than prosecuting their parents.

Find out where to vote…

Find out what ID to bring…

She Votes: Women’s Hustings

1 May 2024

What did we hear from the candidates?

We were pleased to welcome candidates standing to be East Midlands Mayor and Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) to our hustings on Wednesday 24th April. Ahead of the event, we published our Women’s Manifesto, setting out our demands for what we would like to see from the newly elected Mayor and from the PCC across the areas that they will have influence over.

Our CEO Vandna was chairing:

“Our mission at Nottingham Women’s Centre is to enable women to reach their full potential. To have their voices heard and overcome barriers to creating a better future for themselves. To achieve this, engaging in the political process is an imperative. Women have fought long and hard for the right to vote. A staple of every election in discussion is of women’s votes, as if women are distinct from the normal vote. Given that women make up 51% of the UK’s population, they are an even greater proportion of eligible voters. And they are just as likely to vote as men. The average voter is in fact a woman. So those standing for elected positions here today would be best advised not to ignore our potential for driving election results!” 

Questions to The Police and Crime Commissioner Candidates:

How will you ensure women’s voices are listened to in improving the experiences of women when they interact with the Police? 

All candidates started with outlining their experience, background, and key priorities for the role, which you can read about on their websites.

Key points from their answers are summarised below: 

Gary Godden

Tackling violence against women and girls is a key pledge.
Specialist staff in control rooms along with a Labour national pledge to implement ‘Raneem’s Law’.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard the name Raneem and the story of how she called the police 13 times, and guess what? She ended up being murdered. Not good enough on my watch. That’s not good enough. It’s not acceptable.” 

Making sure women’s services are supported and women are believed – working with women’s organisations to make sure that if a woman or girl comes to the police with a complaint, they are believed.

“My job is to hold the police to account, and I will make sure that that happens.” 

Increase conviction rates in line with Labour’s national targets 
Support resources for women coming out of prison or experiencing domestic violence and abuse

Caroline Henry 

Caroline talked about her achievements in her current role as Police and Crime Commissioner and outlined the following: 

A violence against women and girls strategy developed in collaboration with different organisations and groups .

Prevention:

“We all know that we’ve got to prevent crimes from happening in the first place and I’m passionate about early intervention and going into schools, and for the first time we’ve been funding through Equation a programme called GREAT”

Response:

“I want to make sure that if somebody rings the police, first of all they are believed, they are supported and they are really listened to. That’s really important. And also I want to make sure we capture best evidence which is why I invested in a new sexual assault research referral centre and also a children’s sexual assault referral centre. So we capture best evidence when needed and respond.”

Support – introducing ‘opt out’ rather than opt in for victim services and supporting the role of independent sexual violence support. 
Support for hard-to-reach communities to be able to report to the police, such as for those with English as a second language, and Deaf communities .

David Watts 

Need to completely change the male dominated culture to enable women’s voices to be heard.

“And that change has to be at every level of the police. So it means not just that bobby on the beat, but their supervisors have to make sure that that sort of attitude is not accepted” 

Training for police officers to listen to and believe victims.
Root out police officers who will not change.

“And say sorry, but that is not good enough. It is not acceptable to have misogynistic behaviour within the police.” 

Role of the PCC is to hold the police to account

“If things don’t change, then that’s a failure of the Police and Crime Commissioner.”

We have summarised key quotes from their answers below:

Caroline Henry

“I’m really sorry about that experience and none of that has been brought to my attention before. Surviving economic abuse is a massive issue. Absolutely needs more training. Obviously been a mistake there. Happy to look into it. There’s been a lot to do and I’m sorry that’s not been on my radar. It will be, going forward as well.”

“The way to solve this is a whole system approach like I spoke of before about preventing crimes from happening in the first place. Changing violent behaviour, so women feel safe to walk down the street, getting allies and bystanders to step in because there is a plan. It’s part of the budget that’s put in place for 2024. It’s already in place. We are increasing labour but it’s a whole system approach.”

Gary Godden

“We talk about training. Police officers are trained, but this is about accountability, and this is about holding the Chief Constable to account and if we don’t have that confidence, then we lose confidence in terms of our communities and you in your homes. It’s really important to try and understand and work with the training aspect of the police, but it’s also more important that those police officers that don’t want to toe the line or follow that path, or feel that the training isn’t appropriate, then they are removed. I’ve worked in the police; I’ve seen behaviours that I do not condone. And one of the reasons that I’m here today is because of that experience and because I want to make a change, I want to make that difference. It was exactly because of that institutionalisation. I went into the police when I was 32 years old. I’ve lived a life. Some of my experiences within the police have led me to being here today, and part of that experience is about being able to challenge them because they don’t like to be called out, which I did in the police in 2015. But this is about accountability. And for me, it comes from the top. It comes from the Police and Crime Commissioner holding the Chief to account.”

“For me part of the issue with Nottinghamshire and the lack of confidence in the safety of Nottinghamshire, is that there’s no police officers. We don’t have police on the street, so we will be looking to rebuild policing. This is about how we work more collaboratively and in trying to raise money within our current system. There’s lots of people that I talk to at the moment, they don’t seem to have that access. That’s got to come back on the table. To be able to deliver a neighbourhood policing plan that actually fits the community for service is not complex. It’s actually about communication and knowing your communities and being able to talk to police officers when you want one.”

David Watts

“So that’s a 16 year failure by the police and unfortunately it’s not at all uncommon… As I mentioned at the start, it’s changing that culture within the police and it has to be zero tolerance of the police. You cannot behave like that. And if you do, you are out. I do not accept the explanation that it’s hard to get rid of police officers. If the will is there, the way is there and you can get rid of bad police officers. Now what we need are good police officers. That needs to be at every level, not only the officers on the ground, but those who supervise them insisting on those standards and making sure that things are done properly. The other bit of your question that hasn’t been addressed yet is the police in special measures. But I think the answer is the same. It’s insisting on improvement at every level of the police and that is a key job of the Police and Crime Commissioner. It’s not going to be just sat in an office and filling in forms and looking good for leaflets, but it’s going to be out there in the community talking to people, talking about their real experiences and making sure that does not happen.”

“Get police on the beat so that people know there is a police officer around. I was talking to the National Farmers Union yesterday and they were complaining that in the north of the county they never ever see police officers. That’s absolutely wrong. We need to make sure that every community has police officers. One way of making sure that improves is making sure the police have accounts. I did a freedom of information request a couple of weeks ago about the number of or the percentage of domestic burglaries that the police in Nottinghamshire respond to. They are not holding them accountable in terms of the number of incidents and the way that they’re responded to. It is a way of making sure that the streets are improved. How long is it going to take? It’s an ongoing thing. There will never be a state where we say, well, we have achieved that unless we get to a state where there is no crime and I probably can’t promise that, but we should see early improvement by getting officers out there and by people seeing them.”

Questions to the Mayoral candidates 

How will you make sure women and women’s organisations will be involved in shaping the priorities of the new combined authority? 

All candidates started with outlining their experience, background, and key priorities for the role, which you can read about on their websites.

Key points from their answers are summarised below: 

Matt Relf

Bring an independent approach to the mayoral role that is based on consensus and agreement.

“It is far more important to have somebody who is able to speak up when it is right to speak up but is able to agree when it is right to agree rather than having predispositions as to what position they should take based upon pre-existing animosities between different political parties” 

Support asks in the She Votes Manifesto on drive to bring more women into certain industries.
Housing – try to grow the housing stock available while also lobbying for change on the funding available for social housing.  
Transport – improve accessibility, coordination between different modes of transport and connectivity with integrated ticketing. Design accessibility in for wheelchairs, prams and buggies. 
Culture and working practices of the new authority – utilise existing council headquarters so people across the region can work for the authority, flexible working to enable people to fit work around their lives and childcare.

Alan Graves

Would abolish the Combined Authority and Mayoral role.

We actually have an East Midlands Secretary of State and they should actually be doing this work 

Frank Adlington-Stringer

Leader for men in confronting misogyny and calling out abusive behaviour .
Green industrial revolution with a complete overhaul of transport system and making it public .
Investing in youth services.
Adult education – investing in sustainable and future technologies.
Housing – affordable and sustainable homes.
Citizens assemblies as a way to give everyone a seat at the table.

“As your mayor, I’m not just going to sit and listen to business or to other politicians, but make sure that people like me and you, voters, those who are actually affected by our policies, have a real way of coming into the Mayor’s office and making their voice heard.” 

Free menstrual products.
Accessible and beautiful public spaces including toilets.
Set up LGBTQIA+ accreditation for venues.
Progressive employer – paid menstrual leave and 4 day working week.

Helen Tamblyn-Saville 

“Women are not represented and that has to change and that’s one of the reasons I’m sat here in front of you today. I want to hear your voices. I want to work with women’s groups. I want women’s perspective to shape policy.” 

Housing as a priority – Increase in social housing and ensuring that safe homes are available to women fleeing domestic abuse. Building energy efficient homes for Net Zero but also to bring down energy costs.  
Transport – own experiences of a lack of family friendly transport. Audit for accessibility e.g. to look at step free access. Integrated simplified ticketing that works better for families, tying into Net Zero by 2030. 
Work with women’s groups to put in place free transport when fleeing to safety.
Grassroots approach.

