Download original attachment
(Word document)
This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Freedom of Information request
'Copies of papers and minutes since 2006'.
(Word document)
WNC Work Updates - October 2008
Outreach and Communications
Outreach activity
Harriet Harman Reception - 14 July 2008.
Harriet Harman held a Reception on 14 July to announce the project to encourage more women to apply for public appointments. Cabinet Office Minister, Ed Milliband, also attended and spoke about the role of the Cabinet Office. The Ministers announced new measures to increase the number of women, disabled people, and black, Asian and minority ethnic people appointed to the boards of public bodies. Joyce also spoke on the role of WNC and how we can distribute information to our 500+ partners, as well as our wider contacts.
WNC/Equality South West event in Taunton - 14 July 2008
We held an join event with Equality South West on 14 July. The event was intended as a general outreach event and covered a number of different issues. Speakers included Manjula Bray from OCPA who talked about Public Appointments, the role of OCPA and diversity; Holly Dustin covered the work of EVAW and the Gender Equality Duty; a guest speaker covered the position of Gypsy/Roma Women and Joyce spoke about WNC, its remit and our current work. This was a very successful event, with lots of passionate views being expressed by attendees, who were appreciative of WNC coming to the south west to hear the views of local women and representative organisations. Following on from this event, Joyce wrote to Transport Minister, Rosie Winterton, to highlight the issue of greatest concern to women attending the event, which was around rural transport. We have received a reply from the Minister, which has been forwarded to the Chair of Equality South West, Jackie Longworth, and is available in hard copy on the correspondence table today.
On 25 June, WNC attended the Ministerial Reception to announce the details of the new Equalities Bill. This was attended by Harriet Harman who briefly spoke. Trevor Phillips of EHRC also attended.
Mutanser met with WRC on 26 June to discuss ways in which our two organisations could work closer together; on 27 June, Mutanser met with representatives of Respond, Voice UK and the Ann Craft Trust all of whom support people with learning difficulties. Her discussions were aimed at encouraging them to become partners given this is a group which is under-represented amongst our partners. Also, on 30 June, Mutanser attended the Parliamentary launch of the European Campaign against Forced Marriage.
On 2 July Mutanser attended the launch of Disabled Women & Domestic Violence Research; on 24 July she attended a meeting with MENCAP on the forced marriage of people with learning disabilities and on 20 August she met with Judith Simpson of RADAR. On 21 August Mutanser also met with Maggie Berry of Women in Technology. Each of these meetings were targeted at organisations that represent under-represented groups, to encourage them to become partners.
Partners
We have signed up 28 Partners since June 2008 - 19 organisations and nine individual partners. The organisations include;
Women in Technology.co.uk
Ethnic Deaf
Just Media
Operation Black Vote
IMECE Turkish Speaking Women's Group
Website
We are very pleased to confirm the launch at the end of August, of WNC's new website. This was the end of a long exercise where commissioners chose the final design of the new website earlier this year. It has also meant a considerable deal of work from Directorate staff to ensure all the information had been correctly transferred and update on the new website.
The new design provides a much more modern look and is more flexible. We are keen to receive any feedback on the website, especially on any further improvements you might wish to suggest.
Newsletter
The autumn edition of the WNC Newsletter was completed and emailed out to partners and others on 15 September. Continuing with our improvements to the newsletter, this edition included features on the UK's CEDAW examination in July, an update on our outreach event in Taunton, and details about the joint project with Cabinet Office to encourage more women to apply for public appointments. It also included a close-up article on Wales Women's National Coalition (Women's Voice), plus an article by ex-WNC staff member, Hannah Bond, celebrating 80 years of women's full emancipation.
Women's Directory
Once again, the WNC's directory of Women's Organisations 2008 (WORGS) has been amended with a number of updates since it was completed earlier this year. A revised version is now available on the website.
Future events
BAME Ministerial meeting - provisionally 22 October 2008.
We have worked with GEO to pull together a list of invitees for this meeting of black and minority ethnic women to meet with Maria Eagle. GEO decided which NGOs should be invited, and we encouraged representation from the devolved nations. GEO aims to hold further Ministerial meetings with BAME women, where this point will be taken into consideration. We have also been working to ensure all attendees at the meeting, become WNC Partners. This meeting follows the latest Ministerial meeting of the `Top 6' group of NGOs. These are the six longest established women's NGOs in the UK, and includes, Townswomen's Guild, Soroptimist International, National Federation of Women's Institutes, National Federation of Women Graduates, National Council of Women (of GB), and Business and Professional Women UK.
