Brighton Change In Domestic Violence Support Services WILL Be Scrutinised

A working group investigating contracts for domestic abuse and violence services will examine why the process did not go before councillors.

Conservative councillor Joe Miller raised the issue as members of the Policy and Resources Committee discussed setting up an investigation into why the charity RISE lost its contract to support domestic violence and abuse victims in Brighton and Hove.

The announcement that RISE had lost the contract resulted in an outcry and more than 30,000 people signed a petition calling on Brighton and Hove City Council to support the charity.

Domestic abuse survivors challenged the council’s decision-making processes at a meeting of the council’s Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture Committee on Thursday 11 March.

At that meeting councillors recommended asking the council’s powerful Policy and Resources (P&R) Committee to set up the investigation.

During the P&R Committee meeting yesterday (Thursday 18 March), Councillor Miller asked why the contract, worth £5 million to RISE over seven years, had not gone before the council’s Procurement Advisory Board or the P&R Committee itself, given the contract’s value and significance.

The council jointly commissioned domestic abuse, domestic violence and sexual violence support services with East Sussex County Council and the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner.

Councillors are not involved directly in the final decision-making process but can influence the policy.

The council’s head of strategy, governance and law Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis said that when there were corporate budget implications, tenders would go to the P&R Committee.

And contracts worth more than £1 million or which were likely to prove controversial would go to the Procurement Advisory Board.

Councillor Miller said that the contracts for domestic abuse services had not reached councillors on the committee or the board – and he sat on both.

Investigations into the tendering process are also expected to look at why a working group of councillors had not been set up as approved by the Neighbourhood, Inclusion, Communities and Equalities Committee in October 2018.

He said:

“We need to know why these mistakes happened because the ins and outs of the detail are not known.

“We really need to be sure as to why the Procurement Advisory Board and Policy and Resources Committee and a procurement tender paper was not taken to any of the service committees in relation to this tender.”

Green councillor Tom Druitt, who also sits on the Procurement Advisory Board and P&R Committee, agreed with his Tory counterpart.

He said:

“This sadly isn’t something that came to the board a couple of years ago when it was first discussed. I think that is something the working group needs to look at – in terms of why not.

“We are very conscious of that issue and very committed to making sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Mr Ghebre-Ghiorghis said that the working group investigating the contract tender process would look into the details.

Conservative councillor Dee Simson asked for the investigation to include the extra financial cost to the council as the budget now included £90,000 of support for RISE.

Green councillor Hannah Clare said that the council was already looking into how it could support RISE, with £600,000 expected from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

She said that the council was already looking at how it could help the charity find new premises because it had to give up the lease on its previous home and was currently working out of a container at Brighton Marina.

Councillor Clare said that the past week had been emotionally draining for women in the wake of the Sarah Everard murder case – and the last month was draining for women in Brighton and Hove, particularly survivors carrying the emotional burden of fighting for RISE.

She said:

“I can’t understand why the council has undermined their safety by decommissioning an organisation they trust.

“Although new services are in place, the organisation people invested their trust in is not the organisation we’re going to be funding now.

“Procurement cannot bring in trust as a marker but can look at other things about how social impact is measured. This is why it is important the working group has a wide remit – and I’m pleased to see it.”

Councillor Clare added:

“Competitive procurement in the community and voluntary sector does not always work.

“We may not be able to challenge at a council level but, hopefully, we can challenge at a national level.”

The members’ working group looking into the contracts process will ask for representations from survivors and representative organisations during its investigations.

Once the work is complete, the group will report to the Policy and Resources Committee with recommendations which may include changing policy.