Claire Ward 

“There are more mayors named Andy than there are women mayors”

Pledges shaped by listening including visits to women’s groups.
Transport in East Midlands currently inconsistent – connect communities by expanding public transport to rural areas and outside the city. Fare caps in the region 
Make childcare part of our infrastructure using the adult education budget – addressing the challenges of juggling childcare and job hunting.

“And that’s why childcare for me is a huge part of what we need to do, and my pledge is about raising childcare to a level as a part of our infrastructure. It is important to getting everyone back into work and to getting those opportunities for skills, as it is when we provide transport, or we provide those extra skills.” 

Investment in a Green Growth Skills Fund

“So that we can have digital skills and skills to retrofit our homes because if we can retrofit our homes, if we can have new homes that are more low carbon or zero carbon, more energy efficient, we can start to tackle some of the fuel poverty that we see across our communities.” 

Support high street and new green technologies – use of apprenticeships to make sure women and girls are part of these industries.

Here is our summary of quotes from their answers:

Matt Relf

“For me the proof is in the pudding. You know we need to get out there and deliver services in a fair and equitable way that is very clearly not built on prejudice… I do think it’s a real shame that we even within this debate, we’re sort of saying, you know, we have to have a woman at the top to care about women. Well, I’m sorry. That’s a prejudice against me that I couldn’t possibly care… We need to get away from this prejudice position and make sure we are delivering services that are visibly equitable for all and I think it is when you start doing that that people then start building the trust in what you’re doing and a big part of that is communication. You know, we don’t do enough communication of public services. To explain how we’re going about. You know, this election itself has been really poorly communicated. Very few people out there are even aware it’s on next week and what it even means. You know that I’m forever getting comments saying, you know, what are you doing about this? Well, it’s nothing to do with the combined authority. It will stay with the existing councils. And so we need to do a much better job of communicating with our society about what all these democratic roles do, how we go about it, and how you can influence what we are doing in the decision making. That feedback loop of input to result is what builds trust.”

Alan Graves

“All I can say is that I’ve been a local councillor for a long time and I’ve engaged with women for many, many years and it’s quite important that you do that. It’s about what you actually do and what I actually do is I engage with people. I believe in equality, so it’s it doesn’t matter who comes to me. I have to engage with them. I don’t ignore women. I don’t ignore men. I don’t ignore anybody. If somebody comes to me with a problem, you engage with them. I engage with the women’s refuge in in my local area. Very important. It’s very important in lots of ways because obviously when a refuge has to be fairly secret and you know you’ve got to be sensitive to those sorts of issues, but I also engage with the local rehab. It’s about listening to people and engaging directly with them and finding out what their problems are. And let’s see what we can do to solve them.”

Frank Adlington-Stringer

“Trust is built through honesty, and that comes from both directions. We need you to be honest with us as politicians, but also as politicians, we have to be honest with you. I’ve been elected in North East Derbyshire since last year. I have put every single one of my pay slips online available. For anyone to see. I have said that when I become mayor, I will continue to show that and I will only take an average wage, take £38,000 a year rather than the full amount, because I believe people are suffering and I should stand with my communities.”

“I’m trying to take tangible steps to make sure that I’m standing with people. I’ve said already that I’ll set up Citizens Assemblies. What is a Citizens Assembly? That is a forum for you to come to the mayor’s office and to speak to us, and I will make sure that that space is as diverse as possible. It isn’t just a space where those who are politically engaged can turn up. We’re making sure that people from all backgrounds are coming along and able to participate. Because I don’t have all the answers, none of us do. Of course not. But what we’re here to do is speak up on your behalf.”

Helen Tamblyn-Saville 

“People don’t trust politicians particularly right now. I mean, we’ve seen a certain previous Prime Minister who apparently couldn’t stop lying. It’s no wonder that trust has gone. But we also need you to be honest with us as well… We need to listen to you. An elected mayor needs to listen to you. To truly represent you, we need you to be honest with us. We have these hustings so that you can hear from us. And also so that you can scrutinise us later. Are we doing what we said we would do? And as your mayor, I would carry on those conversations. I don’t just want to listen to you. I want to engage with you. I want you to tell me if I’m doing stuff wrong and what I can be doing better. So if elected, I would pledge to come and meet with you and hear from you. Hear your experiences, hear what’s happening. But more than that, scrutinise me. Say to me, Helen, you pledged this. What’s happening? Where are we? Hold me to account. Hold us all to account. We have to build up that trust. I talked about a grassroots up approach and there shouldn’t be grandstanding from the top down. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Claire Ward

“I think people feel really disengaged with politics and I get it. Particularly the last 14 years, what we’ve seen is Westminster politicians doing something and then telling us to do something else…And our country feels broken. Our local councils certainly feel broken. Our roads are broken, our cars feel like they’re broken. Certainly, if you’re driving across them. And because of that, our confidence and trust in the democratic institutions and in the way in which we communicate to those politicians, it was broken. And I sat outside of that for the last 13 years and the reason why I’m standing now is because I want to bring a different approach to it.”

“I don’t want to make promises to people that I can’t deliver… The reality is there is so much wrong right now that we have to do things differently, and we have to engage with people, and we have to collaborate in order to make this work. So my commitment is to do that with whoever. And wherever it takes me. And that’s not just with the community. But I know if I’m elected next week, Ben Bradley is the Conservative leader of the County Council, and will still be the Conservative leader of the County Council afterwards, and I’ll still have to work with him. And that is something that everybody needs to understand is that the way in which we get change is by having that ambition to say this region is going to be the best place to live in, to work in, to learn in. And that means no stone will be left unturned, but we will have to work together to deliver it and it will take a lot of work.”

Whatever you do, don’t forget to vote in the East Midlands Mayor, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections tomorrow, Thursday 2nd May 2024!! Your vote is your voice! Use your vote to choose a better future for all women in the East Midlands!

Find out where to vote…

Find out what ID to bring…

She Votes: Nottingham Women’s Manifesto

23 April 2024

Nottingham Women’s Centre is pleased to launch our manifesto for the 2024 local elections!

On 2nd May 2024, people across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire will head to the polls to elect their first ever Mayor for the East Midlands Combined County Authority. In Nottinghamshire, we will also be voting for a Police and Crime Commissioner, making this a hugely important local election that will shape the lives of local communities for decades to come.

This Manifesto is based on contributions from over 100 women’s organisations in Nottinghamshire that form our Women’s Organisations Network (WON), survey responses from women and evidence from current research on women’s rights and needs.

She-Votes-Nottingham-Womens-Manifesto Download

A Women’s Manifesto Survey

8 February 2024

It’s an election year! A time to choose MPs who best represent our values. In Nottinghamshire, we have a new opportunity! We can choose our first Mayor of the East Midlands, and a Police and Crime Commissioner.

Nottingham Women’s Centre is putting together a Women’s Manifesto. The aim is to ensure that women’s voices are at the centre of decision making for the new government.

What issues affecting women would you like the new government to address?

Have your say here!

Autumn / Winter Policy Updates 2023

22 December 2023

Nottingham Women’s Centre is excited to bring you this autumn / winter update on our policy and campaign work.

1. What we are working on right now!

The Impact of Alcohol Tags on Women

Background

AAMRs bans offenders from drinking alcohol for up to 120 days and offenders must wear an alcohol monitoring tag as part of their community sentence. Compliance is monitored electronically through the alcohol tag which monitors the presence of alcohol in offender’s sweat. A recent report shows high compliance rates, however there is yet no evidence of their impact on offenders.

Through its case work, Nottingham Women’s Centre has identified the case of the use of alcohol tags and its adverse impact of its use on women.

Action

We are calling on relevant stakeholders to feed into our briefing proposing that the government looks into the women’s health needs and possible impacts on alcohol tags.
We are working with Alcohol Change UK as well as Severe and Multiple Disadvantage (SMD) Partnership Nottingham to better understand the prevalence of this issue and make changes at local and national level.

If you have lived experience of or work with women who have experience of alcohol tagging, or would like to feed into our briefing to the government please email ezinwanne@nottinghamwomenscentre.com.

Prosecution for School Non Attendance – a disproportionate impact on women

Women who are single parents have to split their finances between the rising cost of food and energy bills with childcare costs, making it almost impossible to work or survive. This is further complicated where single mothers have children with special needs. Recent evidence shows that single mothers are over represented in the Criminal Justice System for failure to secure their children’s attendance in school.

Prosecuting parents for their children’s non-attendance in school is yet another government intervention that has failed to consider and support the intersecting needs and experiences of women. We have worked with women at the Centre who have been sentenced (mostly for the first time) because they ‘failed to get their children to attend school’ where in reality, such children either have unmet special educational needs or are bullied in school. These huge fines (up to £2500) further puts women under enormous financial pressure in the current climate.

Action

We are calling on the Council to look into the root causes of the prosecution of parents for their children’s school non-attendance, especially for single mothers as this is an unfair burden in the current cost of living crisis.

