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Many thanks for sending on the letter of 27th October from the Chair of the Health and Social Security Panel. I am replying as Chair of the Jersey Women's Refuge's management committee. My apologies for the delay in getting back to you at a very busy time for JWR. I am copying our Service Manager, Marine Oliveira, who has helped frame this response.
Firstly, I should point out that the £85k per annum ascribed to JWR is additional to our existing government grant, taking our annual grant up to circa £300k.
In response to your Chair's specific questions:
- Yes, Paul McGinnetty, our commissioner, has worked tirelessly with us to understand our service and funding requirements and to help us frame a business case to increase our current annual grant in light of the increase in demand on our services since the pandemic and the increase in our operational compliance costs since our registration with the JCC. This included discussions with the head of finance of his department.
- To guarantee sustainability of its vital and holistic services, earlier this year JWR requested the GoJ to fund 50% of JWR funding requirements (i.e. a £113.5K annual increase), over a period of at least 3 years. That is because corporate and public monetary donations, whilst higher in recent years, are impossible to predict over time, particularly as we face a possible period of recession, rending business planning for a sustainable service very challenging. However, we recognise that an £85K increase is significant when public funding is under pressure and we hope at this point in time that this additional government funding, as well as the investment JWR is making in communications and community engagement to generate additional donor funding, will be sufficient to cover immediate needs.
- As regards the scheme to provide free sanitary products, we certainly support the view that there is a need for it as we ourselves take on donations to help us distribute such products to women accessing our services. However, in respect of our own organisation and needs, we feel that the current material donations from the public in this area are currently sufficient to match the needs of our clients.
Kind regards, Ben Robins