We are now looking at the logistics for holding events in the West Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland and in Scotland, by the end of the operational year.
International Activity
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
On 10 July 2008 the UK Government's 5th and 6th periodic report to the committee of the United Nation's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was examined. Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Barbara Follett MP, led the UK Delegation at the UN in New York. The Minister was supported by a team of officials both in New York, and in London via video-link, led by Janice Shersby, Director of the Government Equalities Office. This was the first time that a video-link had been used for a CEDAW examination.
A number of NGOs attended to observe the examination, both at the UN and in London. NGOs in New York included representatives form the Northern Ireland Women's European Platform, Rape Crisis, Southall Black Sisters and South Essex Rape and Sheila Coates representing WNC, along with WNC Commissioner, Professor Liz Kelly. Also represented were the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
In May of this year, the WNC submitted the UK's Shadow Report to the CEDAW Committee. Further Shadow Reports were also submitted by, the Committee on the Administration of Justice (NI), Northern Ireland Women's European Platform (NIWEP), Women's Resource Centre and the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland; the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) Campaign. Information contained in all these reports informed the CEDAW Committee's thinking and questions and give a more comprehensive picture of gender equality in the UK, including where further work is needed.
A comprehensive report of the UK's CEDAW examination and WNC's involvement can be found on the WNC's website. Highlights of the UK's examination were circulated and can be re-circulated if required. Concluding observations (advanced unedited version) of the CEDAW Committee has also been circulated, but can be re-sent for the benefit of the new Commissioners.
We now look forward to the publication of the CEDAW Committee's final Concluding Remarks, which the Government will be expected to progress between now and the next UK report, which is due in 2011. The Government Equalities Office is currently drafting a cross government action plan on implementing the CEDAW Committee's recommendations. This would be circulated once it becomes available. There are also proposed regional events in collaboration with NGOs to take forward work on the action plan. Shelly will provide Commissioners with a further update once more information becomes available.
Commission on the Status of Women 53rd Session 2009
The 53rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will take place at the United Nations (UN) in New York from Monday 2 March to Friday 13 March 2009. The Commission on the Status of Women is held annually at the UN's headquarters in New York. The main object of the Commission is to promote implementation of the principle that men and women shall have equal rights.
CSW was the preparatory body for the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing - the outcome of which was the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (PfA). The UN General Assembly mandated the Commission to play a central role in monitoring implementation of the PfA and since 1996, the main focus of work for CSW has been this. Generally, a priority theme is selected each year for the Commission to focus on. Further, the agreed conclusions developed from the priority theme of a preceding year's CSW are reviewed.
We are hoping to look at ways we and our partners can engage more effectively in the CSW process. In 2009, the priority theme to be examined will be:
(i) The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care giving in the context of HIV/AIDS
The review theme will be:
(ii) Equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes at all levels.
We are currently working on an information pack to send out to partners and Commissioners once more details of CSW53 become available via the UN's website. It is expected that Joyce with support from Barbara would represent the WNC as part of the UK Government's official delegation to CSW.
Women in Public Life
Cabinet Office and Women's National Commission Public Appointments Project
As mentioned at the last Commissioners meeting, the WNC and Cabinet Office began working together on a joint project to try increase the number of women participating in public life. This involves current public appointment opportunities being displayed on the WNCs website and also circulated on the first Monday of every month to partners. The first set of adverts went out in June and since then there has been a steady increase in the number of hits to the Women in Public Life Page of the WNC's website. The Cabinet Office has also reported a steady increase to there public appointment vacancies website (www.publicappts-vacs.gov.uk) since the project began. In the coming months we are hoping to collate anecdotal feedback from our partners about the effectiveness of this mode of advertising vacancies. October vacancies are currently displayed on the WNC's website.
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women Councillors' Taskforce
At the last Commissioners meeting I also mentioned the Government's newly established Taskforce set up to address the under representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women Councillors. The Taskforce is chaired by Baroness Pola Uddin. Since the last Commissioner's meeting, the Taskforce held in London, the first of several regional outreach events to encourage more BAME women to become local councillors. The event proved to be a huge success. The next event will be held in Birmingham on 17 October. Followed by another London event in Harrow on 21 November. Future events are planned for Wales, Scotland Gloucester, Windsor and Maidenhead, Newcastle and London.
A strategic partners group was set up to work closely with the Taskforce of which WNC is a member. This group is a virtual group which meets quarterly to ensure that the Taskforce is making links with the right organisations and sharing good practice. The group last met on 30 September.