2. On our radar…

Other issues we are aware of:

Rehousing from Refuge: There is an increased risk of homelessness as women seeking rehousing in Nottingham city are in Refuge for significantly longer which seems to have a direct correlational impact on symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Impact of proposed Public Order Bill: In April 2023, the Public Order Bill passed its final stages at the House of Lords. This bill will introduce more powers to restrict people’s fundamental rights to peaceful protest. This will impact us in two ways:

Reclaim the Night and many other peaceful protests for women’s rights will be impeded as the law gives police power to define disruptive protests and issue protest bans preventing people from attending protests.
Stop and search without suspicion, interferes with women’s rights to privacy and the right to freedom from discrimination particularly for Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority women.

Lack of access to GPs for prison releases: Women released from prisons are struggling to register with GPs as their prison badges are not accepted as valid proof of ID/address.

Lack of support and inconsistency from solicitors and judges for domestic abuse survivors through the court processes

3. What We Achieved!

We were at Parliament on December 6th!

In October, we submitted evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee highlighting the impact of the rising cost of living on women in Nottingham. We were invited to give further oral evidence on the experiences of women in Nottingham.

Watch our oral evidence here

Read our evidence submission here

Free hours for childcare from April 2024

We submitted evidence to the Education Committee on the impact of unaffordable childcare costs on women after a survey and focus group conducted with women. The Department of Education has now announced new changes for free childcare to support more parents returning to work after parental leave.

Read the full announcement here

Read our evidence submission here

Women’s Health

Our evidence submission to the Women and Equality Government Committee, asking the committee to look into the health challenges women face and the impact of these experiences on their health and lives was published. We also fed into the ongoing health needs assessment for women in Nottingham. We believe this brings us a step closer to ensuring women’s health needs are taken seriously.

Read our evidence submission here

4. Partner Radar

Issues From Some Of Our Partners

A common issue across all partners is the limited funding to deliver services. Nottingham City Council’s issue of a section 114 notice in late November, has resulted in funding cuts and subsequent reductions in service provision. Other emerging issues experienced by our partners are noted below.

Notts LGBT+ Network

Notts LGBT+ is an all-volunteer organisation that provides a comprehensive database of LGBT+ information, 5 nights-a-week helpline, training, volunteering opportunities and an active presence for LGBT+ people in Nottingham.

Emerging Issues

People struggling to come to terms with their sexuality and/or gender status
People being unaware of local routes to socialising

Base 51

Base 51’s OutBurst provides a safe space for LGBTQIA+ young people (aged 11-14).

Emerging Issues

Supporting young people who identify as LGBTQ through their transition from high school to college to ensure they are able to deal with the challenges and emotions involved.

Kairos

A network run by lesbian volunteers for Lesbian and Bisexual Asylum Seekers and Refugees around Nottingham

Emerging Issues

Supporting members with mental well-being
Cost of living / hardship
Housing shortage

Notts Trans Hub (formally Trans Space Notts)

Notts Trans Hub is a trans support charity which runs two in-person support groups a month as well as an in-person social event.

Emerging Issue

Challenges about national news stories about trans people and comments made by people affecting mental health.

Nottingham Muslim Women’s Network

Nottingham Muslim Women’s Network continues to provide women and girls (primarily Muslim women and girls) with advocacy and support around issues that affect their daily lives.

Emerging Issues

Encouraging new attendees to attend services
Limited funding

Vanclaron CHATS

Vanclaron CIC is a community interest company with a mission to shape the design, development and provision of health and wellbeing services to be inclusive.

Emerging Issue

Organisational capacity
Limited funding

POW

POW Nottingham supports sex workers and empowers vulnerable exploited people so they can be safe, secure and have choice.

Emerging Issue

Housing needs
Rising Cost of Living

5. Policy Updates

Autumn Statement/King’s Speech

The King’s Speech and the Autumn Statement in November respectively outlined a number of important updates and policy decisions relating to the UK economy. Here are some highlights from the autumn statement:

National Insurance contributions will be reduced from 12% to 10% next year for employees paying the standard rate
Benefits will increase by 6.7% (in-line with September’s inflation figure)
State pension is being increased by 8.5% to £221.20/week
As of April 2024, the national living wage will increase to £11.44/hour
Class 2 National Insurance will be abolished for the self employed

There is a ‘back to work plan’ by the government to get more people into employment as there are actions around reforms to work capability assessment before people qualify for benefits.

Discretionary Friday/pre-Bank Holiday Release Scheme Policy Framework takes effect

The framework/process for bringing forward the release date of a person leaving prison by up to 2 eligible working days, where release date falls on a Friday or the day preceding a bank/public holiday has been published, will take effect from 30th Nov.

People will no longer have to disclose sentences for most jobs

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act has brought new changes to spending period for convictions. This means that people will no longer have to disclose sentences for most jobs, although there is a list of excluded offences which will still remain unspent for life. People sentenced to community orders will be free to move on and stop disclosing their conviction as soon as the order ends.

Find more info here

Employers to take steps to prevent sexual harassment from happening in their workplace

The landmark Worker Protection Bill has passed its final stage in the House of Commons which means it will become law before the end of the year. This bill requires employers to take steps to prevent sexual harassment from happening in their workplaces including making clear policies, training and conducting proper and impartial investigations. This also means that the Equalities and Human Rights Commission will be able to take action against organisations that breach this duty, and employers will be liable to individuals at an employment tribunal for sexual harassment claims.

6. Upcoming Policy & Campaign Work

Manifesto for Women

Are you a woman or a representative of a woman’s organisation? Come join us at our next Women’s Organisations Network (WON) meeting as we put together a Manifesto for Women that represents specifically women’s needs for the forthcoming general elections.

Get your voice heard! If you would like to attend, RSVP here: samra@nottinghamwomenscentre.com

We hope to disseminate this Manifesto widely and hold our candidates accountable through our Hustings event.

Endometriosis Awareness – Don’t suffer in silence!

1 March 2023

1 in 10 (1.5 million) people suffer from endometriosis in the UK – a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes.

Endometriosis is a common condition in the UK but it still currently takes an average of eight years to get a diagnosis here. This is despite:

58% of those diagnosed having visited GP over 10 times
21% visiting doctors in hospital over 10 times
53% visiting A&E with symptoms
27% going to A&E more than three times

All About Endometriosis – awareness event

Come along to a FREE awareness event we’re planning with healthcare professionals on May 17th! It’s a welcoming space to learn about endometriosis as well as to talk about your experience of endometriosis.

When: Wednesday May 17th 6-7:30pm

Where: On Zoom

Topics that will be covered in this session include:

What is endometriosis?
Getting diagnosed
Living with Endometriosis
Treatment and Management
Accessing services and support for endometriosis in Nottingham

Speakers:

Dr Deb Shilpa, Consultant Gynaecologist, Nottingham
Sanya Kurmani, NHS Nottingham

We understand that endometriosis is a broad subject especially around cultural considerations and how you experience endometriosis if you’re transitioning/ed. Come along to this session for an overview and there will be time at the end to share what you’d like to hear more specific information on.

There will be a Q&A session to chat about what is important to you, your experience, ideas and challenges. You don’t have to come prepared – just join the conversation!

Symptoms

Endometriosis can affect ALL women of childbearing age and people assigned female at birth including non-binary, gender fluid and transgender people. In addition to all the issues people already experience when suffering from endometriosis, transgender people experience additional barriers to accessing healthcare.

Classic symptoms of endometriosis include: painful/heavy periods; painful sex and infertility, but the full list of symptoms is much longer and may include:

Heavy periods with/without clots
Pre-menstrual spotting
Prolonged bleeding
Irregular periods
Painful bowel movements
Blood in the urine (haematuria)
Extreme tiredness
Depression
Frequent infections such as thrush (candida)
Leg and back pains
See more on the Endometriosis UK website

Even a small amount of endometriosis deposits can be more painful for the sufferer than some severe diseases.

More information

If you think you might have endometriosis, are coming to terms with a diagnosis, or just want to find out more information, take a look at the following:

“I left with only a nappy and a water bottle for my 13month-old baby” – Campaigning Issues Paper Winter 2022/23

9 February 2023

Our quarterly issues papers outline just some of issues impacting our service users at the moment, as highlighted by our caseworkers and management team. We send this anonymised information to a wide range of decision makers, such as Nottingham’s MPs and Council leaders, with the aim of creating change in partnership with other stakeholders.

If you have any questions or feedback, or would like to be added to the Issues Paper distribution list, please email our Policy and Influencing Officer – ezinwanne@nottinghamwomenscentre.com.

You can download the Issues Paper in full here.

1. Storage provision for women fleeing domestic violence in Nottingham

Case studies

A 66 year-old woman who suffered arthritis was emotionally abused by her partner. She could not leave the abusive relationship as leaving meant that she would leave her medically recommended armchair behind. She was worried that her partner would burn all her stuff if she fled without keeping the arm chair and other valuables safe. She was forced to stay in the abusive relationship until she got an accommodation where she can go with her arm chair.

Another woman said: “I left with only a nappy and a water bottle for my 13months old baby, there was nowhere to save my valuable items.“

Background

Moving can be difficult under any circumstances, but leaving an abusive household is uniquely stressful, costly and potentially dangerous. According to the World Health Organization, 27% of women aged 15-49 who have been in a relationship have been subjected to violence by their intimate partner at least once in their lifetime. Although women are advised to flee abusive homes, often times refuges provided for women fleeing domestic violence has no provision for women to store valuables.

