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20 January 05 Caithness and Sutherland Women’s Aid currently provides an Outreach service giving support to women suffering from domestic abuse but it has also worked with the Highland Council and Pentland Housing Association to set up a refuge which can assist women with children and single women who become homeless as a result of domestic abuse. Today the service received an assurance of £127,000 funding from the Highland Council which will ensure that this vital service to the community can be established and the purpose built refuge opened for use.
Originally it had been intended to fund this service through the Scottish Executive provided Supporting People Grant. However Members of The Highland Council’s Housing and Social Work Committee heard confirmation today that the Council has to find a £2M reduction in Supporting People budgets. Because of this it will not be possible to provide funding to Caithness and Sutherland Women’s Aid through this source. Councillors were delighted to hear that assurance of 14 months funding of £127, 000 has been secured to assist the project until March 2006 within other Council funding sources. This means that the service can be put in place while further work is done to try and identify capacity within the Supporting People Budget for this service in the future. |
