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The original posting to this page relating to the
threat of closure is as below. The drafting including the tenses used has not
been changed to reflect subsequent events so could readers please bear that
in mind. The commentary about the threat
of closure is then followed by details of the Court action by Southall Black Sisters against The longer term issue of funding for SBS from LBE
remains subject to review by LBE. Any relevant developments will be updated
on this website. The threat of closure (as posted
in February 2008) Although not directly connected with energy
healing, Southall Black Sisters (SBS) are a mainstream
organisation supporting women going through very
difficult situations in their lives. For those who do not know them, SBS are
based just up the road in Southall and provide a
range of support services for Asian and Afro-Caribbean women who are suffering
various kinds of disempowerment and abuse at the hands of others. SBS is also
active in influencing national and local government policy development on
issues within its area of operations such as forced marriages and honour killings. You can read more by going to a page
about SBS on this website by clicking here
or by going to the SBS website direct by clicking here. SBS is an organisation in
the voluntary sector which is dependent upon funding from various public
sector and charitable sources for its ongoing financial survival. Its largest
funder is the The reason for mentioning SBS on this website is
that this organisation needs all the support that
it can get from the local community so that it can continue to provide
specialist support for Asian and Afro-Caribbean women. If readers of this
page would like to help, please write to Details of your local MP can be found by clicking here. It would be helpful if readers of this page who
would like to help Southall Black Sisters could
e-mail their friends and relatives in Also, it would be a big help if other potential
sources of funding from within the local community could make themselves
known to SBS. If Explanatory briefing
about the funding situation issued by Southall
Black Sisters From Southall Black
Sisters 21 Avenue Road Southall Middlesex UB1 3BL Tel: 020 8571 9595 Fax: 020 8574 6781 Email: southallblacksisters@btconnect.com 8 February 2008 Dear Friends Southall Black Sisters is under
threat of closure We are writing to you to request support for our organisation. We are currently facing threat of closure
as a result of our local authority’s (Ealing)
decision to withdraw our funding as of April 2008. Since the mid eighties our ‘core’ funding has been provided by Ealing. Over the years we have on average received
£100,000 per annum from the local authority and this is utilised
to provide advice, advocacy, counselling and
support services to black and minority women in the borough who experience
violence and abuse. The experience and insights gained through this work has
led us to become a strategically important service, providing advice on
policy and legal developments to government, and international, national and
local organisations and professionals. The Ealing grant has, of course, had to be supplemented by
funds raised elsewhere. The local authority’s decision is based on the view that there is
no need for specialist services for black and minority women and that services to abused women in the borough need to be
streamlined. This view fails to take account of the unequal social, economic
and cultural context which makes it difficult, if not impossible, for black
and minority women to access outside help or seek information about their
rights. In effect the council proposes to take away essential life saving
services provided by SBS. Ealing council suggests
that we either extend our service to cover the needs of all women in the
borough or that we set up a consortium of groups to provide such a service
for the same sum of money. The amount of funds available to the voluntary
sector in Ealing has shrunk year in, year out, but
the withdrawal of funds to SBS will have a number of far reaching
consequences: ·
The attempt to compel us to meet the
needs of all women will mean that we will have to reduce our services to
black and minority women across ·
We will no longer have the same national
impact in terms of our input in policy and legal development in relation to
black and minority women which has been highly effective over the years. Our
campaigns in such critical areas of work as forced marriage, honour killings, suicides and self harm, religious
fundamentalism and immigration difficulties, especially the ‘no recourse to
public funds’ issue, will have to be drastically cut back . ·
A unique, specialist and experienced organisation (members of the staff and management
committee have a combined experience of over 50 years) will lose its identity
- an identity that has become synonymous with high quality service provision.