Evidence shows that women often return multiple times to retrieve their belongings due to financial hardship or else lose valuable items altogether. Women have reported being worried about losing personal possessions, valuable children’s items and even a whole household!

Women with lived experiences say:

They suffer from guilt and emotional trauma of children leaving their things
They are forced to remain in abusive relationships for fear of losing valuable items.
They are exposed to greater financial hardship, as they lose valuables when they flee.
Their mental and physical health is impacted from the trauma of leaving behind valuables they worked their lives for.

What NWC is doing about this issue

We are engaging with Nottingham City Homes as well as relevant stakeholders within the city to try and find charity storage slots for women fleeing domestic abuse.

What change is needed at a policy level

Special storage provision for women fleeing domestic violence within the city to store their valuables to enable women leave abusive relationships as soon as possible.
Further investment in crisis fund and greater awareness on the importance of storage provision for women and how a lack of provision can make women remain in abusive relationships.

2. Lack of specialist endometriosis clinic in Nottingham (an update)

Case study

“I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2018 after suffering from crippling heavy periods, chronic pelvic pain and fatigue for over 12 years. The gynaecologist who diagnosed me did not have the special interest in endometriosis required by the NICE guidelines and told me that I had mild endometriosis which she had removed during my diagnostic surgery. This turned out to be a misdiagnosis I’ve now been diagnosed me with severe endometriosis, which requires a different level of treatment.

My second round of treatment has been delayed due to Covid. My symptoms are worsening all the time and I am now in constant pain. I have gained 2 stone and I am no longer able to run (due to pain from the endometrioma) which was something which was very beneficial for my mental as well as physical health. Because I rely on strong painkillers to get through the day, I am now opiate dependant and when I do have the surgery I am waiting for (assuming it is successful) I will need to go through an opiate withdrawal programme.”

Because I have severe endometriosis, I have to be treated by a specialist endometriosis centre, however Nottingham does not have such a centre so I need to travel to Leicester for my care. This is also where my surgery will take place meaning it is unlikely that any friends or family will be able to visit me while I’m in hospital.”

Background

1 in 10 (1.5 million) women suffer from endometriosis in the UK – a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes. It currently takes an average of eight years to get a diagnosis with endometriosis despite the fact that:

58% of those diagnosed had visited GP over 10 times,
21% visited doctors in hospital over 10 times,
53% visited A&E with symptoms
27% went to A&E more than three times.

Nottingham

Several our staff and service users are suffering due to the lack of a specialist NHS endometriosis clinic in Nottingham. Women are being forced to travel to Leicester, Peterborough, Birmingham, and other parts of the country for treatment. This is particularly difficult for women with caring responsibility and those who do not have cars. Women who access social security can claim back travel costs, but women on low wages cannot claim financial support for travel.

We ran a poll through our social media platforms and found that 45% of respondents with endometriosis (7 of 15 women) said they had to travel to other parts of the country for treatment. Women unanimously agreed that it was “extremely important” that Nottingham gets a specialist endometriosis treatment centre through NHS.

Lack of appropriate and timely treatment can have a serious impact on women’s mental health and has been linked to painkiller addiction. 90% of the women we polled with endometriosis said they would have liked psychological support, but they have not been offered this as part of their treatment.

What is NWC doing about this?

We are hosting an Endometriosis campaign in March 2023 to raise awareness on the symptoms, prevalence and how to access help within the city if diagnosed with endometriosis.

We are still engaging with the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) on possibility of a specialist clinic in Nottingham.

What we want changed at a policy level

As outlined in NICE Guidelines, we want anybody who is suspected to be suffering from endometriosis to be seen by a gynaecologist who has a special interest in endometriosis (i.e. specialist training). We have learnt there are currently not many gynaecologists with a special interest in endometriosis in Nottingham. This impedes women’s timely access to medical help and diagnosis.
Better training and more awareness about endometriosis in Nottingham’s GP practises. It currently takes an average of 8years (several GP visits) to identify symptoms of and diagnose endometriosis. This has a debilitating impact on every aspect of the life of women and is expensive for the system.
Free psychological support for women suffering from endometriosis.
We want to see the funding allocated for a specialist endometriosis clinic in Nottingham. There are an estimated 30,000 women who suffer with endometriosis in the city.

3. Unaffordable childcare provision forcing women out of the workplace (an update)

“Before I started getting the free hours when my boys turned 3, basically all my wages went on childcare”
Nottingham resident

Background

Unaffordable childcare is a key issue that’s been raised multiple times by our service users and staff. Most UK Government spending is targeted at preschool age (3-4 years) which has been shown to limit women’s ability to return to or stay in work after giving birth. England is also one of the most expensive places in the world for childcare (only Japan is more expensive in terms of percentage of household income) with the average cost of a full-time nursery place at £263 a week, which is over half of average wage.

What NWC is doing about this issue:

In collaboration with Nottingham City Council, we designed an action plan to develop an awareness campaign, promote the benefits to employers of inclusive recruitment and maximise funding opportunities for childcare support and lobby for sustained change on the high cost of childcare.
We designed an inclusive recruitment guide with recommendations for employers and recruitment firms to adopt child care friendly measures to recruit and retain women in the workforce. See the guide here.
We submitted evidence to the Education Committee Inquiry into support for childcare and the early years.
We conducted survey and interviews with women and listening circles with Nottingham Muslim Women’s Network and Heya Women.

What we want changed at a policy level

Free full-time childcare from 6 months up to 2years to enable women find motivation to get back to work and their career.
Free child care for women who wish to attend medical appointments/ professional trainings.

4. The mental impacts of the use of Alcohol Tags

Background

Through its case work, Nottingham Women’s Centre has identified the case of the use of alcohol tags and its adverse impact of its use on women.

Case study

Mary, a woman with four children was sentenced to wear an alcohol tag. She was not given any specialist support until several weeks after tag was in place. She also didn’t appear to have been given any information about the health impact of stopping alcohol use so suddenly. As a result of this, she suffered chronic mental and physical health challenges.

What NWC is doing about this issue:

We are investigating this case, what support is available to women and any possible impact on women and their mental health.

5. Friday Releases

Background

On 14^th June 2022, the Ministry of Justice announced plans to end Friday releases for those with resettlement needs. This is a welcome improvement and we appreciate the efforts of Nacro, and other supporters of the campaign.

However, this is not yet a reality as NWC still continues to see cases of women released on Friday and several difficulties they face in accessing the support they need before the weekend or close of day. We use this opportunity to emphasise the unique vulnerability of women who face several and multiple disadvantages and how a Friday prison release date impacts their mental health and subsequent resettlement into the society.

According to Charlie Taylor, Chief Inspector of Prisons, failing to ensure women have suitable accommodation plays a key role in the cycle of reoffending. He said: “Without stable, safe accommodation many women are liable to have mental health relapses, return to substance misuse and become involved in crime on release, creating more victims and, at great cost to the taxpayer, repeating the cycle and undoing the good work of the prison.”

What NWC is doing about this issue:

Following the announced plan of the government to end Friday release for people that have resettlement needs, we released a statement emphasising the role of gender in assessing the vulnerability and resettlement needs of women leaving prison. Women face frightening levels of sexual harassment; abuse and violence on the streets; severe and multiple disadvantages; intersectional inequality; and a home environment could be a risk to their safety.

What we want changed at policy level

An actual end to Friday releases for women

6. Cost of Living Crisis

Nottingham Women Centre has seen an increasing number of women and service users struggle to meet their basic needs such as heating for the home and appropriate clothing.

What NWC is doing about this issue:

Between July 2022 and Jan 2023, we have given out £1720 in emergency Argos or Tesco vouchers to women in need of extra support and applied for extra funding to do so. The Centre has also spent over £300k on giveaways such as warm clothing for women since October 2022, gain via extra funding we have obtained. Some of our lovely recipients said:

“By providing our family with energy saving equipment and items to keep our home cosy is such a blessing. I’m hoping to put less money in my pre-payment meters and therefore have more money to spend on healthier food for the children. Thank you so so much“

“I feel warmer already”

“This funding has given me a lovey warm feeling inside

7. Struggling to pay Council Tax

Several women have come to us recently and reported a struggle to pay for their council tax. Many earn as little as £20 or £50 over the applicable threshold amount for Council Tax Support and they make the point that whilst they do not qualify for council tax support, they cannot afford to pay the full amount either as the amount they earn over the applicable amount does not significantly improve their financial ability to pay the full council tax.

In addition to this, if you default on an instalment of Council Tax, you lose the right to pay by instalments and become liable to pay the full amount immediately. Further failure to pay after a reminder notice means you will be summoned to appear before court. This has caused anxiety and several women are running they run into debt as a result.

Women have pointed out that the threshold to qualify for Council Tax Support is low and they are still not able to pay the full Council Tax amount if they do not qualify. With this in mind it is crucial to examine the suitability of the current system of Council Tax payments and explore the possibility of a levels system of payments where Council Tax is paid according to where the resident falls within a salary range (with three or four different levels of salary ranges available). This would enable local residents to pay according to their earnings and reduces anxiety and mental stress.

