Support workers at Bedford Women's Centre gave up their leave as referrals shot up by 41 per cent

A charity helping women saw its referrals jump by 41 per cent in the first year of the pandemic, leading to worn-out support workers forgoing their leave.

But they said they "wouldn't have it any other way" to ensure that those women got the support they needed.

Family Groups, the charity that runs Bedford Women's Centre is entering its 40th year this year.

"We started off as a service that supported families within the community and ran groups that were self-led," Charlotte Day, the charity's chief officer, told the Adult Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday (February 22).

"We've developed that service and the women we are seeing 40 years later certainly have a higher level of need than we ever expected to be seeing.

"Our referrals over Covid increased by 41 per cent in the first year, a huge percentage.

"We were able to facilitate some of that work, luckily, because we were unable to do some of the other work, especially that work with women in the criminal justice systems because the courts weren’t sending them to us as women weren’t going through courts," she said.

Ms Day told the committee that some of the women had a higher level of desperation because of the limitations of being stuck in a home in a violent or an emotionally abusive situation.

"We seen a higher number of women who came to us over Covid who were experiencing homelessness at quite severe levels of need," she said.

"Drug and alcohol services have been disrupted by Covid, so those women who turned to drug and alcohol as a means of coping with their stress may have found it more difficult to access the services that were right for them.

"We decided quite early on in Covid that we saw ourselves as a service for these women and therefore within three months of the Covid pandemic we took on the role of being able to see some of those women in a safe way in a front facing way.

"Two and a half years ago we doing two groups a week, throughout Covid we did four, and I will say to you that my team struggled to do that.

"We all ended the year with most of our leave still intact, all very tired, all very worn out, but we wouldn't have it any other way because those women needed that support at that time," she said.

Councillor Nesreen Akhtar (Labour, Queens Park Ward) asked how many women were waiting for assistance and what the current case load was.

"Unfortunately, we have had to close our waiting list," Ms Day replied.

"It's the first time in 14 years we've ever had to do that and I will admit to you that I was not happy to do it. I will admit that I cried doing it because it's not something I've ever wanted to do.

"At one stage we had 45 women on a waiting list, and I think we are at about 28 women on the waiting list at the moment.

"What we do try and do is if we can't help them is to try and find someone else you can or at least give them some information and advice even if we can't take them into group programmes.

"But it is heartbreaking sometimes with the calls we get - we can't ignore those calls, we can’t put them on the waiting list because it's 'I need to get help now'.

"So those calls we’re still taking, but the women who would like to just build on their confidence and well being, moving on with their families been able to put the abuse behind them for those women some of them are having to wait three to six months for support," she said.

Councillor Dean Crofts (LibDems, Kingsbrook Ward) said: "When I look on our domestic abuse partnership website, we've got 89 organisations available for people go to to get domestic abuse help and 32 of those organisations are placed in Bedfordshire.

"So if women haven't got enough places to go to, what, from your perspective, is going wrong if there's 32 Bedfordshire organisations on the domestic abuse partnership website, and there’s 89 organisations they could approach?" he asked.

Ms Day said: "On the same page as the strategic plan for Bedford Borough there was a thing saying 'if you need to access domestic abuse services contact Luton All Women Centre', on Bedford Borough’s website.

"Well Luton All Women Centre doesn't work in Bedford and it does confuse people.

"But I will also say that because all the organisations [in Bedfordshire] know each other we’re very good at going, 'ah, you don't need me, but this is the number you need to ring, this is where you need to go and this is even the name of the lady you need to speak to and they will help you'.

"Sometimes when you look at that website it can be a little bit confusing for what people need," she said.