RISE recently announced the disappointing news that we have lost local council funding for some of our services as of the 1st of April 2021. The contract, to deliver refuge and case work services, is worth £5 million over seven years and has been awarded instead to Victim Support and Stonewater Housing.
Since then, we have been overwhelmed by support from the local community. A petition started by one of our service users has reached over 25,000 signatures. We have also had a productive meeting with members of the Brighton and Hove Council Green Administration, ahead of this council budget meeting on 25th February.
We can confirm that cross party amendments to the budget have resulted in a commitment from the local authority of £95,000 for the first year and then £50,000 each year thereafter to support children and women survivors of domestic abuse from the 1st April. While we are hopeful that this money will be specifically committed to RISE’s services, we still have not had confirmation of this from the council.
We want to be clear that although funding has been agreed to support crucial services transitioning between RISE and the new providers, we are urgently lobbying Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) to ensure that RISE is also allocated a fair proportion of the £606,288 that the Local Authority will receive from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) from 1st April.
This £606,288 funding from Central Government is to allow for local authorities to continue commissioning domestic abuse services, whilst local needs assessments and strategies are being developed. This applies to RISE as we currently provide two projects funded via the MHCLG and are the existing refuge provider. We therefore need a fair portion of this funding.
RISE would have received over £800,000 had we retained the funding for our services in Brighton and Hove, which demonstrates how much of a gap there is between what we need – and what is potentially available to us.
Related news items
For our original statement made on the 12th of February about losing funding, click here >>
For our response to a leaked BHCC briefing defending the decision to award the contract to Victim Support and Stonewater Housing on the 20th February, click here >>