What NWC is doing about this issue:

We are engaging with councillors to explore any possible change to the current system of council tax payment.

Working with Nottingham City Council to tackle unaffordable childcare costs in Nottingham

9 November 2021

Author: Erika Yap

In the summer of 2021, the policy team at Nottingham Women’s Centre released its quarterly Campaigning Issues Paper which highlighted the impact of unaffordable childcare on women not just in Nottingham, but also across the whole of the UK.

The Paper, and the social media polling the Centre did to inform it, showed how unaffordable childcare was driving women out of the workplace. In fact, almost 75% of women surveyed said the cost of childcare affects the amount they can work.

England is one of the most expensive places in the world for childcare; the average cost of a full-time nursery place is £263 a week, which is over half the average wage.

Since the Paper’s publication, NWC’s policy team have pursued this campaign by running in-depth focus groups with local mothers and driving forward its policy recommendations in collaboration with Nottingham City Council Councillor, Rebecca Langton. In the long term, the team is also researching alternatives to the childcare system.

Policy change with Nottingham City Council

When Nottingham City Councillor, Rebecca Langton, heard and read about the findings of our research she endeavoured to support our call for policy change striving to make the situation better for parents at a local level. Using information from our research and focus groups, as well as data collected from social media polls, we developed a policy brief advocating for measures to improve the accessibility, affordability and flexibility of childcare.

On Monday 8th November, the following motion went to full council in Nottingham as a result of this policy brief. The motion went as follows:

Motion in the name of Councillor Rebecca Langton

Nottingham City Council recognises:

Childcare is a critical social infrastructure that can both tackle childhood inequality and enable mothers to work but childcare in England is in crisis and this has been compounded by Covid-19.
England is one of the most expensive places in the world for childcare; the average cost of a full-time nursery place is £263 a week, which is over half the average wage.
Childcare costs increased 7 times faster than wages in the East Midlands, the highest level of inflation outside of London
75% of families use private nurseries and 56% of parents rely on grandparents for help.
Although childcare affects all parents, this Council recognises that the impact of unaffordable childcare is disproportionately felt by women.

This Council notes a recent survey conducted by Nottingham Women’s Centre, which found that:

75% of Nottingham women surveyed said the cost of childcare affects the amount they can work
53% of women reported that the pandemic has increased the negative impacts of unaffordable childcare
25% of women said they have been affected by redundancy/furlough because of childcare issues

This Council resolves to:

Deliver an awareness raising campaign to increase access to support amongst job seekers and practitioners
Ensure easy access to information relating to childcare and support available to parents, addressing the specific needs of the family
Work in partnership with the Nottingham Women’s Centre to run a joint campaign on child care and work, providing employers with a toolkit for best practice on issues relating to inclusive recruitment and childcare as a barrier to accessing work
Review its own policies to ensure it is doing all it reasonably can to set a good example on supporting working parents
Seek funding to develop and deliver a Women into Work initiative
Reaffirm its commitment to Child Friendly status for Nottingham.

This Council calls on the Government to:

Provide subsidised childcare from 6 months Introduce a cap on extra hours of childcare of £1/hour
Introduce flexible furlough for all parents
Increase child benefit and remove the two-child cap for Child Tax credits and Universal Credit
Improve the Self Employment Income Support Scheme so that parents are supported when they are unable to work due to school and early years closures
Encourage private companies to assess employee childcare needs and invest in solutions to meet those needs and those of the surrounding community

The motion in full along with the full agenda for Full Council can be found here.

What else can be done?

Alternative solutions: Co-produced childcare with Lucie Stephens

Beyond our work with Nottingham City Council, NWC has also been looking into alternative ways of organising and structuring childcare provision. This led us to getting in contact with Lucie Stephens – Founder of Friendly Families Nursery and former Head of Co-production & Core Economy at the New Economics Foundation – to discuss the alternative of parent-led childcare.

Co-produced (also known as ‘Parent-led’) childcare involves the collective ownership of childcare provision services by the childcare staff and/or parents. These organisations rely on parents’ contributions of time and skills to the nursery, reducing labour-costs and therefore childcare fees for parents.

We discussed this system with Lucie Stephens who shared expertise of the economics of co-production as well as her personal experiences as both a parent using co-produced childcare and a founder of a parent-led nursery in London.

‘Without Free Childcare It’s Impossible’ Campaigning Issues Paper – Summer 2021

5 August 2021

1. Struggling to access GP appointments in Nottingham

Case study

“I was really struggling with my mental health and having lots of panic attacks which were stopping me from working. Even though I really didn’t want to call my GP because I felt ashamed, I eventually built up the courage to reach out for help. However, when I did call, the receptionist said there was a month-long waiting list to get an appointment with the doctor which made everything so much worse.”

Long waiting times

Case workers are reporting that women are waiting up to four weeks to see a doctor at their GP surgery in Nottingham city.

Online portal

Some GP practices have asked patients to book through an online portal, rather than booking over the phone. This has caused some women high levels of anxiety, which has been a barrier to accessing GP appointments. One of our clients has been unable to get a repeat prescription due to the new booking system and the anxiety it has caused her.

Online portals can also be a barrier to accessing appointment for women who:

● Do not have the relevant digital skills. 22% of the UK’s population lacks basic digital skills.

● Do not have access to Wi-Fi and/or digital devices. Half of households earning between £6000 – £10,000 do not have access to the internet at home and between 1 – 1.8 million families do not have access to a laptop, desktop or tablet at home.

● Are not able to read and/or write in English. 16.4 % of adults in England have very poor literacy skills, which means they are unlikely to be able to fill out a form, read instructions or easily use the internet. Women who have English as a non-primary language (around 7% of UK population) may struggle to write or understand English easily, which may prevent them from using an online booking portal.

Call backs

GPs don’t give a specific time for ‘call backs’, which can be particularly difficult for women with work and caring responsibilities. Women have reported being forced to use annual leave to wait for a GP ‘call back’ to ensure they’re able to pick up the phone when the GP calls. Women with caring responsibilities have been unable to organise childcare without knowing the time of the call, which has resulted in women missing out on health care.

What NWC is doing about this issue

Our caseworkers can try to book appointments on behalf of clients, when feasible, but this is not a long-term solution. We can also signpost women to Nottinghamshire HealthWatch if they want to make a complaint about their experiences.

What change is needed at a policy level

Specific times for ‘call backs’ to enable those with caring responsibilities to plan care
Further investment in reception staff to enable women to call their GPs and book an appointment over the phone, which will avoid discrimination of those living in digital poverty and those with poor literacy.
For Nottinghamshire CCG to monitor this issue and complete an equalities impact assessment regarding the move to online bookings and longer waiting times to access appointments.

2. Lack of specialist endometriosis clinic in Nottingham

Case study

“I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2018 after suffering from cripplingly heavy periods, chronic pelvic pain and fatigue for over 12 years. The gynaecologist who diagnosed me did not have the special interest in endometriosis required by the NICE guidelines and told me that I had mild endometriosis which she had removed during my diagnostic surgery. This turned out to be a misdiagnosis I’ve now been diagnosed me with severe endometriosis, which requires a different level of treatment.

My second round of treatment has been delayed due to Covid. My symptoms are worsening all the time and I am now in constant pain. I have gained two stone and I am no longer able to run (due to pain from the endometrioma) which was something which was very beneficial for my mental as well as physical health. Because I rely on strong painkillers to get through the day, I am now opiate dependant and when I do have the surgery I am waiting for (assuming it is successful) I will need to go through an opiate withdrawal programme.

Background

● 58% of those diagnosed had visited GP over 10 times

● 21% visited doctors in hospital over 10 times

● 53% visited A&E with symptoms

● 27% went to A&E more than three times

Nottingham

Several our staff and service users are suffering due to the lack of a specialist NHS endometriosis clinic in Nottingham. Women are being forced to travel to Leicester, Peterborough, Birmingham, and other parts of the country for treatment. This is particularly difficult for women with caring responsibilities and those who do not have cars. Women who access social security can claim back travel costs, but women on low wages cannot claim financial support for travel.

We ran a poll through our social media platforms and found that 45% of respondents with endometriosis (7 out of 15 women) said they had to travel to other parts of the country for treatment. Women unanimously agreed that it was “extremely important” that Nottingham gets a specialist endometriosis treatment centre through NHS.

What is NWC doing about this?

We will continue to raise awareness about endometriosis by sharing information about the condition on our social media channels and we will consider becoming an Endometriosis Friendly Employer.

What we want changed at a policy level

1) We want to see the funding allocated for a specialist endometriosis clinic in Nottingham. There are an estimated 16,000 women who suffer with endometriosis in the city.

2) As outlined in NICE Guidelines, we want anybody who is suspected to be suffering from endometriosis should be seen by a gynaecologist who has a special interest in endometriosis (i.e. specialist training). We have learnt there are currently no gynaecologists with a special interest in endometriosis in Nottingham.

3) Better training and more awareness about endometriosis in Nottingham’s GP practises.

4) Free psychological support for women suffering from endometriosis.

