Women’s conference calls for more support for women, especially for working women.

UNISON is calling for free emergency housing for all women fleeing domestic violence.

UNISON is one of Britain’s largest unions, and more than two thirds of its.1.3 million members are women.

Domestic violence was one of the issues raised at UNISON’s national women member’s conference, which was held in Brighton recently.

The union is particularly concerned about the position of working women, who may be forced to pay for services following deep spending cuts.

UNISON’s women’s officer Sharon Greene said: “It takes huge courage for a woman to leave an abusive relationship and when they do they deserve the best support possible.

“There are many reasons why some women believe they can’t leave a violent partner but money should not be one of them.

“That is why we are calling for access to free emergency accommodation for women and their children if they are forced to flee to safety.

“Every woman should have a right to safety and justice. But women in work are being victimised because government cuts to Legal Aid have drastically reduced the number of people eligible for free legal advice.

“The lack of safe alternative options for women also needs to be addressed.

“Last year, 1.2 million women experienced domestic abuse in the UK, including half a million cases of sexual assault.

“We need to have the right provision and support in place to help women and their children who live in fear of the next attack. They deserve to be safe from abuse so they can regain their confidence and have a new start in life.”

The conference also debated forced marriage, food banks, low pay and zero hours contracts.

A full list of conference decisions will be published here shortly.

UNISON launched a nationwide survey aimed at gauging the impact of the Government’s cuts to local services on women and their families to coincide with the start of the  women’s conference.

Women make up 77 per cent of local government staff and women are more likely to use public services than men, so are the first to be affected when services are cut.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON head of Local Government, said: “Local councils have been under the cosh since the Conservatives came to power and bit by bit local communities are seeing their services cut or closed.

“The survey aims to drill down into the impact of these cuts on women across the country.

“We know that women are by far the biggest users of council services so they are the biggest losers when those same services are axed. It is often those with the least that are affected the most by cuts to services.

“It is a fact that the burden of care for children and the elderly falls mainly on women.

“When there are cuts to homecare services, children’s centres, libraries, rural bus services, street lighting women’s refuges, public toilets, they are the ones in the firing line.”

The areas the survey covers includes questions on children’s centres, community centres, sexual violence support services, libraries, leisure services, swimming pools parks etc, as well as local bus services, museums, street cleaning etc.

It takes 5-10 minutes to complete and all answers will be completely anonymous.

To take part, click here .