Migration and Asylum Working Group Update
The last meeting of the Migration & Asylum Sub Group was held on 11 September 2008. As part of the Group's recent review of its membership, there was representation from a number of new organisations, namely: UNISON, Asylum Support Appeals Project and Unite the Union.
Final amendments were made to the Group's work plan. Other items on the agenda were as follows:
An update from Barbara Collins (formerly head of EU and International engagement at GEO) on the CEDAW Committee's Concluding Observations and the Government's plans for implementation of the recommendations.
Also discussed was the set up of the new All Party Parliamentary Group on Balanced Migration which is chaired by Frank Fields and Sir Nicholas Soames. Group expressed concern about this group and the report published by Migration Watch entitled: Balanced Migration: a new approach to controlling immigration. All agreed that more information about this APPG is needed.
Group was given an update on the Public Sector Equality Duty- Informal Consultation from GEO on extending the requirement to give due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity to religion or belief. The Group was given the opportunity to send in comments.
The Group re-visited the issue of the lack of asylum, refugee and migration issues highlighted in the MfW priorities and agreed that Joyce could write to Harriet Harman on behalf of the Group highlighting the priority concerns.
Business and Special Visitors Immigration Route - Equality Impact Assessment Home Office policy document was highlighted.
The Home Affairs Select Committee Enquiry into the points based system and the Citizenship and Immigration Bill - probationary citizenship/associated access to welfare were also briefly highlighted and would be discussed in more detail at the next meeting.
The Group will convene again on Thursday 4 December 2008.
Violence Against Women Update
VAW Working Group meetings
The Violence Against Women Working Group and its sub groups - the Sexual Violence Policy Monitoring Sub-Group and Domestic Violence Action Sub-Group - met on 16 July 2008. The next meeting of the Group is scheduled for 5 November 2008.
The Domestic Violence Sub-Group discussed the Home Affairs Select Committee Report on domestic violence; the crisis facing domestic violence services (generic and BME services) due to lack of funding, a move towards local commissioning arrangements and loss of Supporting People ring-fence from 2009; and the ongoing problem caused by the `no recourse to public funds' rules. At their next meeting the focus will be on supporting survivors of sexual violence from current/former partners or family members, and inviting Department for Children Families and Schools (DCSF) to discuss prevention education in schools.
The Sexual Violence Sub Group was consulted by the Home Office on the proposed model for a co-ordinated local response to sexual violence being piloted in the South West. The Group also heard from Relate about their national counselling service for survivors of sexual violence; and discussed supporting adult survivors of child sexual abuse, and how to use CEDAW in future lobbying processes. The Group also wants to write to the Olympics Committee about minimising trafficking associated with large sporting events. The group plans to invite Department of Health to the next meeting to discuss adult survivors of child sexual abuse.
The Violence Against Women Working Group had updates from the subgroups; from the End Violence Against Women Coalition; from the CEDAW delegation, and from the Government Equalities Office. The focus of the meeting was the commissioning of women's services, given the recent CLG statutory guidance to Local Strategic Partnerships. Phil Worsfold from DCLG attended to discuss the Local Area Agreement framework and how this informs commissioning, and Heather Barclay from EHRC spoke about the gender duty and procurement. The Group discussed faith, community cohesion and violence against women, which will be revisited in more detail at the next meeting, together with the national VAW Strategy being developed by the Home Office.
At the meeting in July, partners raised concern about the apparent lack of understanding across Whitehall about gender and the gender equality duty, and the need for training of officials (which was also reinforced by the EVAW cross-departmental roundtable on violence against women in July). As a result of this meeting, WNC, EVAW and EHRC have arranged to meet with GEO to explore what can be done specifically about the Gender Equality Duty and VAW across government departments.
A weekly/fortnightly E-News Update has been circulated to the Violence Against Women Group attending members and E-list network, which includes violence against women-related news provided for circulation by partners and other agencies, including legislation and policy updates; consultations; training and events; jobs, research and tenders.
Work on the National Standards on Domestic and Sexual Violence
Women's Aid produced a final draft in July of the National Core Service Standards for all domestic violence and sexual violence services, and will be circulated by WNC once they are published. Different service areas have been advised to develop their own service-specific standards where these need to be expanded. Women's Aid is doing this for domestic violence services and is also writing accompanying commissioning guidance for local use.
Skills for Justice has also been consulting on the development of National Occupational Standards for domestic violence and sexual violence and group members have been encouraged to respond to this.