3. Unaffordable childcare provision forcing women out of the workplace

“Before I started getting the free hours when my boys turned three, basically all my wages went on childcare” – A woman from Nottingham

Background

Unaffordable childcare is a key issue that’s been raised multiple times by our service users and staff. Most UK Government spending is targeted at preschool age (3-4 years) which has been shown to limit women’s ability to stay in work after giving birth. England is also one of the most expensive places in the world for childcare (only Japan is more expensive in terms of percentage of household income) with the average cost of a full-time nursery place at £263 a week, which is over half of average wage.

More recently, parents have been unable to work when their child is sent home from school due to a Covid case. Employers have no legal obligation to pay their staff in these circumstances, which means parents have been losing two weeks income in these circumstances. This can quickly push single parents into a financial crisis.

Nottingham

We surveyed 55 women about their experiences of motherhood, childcare and work and found:

● 75% of women said the cost of childcare affects the amount they can work

● 53% of women reported that the pandemic has increased the negative impacts of unaffordable childcare

● 25% of women said they have been affected by redundancy/furlough because of childcare issues

Research by Pregnant then Screwed found that 15% of mothers have either been made redundant or expect to be made redundant since the pandemic and of those, 46% have said that a lack of childcare provision played a role in their redundancy. They also found that 72% of mothers have been forced to work fewer hours because of childcare issues, and 65% of mothers who have been furloughed say a lack of childcare was the reason.

Women told us:

● “One of us has to work part time so that we only use the free hours, but we didn’t get any when one of us couldn’t work”

● “I was part time and freelance. Returning to work was hard as you pay even if you have no work booked.”

● “Childcare costs should be subsidised, but workplaces also need to offer flexibility.”

● “I decided not to go back to work after maternity leave as I would have been getting so little money after childcare costs.”

● “It’s due to the free hours (now she’s 3) that it’s not affecting me financially right now”

● “It’s impossible”

What is NWC doing about this?

NWC used to run an affordable childcare crèche but unfortunately this had to close due to funding restraints.

What we want changed at a policy level

1) Free full-time childcare from 6 months

2) Track and trace isolation grant for parents. Gingerbread and Pregnant then Screwed are calling on the government to extend the Track and Trace isolation grant of £500 to parents who are unable to work when their child is sent home from school due to Coronavirus. There is a petition calling this – https://www.change.org/p/rishi-sunak-mp-parent-isolation-grant

3) An independent review of childcare funding and affordability. There is a petition calling for this – https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/586700

4. Putting more women in prison

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is creating 500 extra prison places for women to “accommodate a growing prisoner population”, some of which will be built at Foston Hall in Derbyshire. MoJ has predicted that the number of women prisoners is expected to rise by 40% over the next five years due to the recruitment of extra police officers and longer sentences.

This plan goes against the Government’s own female offender strategy which envisages more women being given non-custodial sentences as an alternative to prison. It also goes against the Government’s own evidence which has previously shown that prison is more likely to increase reoffending rather than reduce it and actually called for a reduction in the women’s prison population.[1]

What NWC is doing about this issue

We believe prison tears families and communities apart. We’ve joined Women in Prison and many other representatives from housing, domestic abuse, criminal justice, midwifery, and children’s organisations in writing to Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland QC MP and Prisons Minister, Alex Chalk MP. This combined letter makes a clear case for community solutions instead. It was published in the Sunday Times and also warns about the rise of self-harm in prison. It also clearly refutes the Government’s claim that additional places are needed to prepare for a projected rise in the prison population due to the future hiring of more police officers.

We are also circulating a letter template link on our social media and across our networks encouraging more people to write to the Justice Minister to ask him to #Stopthe500 now.

To read the letter in full click here.

What we want changed at a policy level

We would like to see a new model of funding for community-based women’s centres that provides support to women affected by the criminal justice system. We fully support The Case for Sustainable Funding for Women’s Centres report published by Women in Prison together with the Women’s Budget Group, The Nelson Trust, Together Women, Anawim and Brighton Women’s Centre.

The report asks that: “Central Government use the upcoming Spending Review to introduce a New Deal for Women’s Centres which should:

● Provide core funding from central Government with a system of matched funding granted from a local consortium of commissioners.

● Provide mandatory commissioning guidance to local commissioners to ensure a network of appropriate services is available nationwide.

[1] *”In 2018 the Ministry of Justice launched the Female Offender Strategy which set out to reduce the women’s prison population, committing to shifting emphasis from custody to the community, and as part of this abandoning plans to build five new Community Prisons for Women previously announced in 2016.” Women in Prison, July 2021

Who we are

Nottingham Women’s Centre is a charity and community space that empowers women by providing financial and employment support, counselling, training and campaigning in a women-only building in central Nottingham. Our staff and volunteers support around 250 women a week. We know from our work that the pandemic has been a difficult time for everyone but it’s been especially hard for women who were already struggling with their mental health, poverty or discrimination.

Our quarterly Issues Papers outline some of the issues impacting our service users that have been highlighted by our caseworkers and management team. We send this anonymised information to a wide range of decision makers, such as Nottingham’s MPs and Leader of the Council, with the aim of creating change in partnership with other stakeholders.

If you have any questions or feedback, or would like to be added to the Issues Paper distribution list, please email our Policy and Influencing Officer – katie@nottinghamwomenscentre.com

Issues Paper Spring 2021: “Mental health is the primary issue”

14 April 2021

Issues paper Spring 2021 - Website_Twitter_FB_LinkedIn.png

Nottingham Women’s Centre is a charity and community space that empowers women by providing financial and employment support, counselling, training, social activities and activism in a women’s building in central Nottingham. Before lockdown measures were imposed, around 250 women came to the Women’s Centre every week. We are now supporting similar numbers over the phone and online.

Our staff and volunteers have supported many women facing crisis during Covid-19. It’s a difficult time for everyone at the moment, but it’s been especially hard for women who were already struggling with their mental health, poverty or discrimination. This blog is a summary of the main issues that have been highlighted by our caseworkers and management team, along with issues identified by our local ‘Communities of Identity’ funding partners, POW and Women’s Resource Centre.

This paper can be downloaded in full here and is compiled by our Policy and Influencing Officer, please send any feedback or comments to: katie@nottinghamwomenscentre.com.

Mental Health Crisis

“Mental health is the primary issue for our young people”

– Communities of Identity Funding Partner

Women and girls from a wide range of backgrounds across Nottingham have reported increased mental distress due to bereavements, isolation and Covid restrictions. Co-ordinators for groups supporting Muslim women, young people, sex workers and trans women have reported mental health issues as the primary concern for their community members.
Research by the international charity CARE has also highlighted the global disparities between men and women’s experiences of Covid-related mental health with 27% of women reporting increased mental illness since the start of the pandemic compared to 10% of men.

“The main issue impacting our service users is social isolation, especially for women living alone. Some have been furloughed and struggled to survive on less hours or less pay, which has affected their mental health. They were worried about feeding children at lunchtime while kids were off school isolating due to Covid cases in their classes, and during school holidays. We are aware that ourselves and other organisations need to be even more aware of people’s mental situations caused by events over the last year. For those women already on an unsteady path Covid has rocked them and they have no or very little support. A lot of the women we speak with do not want to go back to the doctor and get labelled with the stigma of mental health.”

– Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers (Communities of Identity Funding Partner)

“The main issues have been not able to do any activities hence women are being isolated and losing confidence but we are trying to support and help women in any way we can by doing packed lunches and to help them to stay positive and gain confidence and live a healthy life for we do cook healthy lunches”

– Muslim Women’s Group (Communities of Identity Funding Partner)

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is a huge piece of legislation which proposes major changes to Government policies relating to crime and justice, including protests. We are acutely aware of how many women’s rights have been won through non-violent direct action and are therefore are deeply concerned about the new protest restrictions.

Currently the police can impose specific measures on the routes of marches and put restrictions on protests that may result in “serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community“. The Policing Bill will allow Police chiefs to put more conditions on rallies such as imposing a start and finish time and setting noise limits. Offices will also be able to fine individuals up to £2,500 if they refuse to follow Police directions. These restrictions are designed to prevent the occupation of public spaces and other forms of nonviolent direct action.

More than 150 rights organisations including Liberty, End Violence Against Women Coalition and Unite have co-signed a letter to Home Secretary, Priti Patel, and Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland, warning that the legislation would be “an attack on some of the most fundamental rights of citizens” and have asked the government to “fundamentally rethink its approach”.

Legacy benefits

Some of our clients are concerned and angry as they have been excluded from the £20 Benefits uplift announced by Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, in the latest budget because they have remained on ‘legacy benefits’. An estimated 1.9 million disabled people will miss out on the £20-a-week payments which has led to two disabled people launching legal action against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Some of our clients have chosen to stay on ‘legacy benefits’ (e.g. ESA and Child Tax Credit) rather than move over to Universal Credit system for a wide range of reasons such as: UC usually being paid monthly rather than fortnightly, payment amounts perceived as being less predictable, and concerns about the five week delay between an application for UC and receiving the first payment.

Women who do choose to switch to UC may be entitled to an ‘advance payment’ loan, which can be taken out at the start of the five weeks but many women fear they will not be able to survive on the reduced level of benefit paid while repaying the loan.

