Written evidence submitted by the Women's
Resource Centre
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
— The
Women's Resource Centre (WRC) believes that the introduction of
a decentralised audit regime will negatively impact on gender
equality and service provision to vulnerable women at a local
level.
— WRC
believes that centralised audit and inspection is vital to address
inefficiencies featured in local decision making and promote equality
to ensure that women receive the services they need.
— The
Women's Resource Centre wishes to provide oral evidence to the
Select Committee and hopes that the Committee will consider the
impact of changes to auditing and inspection from an equalities
perspective.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Women's Resource Centre (WRC) is a charity which
supports women's organisations to be more effective and sustainable.
We provide training, information, resources and one-to-one support
on a range of organisational development issues. We also lobby
decision takers on behalf of the women's not-for-profit sector
for improved representation and funding. Our members work in a
wide range of fields including health, violence against women,
employment, education, rights and equality, the criminal justice
system and the environment. They deliver services to and campaign
on behalf of some of the most marginalised communities of women.
There are over ten thousand people working or volunteering for
our members who support almost half a million individuals each
year.
CONSULTATION RESPONSE
1. As central government devolves greater power
to local authorities the transfer of responsibility must be paired
with accountability. It is essential that an independent centralised
regulatory body inspects the performance of local authorities
and holds them to account.
2. The Women's Resource Centre (WRC) is extremely
concerned about the government's decision to disband the Audit
Commission. We believe that the introduction of a decentralised
audit regime will negatively impact on gender equality and service
provision to vulnerable women at a local level.
3. The WRC's key area of concern regards the
abolition of Comprehensive Area Assessments. Under the Comprehensive
Area Assessment, local authorities were evaluated on their efforts
to tackle inequality and focus on the needs of disadvantaged groups,
including women. Partners would be assessed on how well they understood
the nature and extent of inequality within their communities and
how effectively they were working to reduce or eliminate discrimination.
4. By abolishing Comprehensive Area Assessments
a crucial interagency focus on tackling inequality has been lost.
The joined-up approach of the Comprehensive Area Assessment offered
enhanced intelligence on how well local services worked together
to achieve improvement and progress towards long-term goals. This
loss has occurred at a time when comprehensive inspection of local
authorities in relation to inequality is ever more crucial.
5. As funding contracts in the economic downturn
local councils are less likely to fund specialist services which
meet the diverse needs of their communities. Many local authorities
do not understand the importance of gender inequality and cannot
be relied upon to fund key women's services. Already in the infancy
of public sector spending cuts, some local authorities have cut
Domestic Coordinator posts due to the need to create efficiency
savings.
6. Comprehensive Area Assessments encouraged
authorities to adopt a broader view of "value for money"
and commission services that meet local needs. The assessments
focused on both effective community engagement and understanding
of the needs of vulnerable and marginalised groups. Most importantly;
the assessment framework offered a means for enforcing the Duty
to Involve and provided the sole mechanism through which local
women's organisations could hold local authorities to account.
The assessment's measurement of the representation of marginalised
groups in local decision making, empowered women's organisations
to challenge the representation of women and women's issues in
local leadership.
7. Without comprehensive centralised audit and
inspection, it is less likely that local authorities will actively
address gender inequality in their local communities. WRC research
shows that many local authorities do not deem gender equality
to be a priority and fail to meet their legal obligations under
the Gender Equality Duty and Duty to Involve.
8. Under the Government's decentralisation programme
local government will be given greater responsibility for promoting
community involvement in decisions; however it lacks a strong
reputation on its engagement of diverse groups in local decision
making. Women's organisations represent just 2% of VCS representatives
on Local Strategic Partnerships[39]
and repeatedly report experiencing difficulties with public bodies
in participating and influencing locally.[40]
9. Due to a myth of gender equality authorities
often pursue gender neutral policies or misinterpret gender equality
to mean treating men and women the same. These problems contribute
to the under valuation of the importance of women-only services
and increases authorities reluctance to engage with women's voluntary
and community organisations. This in turn limits local authorities'
capacity to ensure that the needs of the women within their communities
are effectively met.
10. Women's organisations are often excluded
from commissioning processes as they wish to enlist a generic
provider to save money. A reduction of public funding may increase
cost consciousness and encourage councils to disregard the social
value of services. There is an active risk that equalities will
be marginalised in the recession as councils seek to focus on
financial "priorities". It may be misinterpreted as
an issue that is "frivolous" at a time when councils
are seeking financial survival, rather than viewed as a vital
way to effectively meet the diverse needs of communities.
11. Centralised audit and inspection provides
an essential opportunity to address inefficiencies featured in
local decision making and promote equality to ensure that women
receive the services they need. It provides a safeguard for the
protection of services that benefit the majority of the population
and transcends the politics of local decision making. Failure
to have a comprehensive approach to audit and inspection may mean
that the needs of minority groups, such as disabled women, many
be overlooked. It was planned that Comprehensive Area Assessments
were to include monitoring of Equalities Duties, however without
that mechanism national government will not have that monitoring
data.
12. National regulation of local authority performance
is ever more important due to proposed changes to the Public Sector
Duties contained within the Equality Act 2010. Under the proposed
measures public bodies will no longer have to produce a Gender
Equality Scheme outlining the actions they have taken to promote
gender equality. Local authorities will be permitted to set a
minimum of one equality objective focusing on the protected characteristic
of their choice, for example race. Under this new system it is
less likely that gender will be prioritised; therefore Government
will have limited evidence of how local authorities are meeting
local women's needs.
13. The Government's plan to refocus the audit
of councils on helping local people hold local bodies to account
is an insufficient mechanism to ensure good public authority performance.
Greater transparency and local democratic accountability should
compliment rather than replace a centralised regulatory system.
Plans to empower local communities may in practice perpetuate
existing local power structures and replicate the under-representation
of women in local decision making. For example, women predominantly
assume caring responsibilities within families and therefore often
have limited ability to engage in local politics.
14. Increased local democratic accountability
could lead to inconsistency in regulatory oversight, as public
challenges depend on the capacity, inclination and education of
local people. Whilst authorities may publish data, citizens may
not be interested in accessing information or fully aware of the
context or implications of the information made available. For
example, civil servants acquire expertise in policy areas over
the course of their careers, the general public may lack the background
and experience required to comprehend the implications of local
government actions.
15. Where women seek to mount legal challenges
against local authority decisions; their access to justice may
now be restricted due to planned reductions to legal aid. Under
government proposals women's eligibility and access to funding
will be dramatically reduced.
January 2011
39 Urban Forum, Oxfam, Women's Resource Centre, 2007,
Where are the women in LSPs?
http://www.wrc.org.uk/includes/documents/cm_docs/2008/w/womenlsps.pdf Back
40
WRC, 2010, Power & Prejudice: Combating gender inequality
through women's organisations
http://www.wrc.org.uk/includes/documents/cm_docs/2010/w/wrc_power_and_prejudice_final.pdf Back
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