Funding for and commissioning of women's services
Group members supported Southall Black Sisters' court case against Ealing Council, challenging its decision to withdraw funding from the organisation. On 18 July Ealing Council withdrew its case in which it sought to justify commissioning one generic borough wide service on domestic violence on the grounds of `equality' and `cohesion'. Lord Justice Moses' full judgement warns public bodies they must carry out equality impact assessments before making policy, rather than afterwards to justify the decision. The full judgment is on Southall Black Sisters' website http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk.
Members of the Sexual Violence and Domestic Violence Sub Groups are increasingly raising concerns with WNC about the lack of sustainable funding for the women's sector, particularly for domestic violence, sexual violence, and BME women's services; and of the accompanying problems with commissioning processes whereby contracts are increasingly being awarded to large, generic providers (which is reinforced by CLG guidance to Local Strategic Partnerships). Since the last meeting, Sub Groups are particularly asking WNC:
To agree a strategy to enable the VAW sector's concerns to be heard across Government Departments about the crisis facing the women's sector (focusing on domestic violence services, sexual violence services and BME services); and
To promote the need for local commissioning to be informed by the national service standards for domestic and sexual violence; and
To facilitate dialogue between Rape Crisis and Government Departments that contributed to their emergency funding this year about future funding from 2009.
CEDAW and Violence Against Women
The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women Committee called for a national strategy and programme to eliminate VAW in the UK; which has also been reinforced by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UK, which recommended that the UK should set up a strategic body on VAW.
Consultations and events
Crown Prosecution Service: WNC attended the Crown Prosecution Service launch of their Violence Against Women Strategy in June; and Liz Kelly, as End Violence Against Women Chair, also spoke at the event alongside the Attorney General, Patricia Scotland, the Solicitor General, Vera Baird, and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald. WNC also contributed to a focus group consultation on an updated CPS Policy for Prosecuting Cases of Domestic Violence.
Honour-based Violence Group: WNC and Group members attended a meeting with the Home Office Honour-Based Violence Steering Group in July, which agreed to establish a BMER and violence stakeholder sub-group (details to be confirmed by the Home Office).
Forced Marriage Unit: WNC and Group members were invited to attend a consultation workshop in August on the Forced Marriage Unit's internal two-year strategy and workplan.
WNC has circulated and encouraged partners to respond to various consultations including the revised CPS policy for prosecuting cases of rape; the Forced Marriage Statutory Guidance consultation; CLG's Third Sector Partnership Board consultation; Consultation on the Principles of Sentencing; and the Ministry of Justice consultation document on the proposals for reforming the partial defences of provocation and diminished responsibility, complicity to murder and infanticide.
Justice for Women has been advising the VAW Group on the proposed law reform on homicide defences, and whilst they have some reservations about the proposals in relation to the reintroduction of the “loss of self control”, they nevertheless recommend that the VAW Group and WNC to support these law reform proposals, in particular:
To welcome the reform of the partial defences to include those who kill in response to a fear of serious violence;
To welcome the raising of the threshold so that words and conduct should be a partial defence to murder only in exceptional circumstances.
WNC has been invited to attend the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Launch of the National Action Plan for the UK, on 25 November 2008 at Amnesty International, Human Rights Action Centre, 9.30-1pm.
Violence Against Women National Strategy
The Home Office is co-ordinating a cross-departmental violence against women strategy, and has approached GEO to determine how WNC should be involved in its development.
Update on other Equalities work
Equality Bill
Proposals for an Equality Bill and Government's response to the Consultation were published by Government Equalities Office in July 2008. The Bill is expected to be introduced in the next Parliamentary session. Proposals include a single equality duty which will require public bodies to consider the diverse needs and requirements of their workforce, and the communities they serve, when developing employment policies and planning services; making public bodies more transparent; and improving enforcement.
GEO has set up an Equality Bill Senior Stakeholder Group that will be meeting monthly with Jonathan Rees to focus on legislative and strategic aspects of the new proposals. Despite repeated requests, WNC has not been invited to participate on this Group, and as the official body representing the voices of women to Government, this is extremely disappointing.
Other Working Groups that have been established include a: public sector duties expert reference group (external); public sector duties working group (officials), and a procurement expert group (external).
GEO circulated an informal consultation on incorporating 'religion and belief' into the proposed new single public sector duty. WNC collated responses from Commissioners, Working Groups and from recent briefing papers, and partners do not hold a unified position on this issue. A summary of responses received reflecting the diversity of views, was returned to GEO, to inform their decision-making.