There are different rules around savings, earnings and eligibility for UC and the £20 uplift is only guaranteed until September. Longer term this means some women may be worse off switching, and it’s not possible to ‘switch back’ to legacy benefits. The finance blog MoneySavingExpert says “as rough guidelines, those who are better off (on UC) are typically those who pay private rents in expensive cities. Those who might be worse off are those with disabilities.”

Our caseworkers have noted that, on average, women are paid 10% less on UC in comparison to legacy benefits. It’s understandable why some women do not want to switch, but we do not believe it’s fair that they have been excluded from the £20 benefits uplift.

Gypsy, Traveller and Roma Women in the Criminal Justice System

New research by The Traveller Movement reports that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) women are shockingly overrepresented in the Criminal Justice system, forming approximately 6% of the prison population and yet just 0.1% of the general population. This is even higher at the women’s prison in Derbyshire (HMP Foston Hall) where at least 9% of women self-identify as Gypsy/Irish Traveller. The Traveller Movement demonstrates how GRT people are routinely discriminated against by the police and therefore have poor outcomes throughout the justice system, contributing to this overrepresentation.

‘Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Women in Prison’ calls for policymakers to implement a series of recommendations, including:

A call for increase in the use of Out Of Court Disposals (OOCDs) for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Women, and also for consistent ethnic monitoring to capture how these are implemented by the Police.
A call for more integrated sentencing plans to better support GRT women upon their release.
Prisons need to become trauma-informed spaces, and HMPPS should commission providers with expertise in Domestic Abuse and Adverse Childhood Experiences to develop a better understanding of the intersecting needs of GRT women.
Roma ethnicity must be introduced into ethnic monitoring by Criminal Justice organisations to allow the experiences of Roma women to be better recorded and better included in calls for reform.

Problems with Unpaid Work Orders

Unpaid Work Orders are community orders or suspended sentences where people are obliged to carry out between 40 and 300 hours of unpaid work, usually at a charity or community project.

Some women haven’t been able to complete Unpaid Work Orders during Covid restrictions because charities have either closed their premises and activities or have been overwhelmed with work and unable to take on extra responsibilities. The Orders are time-limited by court, which has led to some women’s Orders expiring before they have been given the opportunity to complete them.

We know that a clear end date for court orders, and all forms of punishment, are really important for women’s rehabilitation and mental health. However, rather than allowing women to move on with their lives, some courts have extended court Unpaid Work Orders by a further 6 to 12 months. This has left some women feeling distressed and frustrated, which has led to some women mounting legal challenges against the extension as other types of orders have not been extended.

Rise of online sex work

There are growing numbers of women offering online sex work. Research by the sex workers organisation, POW Nottingham, has highlighted a new community of online sex workers, mostly consisting of young women, working on the platform OnlyFans.

Even though these women don’t necessarily identify with the term ‘sex worker’, they can experience risks relating to sex work including: harassment, outing, and stalking.

The research also found that street and off-street sex workers have generally not moved online. This could be due to digital exclusion, language barriers or lack of marketing or technological skills.

Download the full Spring 2021 Issues Paper here

Issues Paper Winter 2020/21: “It’s hard to know what’s true anymore”

12 January 2021

Issues impacting women in Nottingham during Covid-19 (Winter 2020/21)

Nottingham Women’s Centre (NWC) is a charity and community space that empowers women by providing financial and employment support, counselling, training, social activities and activism in a women’s building in central Nottingham. Before lockdown measures were imposed, around 600 women came to the Women’s Centre every week[1]. We are now supporting similar numbers over the phone and online.

This blog is a summary of the main issues that have been highlighted by our caseworkers and management team, along with information from two focus groups: our quarterly feedback focus group ‘V.I.E.W’, and one specifically regarding misinformation held with Nadia Whittome MP.

Click to download this Issues Paper

1. Misinformation

Caseworkers have reported a notable rise in the amount of misinformation and conspiracy theories within since the pandemic started. Misinformation has rapidly spread through social media networks (e.g. WhatsApp and closed Facebook groups) and has become normalised. This could pose a threat to public health as the misinformation generally creates mistrust in the Government and the medical establishment, and creates tension between racialized groups.

Reported conspiracy theories include false information on the following topics:

5G internet causes Covid-19; the pandemic has been planned by either the Chinese Government or Bill Gates; drug companies want to depopulate the planet; vaccinations are harmful and/or being used to ‘track’ individuals; an explosion in Beirut was set-up by the Government; white British people’s cultures are being ‘erased’; there’s a plan to ethnically cleanse black people through Black Lives Matter protests.

The history of oppression and violence against racially minoritised communities fuels many of these conspiracy theories. Our caseworkers have noted that misinformation and conspiracy theories are particularly common in communities where English is the second language.

During our focus group on misinformation, it was noted that scientific information is often inaccessible due to the technical language used, whereas misinformation spreads widely because it uses plain language and more accessible formats, such as audio files or memes. It was also noted that far-right organisations are attaching themselves to legitimate campaigns such as anti-child exploitation and veteran’s rights to promote their own agenda of racial segregation.

Change needed:

Women in our focus group want shareable and easy-to-understand online materials that;

Explain how to identify misinformation
Actively dispute specific conspiracy theories
These online materials also need to be available in multiple languages.

Women also want community leaders and doctors to be vocal about getting the Covid-19 vaccine themselves to reassure people that it’s safe. For example, Nadia Whittome MP confirmed that she would be taking the vaccine. Testimonies from already trusted community leaders would be the most powerful, as new conspiracy theories may form around high profile politicians and celebrities having the vaccine (e.g. that they were taking a fake vaccination).

2. Transphobia

Transphobic hate crimes have quadrupled since 2015[2]. Recent research found that 60% of trans people had experienced transphobia online and more than 50% had experienced transphobia in the street[3]. This is partly due patriarchal gender norms, the hostile online ‘debate’ around updating the Gender Recognition Act (GRA), and anti-trans sentiments expressed by politicians such as Donald Trump.

We are proud to be a trans-inclusive women’s centre. The Board of NWC ratified our trans-inclusion policy[4] on 1st June 1998, although trans women were accessing the women’s centre for many years before that date. Contrary to some populist commentators, trans women have been a valued part of our community for many years and including trans women in our services hasn’t caused any internal issues. The only problem has been abuse from anti-trans activists over social media and the phone. This abuse has impacted our staff and volunteers’ mental health and increased our workloads.

The Women and Equalities Committee (a cross-party group of MPs who are selected to hold the Government to account regarding women and equalities) launched an Inquiry in November to investigate the Government’s handling of changes to the GRA. Our Policy Officer submitted evidence to the Inquiry based on information from NWC staff, volunteers and service users, as well as Notts Trans Hub, TRANS4ME and Nottingham Chameleons. We will publish the evidence in full on our website in the new year, but here’s a quick summary of some of the key barriers experienced by Trans people when accessing services in Nottingham:

1. Misgendering and problems with updating official records

Trans people, particularly non-binary people, have reported experiencing misgendering from reception staff and frontline staff when accessing support services, who do not respect their correct pronouns. This can have a detrimental impact on trans people’s mental health and sense of safety, as well as compromise service users’ privacy.

There are also many reports of support services taking a long time or making it difficult to update official records to reflect a trans person’s gender identity. For example, young trans people have to put their ‘deadname’ (the name they were given at birth, that they no longer use) on their exam papers. This causes extra stress and anxiety during exams.

2. Outdated Equality and Inclusion Forms

Equality and Diversity forms often do not offer a full range of genders, which results in data being lost because it’s not being collected. For example, non-binary people are forced to select ‘Would rather not say’ or ‘Other’. This leaves non-binary people feeling invisible and being erased from Equality and Diversity data and research. One of our non-binary partners remarked: “One day I hope I have the absolute joy of being identified as myself… I’d love to be identified as X”

3. Anxiety accessing services with ‘women’ in name

Trans people have reported feeling anxious about accessing services that have ‘woman’ in the title as they are concerned about potential hostility from anti-trans activists, even if they have a legal right to access those services. This is clearly concerning as trans women are at heightened risk of domestic and sexual violence. For example, Stonewall and YouGov’s research[5] found that 16% of trans women had experienced domestic violence in the last 12 months (whereas 7.5% of cis-bodied women had experienced domestic violence in the same period[6]).

4. Issues with safely accessing toilets

Our trans partners reported multiple issues with accessing public toilets. Most of these issues stemmed from a lack of gender neutral toilets, which led trans people to being confronted or challenged in the toilet and accused of being in the ‘wrong gender’ toilet. For example; “My daughter had an issue in the council-run toilet where the attendant challenged her in the public loos. Also her college made her use the disabled toilets.”

5. Digital exclusion and extreme isolation

A lot of the people talking about trans issues are tech competent, young, middle class people with resources that allow them to access support for being trans. Those who are working class and don’t have access to tech may struggle to access resources, services and experience increased risk of isolation, which is highly likely to impact that persons mental health.

