RISE: Domestic Abuse Survivor 'Dismissed' By Brighton Officials

​​​​​​​A domestic abuse survivor told councillors that officers dismissed her when she explored a legal challenge to the council’s decision to change its domestic abuse services provider.

Nicola Benge spoke about her experience as she presented a petition with 30,000 signatures to Brighton and Hove City Council.

She called for the Brighton charity RISE to have its core funding maintained so that it could to keep its refuge, helplines and specialist services running.

The petition was started after the council picked new providers for its domestic abuse, domestic violence and sexual violence support services after retendering the contracts.

RISE lost two key contracts in a decision that came as a surprise to councillors and service users alike.

The new contracts are worth £5 million over seven years and have been awarded to Victim Support and the social housing provider Stonewater.

The decisions followed a process to recommission services jointly with East Sussex County Council and the Office of the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner.

In response to the outcry, Brighton and Hove councillors have approved plans to investigate the events leading to the changes.

They also plan to review the council’s policy and practice on social value and community wealth building from a “commissioning and procurement perspective”.

Ms Benge told members of the council’s Policy and Resources Committee that, as a tired single mum working full time, she barely had time to get breakfast on the table.

But she found herself looking at bringing a legal case against the council.

She said:

“The council said that I had no right to bring a case because I’m not living in the refuge.

“They denied I was a service user even though I’m currently a service user. They dismissed my experience of domestic abuse.

“They delayed sending relevant documents until the last moment to scupper my claim for legal aid and they threatened to pursue me for costs.

“All this when we had a legal team working for free for three weeks because they were aware of what a huge case this is and what implications this has nationally for refuge services.

“I couldn’t risk my child’s home. This time in ‘David and Goliath’, the giant won.

“We haven’t been able to reverse the contract as we hoped but we remain very concerned about how this decision was made.”

She said that the “Rise Up” campaign had exposed a “litany of errors” in the procurement process, with equality impact assessments described as a “farce” by experts. The documents were not sent out with tender documents, it emerged.

Ms Benge said:

“Councillor oversight was forgotten. Posts are still vacant. Despite supportive words from all three MPs and councillors of all parties, it now seems inevitable that our local effective and well-loved service will be broken up and handed out piecemeal to generic providers.”

She told the committee that survivors must be involved with the investigation process and the women of Brighton and Hove “are watching”.

Green councillor David Gibson was concerned about Ms Benge’s experience when she tried to secure a judicial review and asked for the investigation to look into what happened.

Council leader Phélim Mac Cafferty said that the past week had been “emotionally exhausting” for women speaking out against violence.

He said that men had to start playing their part in addressing other men’s behaviour, adding: “Survivors must be heard, they must be believed and their rights need to be protected as well.”

Councillor Mac Cafferty said that the Green administration had acted in “naive good faith” that the issue was in hand.

But it ended up having as many questions as campaigners about what had happened, with his party only having come to power in July when the process was near completion.

Councillor Mac Cafferty said:

“What happened to councillor oversight? The cross-party working group that was supposed to look at this was set up in October 2018. A long time between then and when we became the administration – 21 months.

“It met not once, but also we’re not sure what oversight was encouraged. That needs to be flushed out.

“We had it in good faith that the previous administration was over this and we need lessons to be learned.”

He said that the previous Labour council had been warned about what might happen and a situation like this should not happen again.

To ensure continuity, the helpline operated by Victim Support will have the same number as RISE, which will be promoted.

He also assured Ms Benge that the new refuge contractors, Stonewater, would be required to ensure a minimum of 90 per cent of users feel safer when they are in or leaving the refuge.

And 80 per cent would need to feel increased resilience and ability to cope.

The council has committed to spending £50,000 on RISE services annually with an extra £45,000 towards services for women and children affected by domestic abuse and violence.

Councillor Mac Cafferty plans to bring decisions about the prospective £600,000 grant from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to tackle domestic abuse before the committee to ensure the allocation is transparent.

Labour councillor Daniel Yates said that he recognised the responsibility to survivors and women across the city who face increasing levels of violence.

He said:

“It is really important to recognise the value of the services that RISE and other providers in the city have been offering for many years.

“The fact that value and the quality of those services wasn’t reflected in the outcome of the tender is extremely concerning and has to be of extreme concern to us, not just for the impact on issues around domestic violence but also in the fact we go out and procure many services every year.

“We need to make sure our procurement services are fit for purpose.

“We want the best for the city. We don’t want the cheapest for the city.”

In the past year, he referred a friend to the Portal domestic abuse support service and wondered what he or his friend would have done if those services were not available.

He said that it was hard listening to all of the failures surrounding the commissioning and “eyes being taken off balls” – and everyone needed to “put their hands up” and learn from what has happened.

Conservative councillor Dee Simson said she was “dumbfounded” by what happened to RISE and said that the numbers signing the petition reflected the strong feelings in the community.

She said:

“What is really important now is anyone experiencing domestic violence or abuse in the city knows there is a continuity of services.

“We need to ensure the women of this city have the confidence and know where to go if they are experiencing abuse and domestic violence.

“This is about women’s lives. It’s frightening. It frightens me because I really feel because of what’s happened, women could drop through the net and that we are putting women’s lives at risk. This is very serious.”

Councillor Simson said that she hoped to sit on the working group carrying out the investigation. She felt frustrated not to have been more involved when the commissioning process started in October 2018.

At the time she was the mayor of Brighton and Hove and not involved in the council’s day-to-day political decision-making other than chairing meetings of the full council.

Conservative councillor Joe Miller asked for a report based on the petition’s call for more funds to support RISE services.

It was agreed that this would come back to the committee as well as coming under the scope of the working group carrying out the investigation.