WNC has offered to host a Roundtable Meeting - and GEO has agreed in principle - to coincide with the launch of the Bill in the New Year, to enable women's Ministers to hear feedback on the impact of the Bill's proposals on women. We await further details from GEO about the Bill's timescale in order to plan this event.
Equality and Diversity Forum (EDF)
WNC has attended monthly meetings of the EDF and provided e-mail updates
to Commissioners as appropriate.
WNC has been invited to attend a special meeting on 20 October on incorporating religion and belief into the single equality duty.
An EDF seminar on 'Competing equality rights and interests' will take place on Thursday 13 November 2008 from 4.30-7pm in a central London venue (to be confirmed). Maleiha Malik of King's College London will be presenting her paper on the subject commissioned by EDF, with a response from the Hon. Mrs Justice Cox to be followed by discussion. There is space for one person per organisation to attend and the event is invitation-only and allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.
On 21 October the Equalities All Party Group will be holding a meeting on the proposed new public sector duty being planned for the Equality Bill. WNC has been invited to attend and details have been circulated.
`Communities in Control' (Empowerment) White Paper
WNC fed in to the DCLG consultation on the `empowerment' White Paper, which has been published in July as the `Communities in Control' White Paper. It aims to shift power, influence and responsibility away from existing centres of power into the hands of communities and individual citizens.
The White Paper covers seven key issues: being active in local communities; access to information; having an influence; challenge; redress; standing for office; and ownership and control. WNC has circulated information on the proposals to partners, which include for example:
A new `duty to promote democracy' on local councils;
An extension of the existing `duty to involve' local people in key decisions (from April 2009) to police authorities and arts, sporting, cultural and environmental organisations.
A new Empowerment Fund of at least £7.5m to support national third sector organisations working on empowerment proposals into action.
Extending mentoring, befriending and volunteering.
Establishing a £70m Community builders scheme to help community organisations become more sustainable.
Removing the barriers to commissioning services from faith-based groups.
Conducting a national survey of third sector organisations to understand the difficulties they face.
Rolling out participatory budgeting to all local authorities by 2012.
New Comprehensive Area Assessment framework of independent assessments of services in local areas from April 2009.
Further details are at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/885997.pdf
DWP Equality Scheme Reference Group
WNC has been asked to be represented on the DWP Equality Scheme Reference group that meets twice a year. The first meeting of this Group is scheduled for 23 October 2008.
Criminal Justice Women's Strategy Unit / Corston Work Programme
WNC is a member of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) Criminal Justice / National Offender Management Service Stakeholder Group and has been invited to a stakeholder event on Monday 20 October from 3.30-5.30pm.
Further to a meeting between Joyce Gould and Maria Eagle MP (Ministerial Champion for Women in the Criminal Justice System and now also Joint Minister for Women), WNC has met with GEO and MOJ officials about the cross-departmental work programme and has contributed to the Corston Work
Programme in a number of ways including:
Working with the newly established Women's Centres Reference Group consisting of external stakeholders. A meeting in October was held to contribute to the proposed `Diverting Women from Custody Project' Outline Business Case.
Contributing to a meeting on `Improving Services to Women Offenders' in October, involving the women's leads from the Regional Offender Management Services (ROMS) and women's service providers from Together Women (Liverpool), Evolve (Calderdale) and Women's Services Strategic Network (Brighton).
National Offender Management Service is developing service specifications for all services delivered or commissioned by the prison and probation services. This follows the launch of the National Service Framework for Women Offenders, as recommended by the Government's response to The Corston Report: A Review of Women with Particular Vulnerabilities in the Criminal Justice System.
WNC also plans to contact the Griffin Society to ensure that their national database of `women's centre' provision includes WNC partner services where appropriate. This Women's Information Network (WIN) Resources Database lists services and resources available for women affected by the justice system and is available at http://www.thegriffinssociety.org/win_database_res.html
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
WNC has been invited to attend the EHRC first stakeholder conference which will take place on the 5th November in London. The EHRC will launch a new publication at the conference; '10 voices', which features 10 people whose lives have been affected by the Commission.
The Commission will also be hosting consultation and involvement events across England, Scotland and Wales for the Single Equality Scheme, as well as consultation events on their Strategic Plan for 2009-12 and on the future of their grants programme. Information about how to get involved will be circulated once this is available on the EHRC website.
Other events include:
London: 4th December: 'The Rights of Women: What now?', British Library, London. As part of the celebrations to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights a debate on the rights of women, chaired by Polly Toynbee, will take place between 6.30 - 8pm.
WNC/08/03/07
1