3. Women with limited leave to remain and/or no recourse to public funds

We are supporting a number of women with no recourse to public funds or limited leave to remain in the UK. These women may have children who were born in the UK, but have to reapply for a visa every 2.5 years to stay with their children. The process of applying for a visa is costly and stressful, and involves the following charges:

The cost of the visa, along with a biometric residence permit: £2208
An upfront payment of NHS charges for the 2.5 years: £1560
Solicitor’s fees: approx. £700 – £800
The costs associated with visa renewal, which includes at least one in-person attendance at a centre (the nearest are in Manchester and Birmingham): approx. £30

This totals approximately £4,500 every 2.5 years, which is 521 hours’ work on minimum wage before paying for basic living costs.

Although use of a solicitor is optional, the women reported that attempting to do the application without a solicitor can be very hazardous. If the Home Office is unable to contact them directly they may decide that the application is fraudulent and dismiss it. In these circumstances fees may not be refunded. Using a solicitor means not only that all the forms will be checked but also that they will handle any queries by the Home Office and make sure that the responses are accurate. Most of the women felt that the extra charges involved were worth paying.

The visa process is not only very expensive but also highly stressful. It’s a threat to their right to remain in the UK if they make a mistake or the Home Office decides that they have made a mistake or that their application is not genuine. Two of the women we are supporting have incurred substantial debts trying to challenge Home Office decisions in the past. While they are on the 2.5 year visa they may have no recourse to public funds and therefore may not be eligible for any benefits including child benefits. If they don’t get a visa at all, they are unable to work.

After 10 years of being granted temporary visas, these women will be eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain.

Change needed:

We would like to be able to offer additional financial support to women with no recourse to public funds who are on very low incomes. We would be open to suggestions about where to access such funding.

We would also like to join or support campaigns that are working to reduce the stress and/or cost of the visa process for women with no recourse to public funds. For example, campaigning for low cost legal support, local arrangements for obtaining biometric cards, as well as bigger campaigns around visa fees/renewal times.

4. Housing

Research from the Women’s Budget Group[7] reveals a huge gender disparity in housing. Women’s housing tends to be of a lower standard than men’s in terms of affordability, ownership, safety and overcrowding. On average, women who privately rent spend 43% of their earnings on housing whereas men who privately rent spend 28%. Also the median home in England costs over 12 times women’s median wages, whereas it’s 8 times men’s median wage.

Issues with housing association accommodation have been raised by NWC caseworkers. Six of our current service users have been moved into housing association accommodation without basic flooring, decoration or white goods. The lack of carpet, laminate or wooden flooring makes houses unsafe for young children, particularly those that crawl, and the lack of clean decoration has impacted women’s confidence and wellbeing.

Change needed:

We would like housing associations to provide clean flooring as part of their basic ‘offer’ to new tenants, especially those who are particularly vulnerable such as women who have recently left a domestic violence refuge and/or those with small children.

We would also be open to joining campaigns that challenge high private rental costs for women.

5. Other issues reported through our partnerships

Women’s casual work

Many women rely on casual ‘cash in hand’ work such as catering jobs, cleaning, dog walking and child minding. Much of this work is no longer available because of Covid-related changes and restrictions. For example, a group of women cater for small events for cash, which enables them to pool their resources, socialise and have a small amount of financial independence. They haven’t been able to form a legal entity because their husbands disapprove so it’s been hard to get support during the pandemic and continue with their activities.

Rise in violence against sex workers

Our partners at POW who support sex workers in Nottingham said “We saw a rise in violence against our client base since the beginning of lockdown which has added another layer of complexity for some of the most complex people and disenfranchised people within the city”. A Bill regarding the legality of buying sex has passed its first reading in Parliament so we are expecting to cover this topic in greater detail in January 2021.

Covid-related scams

Caseworkers have reported that women have been approached over social media for ‘school funding’, which is actually a scam that asks women to hand over their bank details in exchange for a ‘free’ £70. Another scam tells women that a free £200 supermarket voucher is available for single mothers, if they provide their bank details.

Isolation and poor mental health

This continues to be a major issue. Many groups we work with, including trans support groups and Muslim women support groups, have reported isolation as being a huge issue with their service users.

Volunteer burnout

There are many community and ‘grassroots’ organisations that are run by 1 – 2 volunteers who are offering vital support to a whole community of women in Nottingham. We support many of these groups through our Communities of Identity funding, in partnership with Nottingham City Council. These volunteers have often experienced a rise in demand and work, but also more pressure on them as individuals, which is leading to ‘burnout’ and exhaustion. More funding and support is needed for these community leaders so they can continue to offer support through their organisations.

This document was compiled by our Policy and Influencing Officer. If you have any questions or feedback, please email Katie@nottinghamwomenscentre.com.

Footnotes:

[1] From April 2019 to March 2020 almost 600 women came through our door each week, 800 women participated in our courses and activities, 125 women accessed our counselling service and 70 volunteers were involved with the Centre.

[2] https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/10/14/hate-crime-england-wales-police-record-transphobia-homophobia-lgbt-home-office/

[3] http://www.galop.org.uk/transphobic-hate-crime-report-2020/

[4] https://www.nottinghamwomenscentre.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Trans-inclusion-policy-2017.pdf

[5] https://www.stonewall.org.uk/sites/default/files/lgbt_in_britain_home_and_communities.pdf

[6] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/domesticabusefindingsfromthecrimesurveyforenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2017

[7] https://wbg.org.uk/analysis/reports/a-home-of-her-own-housing-and-women/

Issues Papers

Nottingham Women’s Centre is excited to bring you this Election Edition of our policy updates, featuring our election campaign and current issues on our radar!

1. What We’re Working On

Prosecution for School Non-Attendance and Impact on Women

In the words of one woman:

Another woman told us:

Our Actions

Your Voice

WOMEN’S HEALTH MATTERS Project

Your Voice

2. What We’ve Achieved

The Impact of Alcohol Tags on Women

Our Actions

Your Voice

Our Letter to Nottingham City Council on Budget Cuts

3. What’s On Our Radar

4. Women’s Voices & Votes

Political Engagement Workshops

LOCAL ELECTIONS: EAST MIDLANDS COMBINED COUNTY AUTHORITY AND POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER (PCC)

Our Overarching Asks to the EMCCA Mayor & PCC

We sent all candidates standing in the General Election in Nottingham these six questions, about issues that women in Nottingham care about, alongside our Women’s Organisation Network manifesto.

Questions for candidates from the Women’s Organisation Network.

Here are responses from candidates we heard back from.

Labour & Co-operative Candidate for Nottingham North & Kimberley

Independent Candidate for Nottingham South

Labour Candidate for Nottingham East

What did we hear from the candidates?

Our CEO Vandna was chairing:

Questions to The Police and Crime Commissioner Candidates:

How will you ensure women’s voices are listened to in improving the experiences of women when they interact with the Police?

We have summarised key quotes from their answers below:

Questions to the Mayoral candidates

How will you make sure women and women’s organisations will be involved in shaping the priorities of the new combined authority?

Other questions included themes around building trust with women, and how to engage women who are experiencing multiple disadvantages and are marginalised and stigmatised in many ways. Candidates also responded to the question about safe streets asked to PCC candidates.

Here is our summary of quotes from their answers:

Whatever you do, don’t forget to vote in the East Midlands Mayor, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections tomorrow, Thursday 2nd May 2024!! Your vote is your voice! Use your vote to choose a better future for all women in the East Midlands!

Nottingham Women’s Centre is pleased to launch our manifesto for the 2024 local elections!

Nottingham Women’s Centre is excited to bring you this autumn / winter update on our policy and campaign work.

1. What we are working on right now!

The Impact of Alcohol Tags on Women

Background

Action

Prosecution for School Non Attendance – a disproportionate impact on women

Action

2. On our radar…

Other issues we are aware of:

3. What We Achieved!

We were at Parliament on December 6th!

Free hours for childcare from April 2024

Women’s Health

4. Partner Radar

Issues From Some Of Our Partners

Emerging Issues

Emerging Issues

Emerging Issues

Notts Trans Hub (formally Trans Space Notts)

Emerging Issue

Emerging Issues

Emerging Issue

Emerging Issue

5. Policy Updates

Autumn Statement/King’s Speech

Discretionary Friday/pre-Bank Holiday Release Scheme Policy Framework takes effect

People will no longer have to disclose sentences for most jobs

Employers to take steps to prevent sexual harassment from happening in their workplace

6. Upcoming Policy & Campaign Work

Manifesto for Women

1 in 10 (1.5 million) people suffer from endometriosis in the UK – a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes.

All About Endometriosis – awareness event

Come along to a FREE awareness event we’re planning with healthcare professionals on May 17th! It’s a welcoming space to learn about endometriosis as well as to talk about your experience of endometriosis.

Topics that will be covered in this session include:

S﻿peakers:

Symptoms

More information

You might also like to read:

“I left with only a nappy and a water bottle for my 13month-old baby” – Campaigning Issues Paper Winter 2022/23

Periods and contraception resources

Campaigning

Case studies

Women with lived experiences say:

Questions for candidates from the Women’s Organisation Network. 

Questions to The Police and Crime Commissioner Candidates:

How will you ensure women’s voices are listened to in improving the experiences of women when they interact with the Police? 

Questions to the Mayoral candidates 

How will you make sure women and women’s organisations will be involved in shaping the priorities of the new combined authority? 

Speakers: