Key Takeaways from the ASCENT Special Event

To mark the final day of the 16 Days of Activism on December 10th, Women’s Resource Centre (WRC) hosted an ASCENT Special Event: Advocating for Women and Influencing the new Government. We had a great turnout and would like to thank all those who attended for their invaluable contributions to the discussion. A huge thanks also to our four key speakers: Alexandra Williams, Public Affairs and Campaigns Manager from Women’s Aid, Janaya Walker, Head of Public Affairs from End Violence Against Women (EVAW), Rani Selvarajah, Research and Policy Manager from Imkaan and finally, WRC’s Head of Policy, Kiran Dhami.  

The purpose of the event was to discuss how we are all currently advocating for women and how we can better influence the new government. Women attending were encouraged to use the space to hold membership bodies, such as WRC, and larger charities to account. WRC was honoured to host an event that brought together so many women's sector’s representatives. The event allowed everyone to rediscover common interests and concerns within the sector, reinforcing the importance of collaboration when working to influence the new government.  

Alexandra, Women’s Aid  

Women’s Aid’s public affairs priorities include improving support for survivors in mental health, housing and funding, as well as abuse prevention work through research and education, such as consulting on the RSHE curriculum in schools. They are also seeking greater investment into the violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector, a priority shared across the women's sector. Another pertinent priority is influencing the new government and specifically encouraging a cross-departmental approach to tackling and preventing VAWG. A critique of the Labour government’s primary focus on tackling VAWG through criminal justice means was shared amongst attendees. Health and social care, civil society, and education should also be key areas invested in the mission to halve VAWG within a decade. In terms of influencing work, Women’s Aid is advocating for £516 million in funding per year toward tackling domestic abuse, with ring-fenced funding for specialist ‘by and for’ organisations, as well as calling for a clearer monitoring and evaluation framework to measure progress on the government’s commitment to halving VAWG. They are also working to improve the family courts for survivors, ensuring the new Employment Rights Bill makes concessions to VAWG victims and for the next VAWG Strategy to work more effectively for women and women’s organisations. They aim to work through various channels such as APPGs, select committees and mobilising their supporters.  

 

Rani, Imkaan 

Rani talked about some of Imkaan’s recent reports that have shaped their key priorities. One of these was the Life or Death? Preventing Domestic Homicides and Suicides of Black and Minoritised Women report written in collaboration with Centre for Women’s Justice. The report highlights the barriers Black and minoritised women face trying to access support whilst experiencing domestic violence. Two recommendations arose from the report: the importance of ensuring women have access to female interpreters and securing more robust disaggregated police data. They are also calling for an end to institutionalised housing of refugees and asylum seekers, which are not fit for purpose. They also want to strengthen training and vetting procedures for people working for women and have more robust complaints procedures for women trapped in a racist immigration system.  

Imkaan’s nuanced and intersectional approach in highlighting unpopular political issues means they face a lot of pushback from the government. They simultaneously have to deal with the tokenistic nature of the government’s engagement as they can use organisations like Imkaan disingenuously as a ‘tick box’ exercise. This treatment by the government reflects that of so many specialist ‘by and for’ organisations, which is a way structural racism is reproduced. 

Rani finished by talking about the importance of collaborative working as many of the organisations in their field are small. Building allies in the racial justice and migration sector is also invaluable. 

 

Janaya, End Violence Against Women Coalition 

EVAW priorities include prevention, online VAWG campaigns, criminal justice system accountability, and rights and inequalities. Whilst also prioritising a prevention approach, EVAW noted the long-term commitment to eradicating VAWG through education work, particularly with children and young people in schools. Their online VAWG campaign called for reforms to laws relating to online abuse and more regulation on tech platforms, an ever-growing concern with ever-shifting harms, particularly with young people. In calling for more criminal justice accountability, EVAW noted the importance of having access to independent legal advice and specialist courts owing to the failures and lack of understanding of VAWG in traditional courts. Janaya also stressed the importance of the government taking a cross-departmental approach to tackling VAWG and not solely focusing on criminal justice system solutions. She also touched on the changing human rights landscape in which laws on protest and the right to asylum are being undermined. She finished by talking about the importance of the sector speaking with one voice to the government, being part of working groups to pool our expertise, and the possibility of engaging with the Lib Dems as potentially useful allies. 

 

Kiran, Women’s Resource Centre  

Kiran began by outlining WRC’s position within the sector as an organisation that speaks on behalf of the entire women’s sector, not just the VAWG sector. As such, there is a need to be mindful of strategic demands that benefit us all. She stressed the importance of maintaining up-to-date intelligence to stay both accountable and credible. WRC’s latest funding poll, developed from data provided by our member organisations, provides a snapshot of the funding crisis in the women’s sector. Kiran asked us to consider how, with this research, we can consolidate concrete, strategic policy demands and how to best articulate and present our findings to the new government. There are new opportunities with the new government, but also risks. Risks that whatever money is available gets sucked into criminal justice approaches or that one or two bigger organisations suck up all the resources at the expense of specialist services. We, as a sector, need to work together and be transparent in our dealings with the government to ensure this doesn’t happen. Finally, Kiran outlined what’s upcoming for WRC in the New Year, including a meeting with Annaliese Dodds, Minister for Women and Equalities in January, lobbying for a sustainable women’s fund, and continuing to engage in more collective discussion and building a more collective mindset.  

 

Breakout Room Discussion 

Main points of discussion in each breakout room: 

  • Breakout room discussion on Policy Changes We Need: 

  • Mostly about funding! 
  • We need to challenge the funding trends e.g. extend funding and provide funding for organisations that don’t have access to public funds.
  • There needs to be more investment in training for health practitioners. 

  • Breakout room discussion on Structural Racism: 

  • Issue of more limited funding for Black and minoritised organisations.
  • There doesn’t seem to be much of a shift in policy from the new government, however, in light of the apparent necessity to ‘talk tough’ on immigration, perhaps more progressive changes will happen behind the scenes?
  • Subsequently, it might be even more important to build personal relationships inside the government.
  • How do we build on opportunities to provide trauma-informed support over generic organisations? 

 

  • Breakout room discussion on Long-Term Funding: 

  • Support provided to service users' needs to be long-term e.g. mental health recovery for victims and children.
  • Long-term funding is critical for long-term support.
  • It’s important to make an economic argument to the government whose only priority seems to be GDP growth.
  • There needs to be more investment in young people’s mental health. 

 

  • Breakout room discussion on Strategic Advocacy: 

  • The women’s sector is trying to play nice despite nothing changing; it is time to take a more empowered stance about how we talk about things.
  • We need to use more emotive language instead of professionalised language that we are expected to use. Minimising our voices is diametrically opposed to what our problems are!
  • We need more truth-telling – no need for dramatisation because the stories are bad enough.
  • We need to engage with social media more.
  • We need to be braver! 

 

  • Breakout room discussion on Developing a More Proactive Agenda: 

  • Echoes strategic advocacy group. 
  • All organisations are very aligned on our wants.
  • We need to use collective voice to outline our priorities instead of being reactive.  

 

Conclusion 

The most recurrent theme that emerged from the event was the importance of collaboration as a sector. It was made clear that no organisation, however big, will be able to influence the government and implement the necessary changes alone. All the key speakers stressed how important it was for the sector to join forces and speak with a collective voice and this sentiment was echoed many times within breakout room discussion.  Demanding a national mechanism for women’s rights and using international levers to CEDAW to better effect were also discussed. As we venture into 2025, we hope to continue putting this into practice, coordinating collective responses to ensure authentic representation and accountability from and within the entire sector.  

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