We are seen as a ‘flagship’ organisation. Indeed
Harriet Harman, the Deputy Prime Minister in her speech at the House of
Commons on 18 July 2007, made specific reference to SBS as exactly the kind
of group that the State should support. …we will work on the issue of empowering
women in black and Asian communities. Women play a crucial role working
together in their communities, whether they are working to reduce crime in
their area, like Mothers Against Guns…, or whether they are Asian women, like
Southall Black Sisters, working to support other
Asian women. We want to do more to support and empower those women as they
tackle problems within, and build bridges between, communities This statement was made in the context of debates on cohesion in
which she specifically identified groups like ours as key to building
cohesion between and within communities. It is therefore of grave concern
that at a time when all local authorities have a duty to promote cohesion, Ealing Council has chosen to undermine a group that has
historically and effectively worked across religious and ethnic lines within
black and minority communities precisely to bridge differences and build a
sense of citizenship. Ironically, the Council is seeking to set up Muslim
women only groups under its ‘cohesion’ strategy – the demand for which does
not exist! We also need to address the new challenges posed by immigration
and asylum difficulties, growing racism and religious intolerance. But
without adequate funding, SBS is now in danger of closing down. Current Position Following legal action, we have compelled Ealing
Council to carry out a race equality impact assessment. This had not been
undertaken prior to making a decision to withdraw our funding. Although the Council has now undertaken such an assessment, it is
only in relation to the new domestic violence policy. In other words it only
assesses whether or not all women ‘may’ be able to access the new service.
The Council maintains that withdrawing funding from SBS will have no adverse
consequences for black and minority women! The assessment is also flawed
since it does not consider the consequences for black and minority women if
SBS services are cut or closed. We have submitted detailed representations
pointing out the flaws in their assessment procedure with a view to taking
further legal action if necessary, Over 50 users of our services have also
written to the Council protesting at their high handed decision. Your Support The issues raised by the Council’s actions have wider
ramifications for all black and minority women’s organisations.
It is imperative that we act now. We ask you to write to the leader of Ealing Council, Jason Stacey whose details are to be
found on the model letter that follows. We would be grateful for any support that you can give us. If you
do not have time to draft a letter, please find enclosed a model letter which
you may amend as you see fit. Please also let us have a copy of your letter
and any reply that you receive. If you are able to support us in any other way please contact us.
We look forward to your response. Yours sincerely Pragna Patel Chair of Southall Black Sisters Pro Forma Letter of
Support MODEL LETTER (on letter headed paper/with your address) Jason Stacey Leader of Ealing Council Ealing W5 2BY Date Dear Mr. Stacey, We are writing to you to express our concern at Ealing Council’s decision to withdraw funding from Southall Black Sisters, a flagship organisation
that has brought credit to your borough through its extremely valuable work
locally, nationally and internationally. Over the years, SBS has provided a much-needed service to local
black and minority women. Its work has been vital in bringing about much
needed change to policy and good practice on a range of issues from domestic
violence to honour killings and forced marriage. It
has also served the borough well by organising services for minority women
across religious, caste and ethnic lines - a central aim of your cohesion
strategy. Given the Council’s record of support for the organisation
for the last 29 years, this must have been a view shared by the Council
itself. As you are aware, black and minority women constitute one of the
most vulnerable groups in society. Recent national reports confirm that in
addition to the problems that all women encounter in exiting from an abusive
relationship, black and minority women face additional barriers to accessing
advice and support. Consequently they are in need of targeted specialist
support. You will also be aware that SBS raises
additional funding from a variety of sources in order to continue to provide
a comprehensive and high quality service to minority women. It seems entirely
unreasonable then to expect the group to provide a service to all women from
the same pot of money, which had not adequately met the needs of minority
women. We are concerned that you decision to withdraw the organisation’s funding appears not to be not based on any
proper assessment of the needs of black and minority women or the impact that
the closure of SBS will have on them. We therefore urge you to consider your new domestic violence
policy and continue your support for this important organisation.
Yours Sincerely, The High Court Hearing in July 2008 The application for proceedings
against The following replication from the
SBS website dated 25th July 2008 gives the official SBS summary of
events and opinion. Southall Black Sisters –
Funding Situation Update LATEST NEWS (Updated 25 July 2008) Southall Black Sisters’
Victory against Ealing Council ‘There is no dichotomy between funding
specialist services and cohesion; equality is necessary for cohesion to be
achieved.’ Lord Justice Moses On 18 July at the High Court, in a dramatic
turn of events, Ealing Council withdrew their case
after one and a half days of a hearing which saw their defence
rapidly unravelling. From the outset, it became apparent to the
presiding judge, Lord Justice Moses and to all those present in the courtroom
including the packed public gallery, that Ealing
Council was skating on really thin ice in attempting to justify its decision
to cut funding to SBS and to commission instead one generic borough wide
service on domestic violence on the grounds of ‘equality’ and ‘cohesion’. Amongst other things, Ealing
Council was charged with the failure to: · Have proper regard to the race equality
legislation and other equalities duties or its own policies when it made its
decision to end funding to SBS. It failed to carry out a full and proper
equality impact assessment and when it did, it was only to justify its
decision; · Interpret correctly the race equality
legislation by deciding that our very name and constitution (to meet the
needs of Asian and African-Caribbean women) was in breach of the Race
Relations Act because it ‘excluded’ white women; · Interpret correctly the cohesion agenda by
assuming that it was contrary to the race equality legislation. As the two days wore on, Ealing
Council found it difficult to maintain its defence
in the light of extensive evidence which showed that it had committed a
series of fundamental errors and was in fact close to being regarded as
having conducted the matter in ‘bad faith’ – a very serious allegation. The
judge was disturbed by the way in which the Council had behaved and was
demanding that it account for aspects of its actions which he found ‘blood
curdling’. The Council had misinterpreted statistics which showed that black
and minority women have rates of reporting domestic violence in Ealing that are disproportionate to their size of
population and a crucial letter from the author of a report on gaps in
domestic violence services in Ealing was not taken
into account by the Council when deciding to provide a generic service,
leading her to make a formal complaint. The Council eventually decided to withdraw
its case thereby denying SBS the opportunity of having a full judgement setting out the facts of the case and the
litany of failures on the part of the Council………………... But we were able to
secure a shorter judgement (pending) – which will
take the form of guidance to Ealing and hopefully
to all other local authorities so that in future they comply properly with
the racial and other equalities legislation. Essentially the principles that will be
reiterated are: · Local authorities must have proper regard to
the Race Relations Act which also means undertaking proper equality impact
assessments at the formative stage of the decision making process; · Cohesion does not mean disregarding the need
for equality. Local authorities cannot hide behind cohesion arguments to cut
specialist service provision; · Positive action is an essential part of the
duty to promote racial equality. Special services run for and by BME groups
(whatever their name) are not contrary to the Race Relations Act. This result of all this is that Ealing Council must now go back to the drawing board and
although the outcome could be the same again, hopefully, our victory will make
it more difficult for it to ignore the guidance and therefore SBS. The
Council has agreed to continue to fund SBS at the previous level until it
completes the process of commissioning based on any new decision on domestic
violence services. Ealing Council also agreed to pay the costs of our
legal representation and unusually the costs of the Equality and Human Rights
Commission which intervened in the case as an interested third party. The
total costs are likely to amount to about £100,000 – the amount that the
Council previously gave SBS on an annual basis! Victory for the
entire voluntary sector This case has raised important questions
about the meaning of equality and cohesion and reminded us of the need to
maintain solidarity between white and black women in the face of ‘divide and
rule’ tactics. We hope that our victory will encourage other grassroots
groups to fight back. We believe this case has set a precedent and that the
guidance that will be available should enable all specialist groups to fight for
the right to exist as autonomous groups. When we began the process of challenging Ealing Council exactly one year ago, we were not sure
where our journey would lead us. We received tremendous support from our
users and many, many other individuals and organisations
along the way. It is impossible to list everyone who supported us but we
really would not have come this far without such encouragement and support.
Above all, the support that we received reminded us of our responsibility in
building a civil society based on the principles of justice, equality and
humanity. We
thank you all for making this victory possible. The High Court Ruling The full
text of the ruling given by Lord Justice Moses may be found in a Word
document by clicking here. Contact details The contact details for Southall Black Sisters are as follows: 21 Avenue
Road Southall Middlesex UB1 3BL Tel: 020
8571 9595 Fax: 020
8574 6781 Website :
http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/ E-mail :
southallblacksisters@btconnect.com Original date of posting : 28th
February 2008 Updated : 26th July 2008 and 18th November 2009 |
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