At the end of last Thursday, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) issued a call for applications for charities providing domestic abuse safe accommodation services in England (see our funding update below).
Social needs don’t get any more urgent than this, but after waiting a month for any news after this was identified as a funding priority in the Chancellor’s statement, charities were initially given just three working days to bid for emergency funds to help women and girls in serious danger (including a preference for consortia bids!).
The application guidance claims the department will give ‘special consideration to services that provide support to particular groups such as…BAME, LGBT and victims with disabilities’. But the absurdly short application window risks excluding charities supporting those very groups, because they’re likely to have less capacity to rapidly put together applications.
Thankfully the Women’s Resource Centre and the Small Charities Coalition organised a rapid letter to politicians over the weekend which DSC supported, and the deadline has subsequently been moved forward to Thursday 21 May – better but still very tight.
Domestic abuse safe accommodation: COVID-19 emergency support fund
