55 organisations join us in demanding a Secretary of State for Women and Girls

Today, 55 co-signatories working across the women and girls’, criminal justice, mental health, and youth work sectors, have joined us in calling SOS on the crisis facing women and girls across Britain.

We’ve written to the leaders of the four main political parties, to demand whoever forms the next government creates a standalone Secretary of State for Women and Girls in their Cabinet.

Read our letter - sent to Sir Keir Starmer (Labour), Rishi Sunak (Conservatives), Sir Ed Davey (Liberal Democrats) and Carla Denyer/Adrian Ramsey (Greens) - in full below:

"Policymakers need a kick up the butt. They need to do something, and they need to do it fast otherwise there are going to be so many more disadvantaged women; more suicides, homelessness, child removal. It needs acting on and it needs acting on fast."

Nici, member of Agenda Alliance’s Women’s Advisory Network

We are writing from Agenda Alliance, a coalition of over 100 member organisations working to make a difference to the lives of women and girls at the sharpest end of inequality. Our Alliance includes large national bodies and smaller, specialist organisations, working in collaboration to influence public policy and improve the response to women and girls experiencing multiple unmet needs. As the 4 July General Election approaches, we are writing to ask you to commit to a central ask to improve the lives of women and girls. We want the next government to create a dedicated Secretary of State for Women and Girls, matching the seriousness of women and girls’ needs with serious political resource.

There is a strong case for ensuring women and girls are represented at the highest levels of politics – especially women and girls experiencing multiple disadvantage. Multiple unmet needs are often interconnected, complex and gender-specific. They may include contact with the criminal justice system, poverty, using substances to cope, having no recourse to public funds and having no safe place to call home. For many women and girls these challenges are underpinned by extensive experience of abuse and violence throughout their lives. However, single issue policy responses which try and address these problems one at a time ignore the connections between them, causing these problems to escalate. Far too often, women experiencing disadvantage and misogyny are stigmatised, labelled as just ‘victims’; ‘criminals’; ‘bad mothers’, ‘addicts’, ‘poor’ or ‘useless’. These labels stick, and they ignore the fact that women and girls experiencing multiple unmet needs are whole individuals, who are hopeful, inspiring, joyful, aspirational and caring.

Early intervention from relational, cross-cutting services which provide gender-, age-, culture- and trauma-responsive support is critical – but without senior political backing, effective, gendered prevention won’t have a lasting transformative impact. Political focus on the issues women and girls face has been diluted for too long: since the inception of these roles, ministers assigned to support women and girls have only had a position in Cabinet because they also hold other full-time government roles, such as Home Secretary; Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport; or Secretary of State for Business and Trade. Responsibility for women and girls facing the greatest disadvantage shouldn’t be a bolt on to other more senior roles.

We all want society to be safer and more functional – polling tells us that the majority of Britons, whoever they vote for, think public services are in a very bad state. A Secretary of State for Women and Girls would work across Government at the most senior levels to reshape public services and embed a preventative approach. They should draw together healthcare, education, housing, violence against women and girls and justice policy to deliver lasting change which addresses how women and girls’ problems are often multiple and interconnected. Primarily, we believe that a Secretary of State for Women and Girls should:

- Centre prioritisation and prevention. A cross-cutting, Cabinet level women and girls’ representative will work across government departments to embed early intervention and hold them accountable for ensuring that all policy responds to gender, age, culture and trauma as a matter of course.

- Share their power. Women and girls with lived experience have the answers to so many persistent policy problems – but they are so rarely included. This role should hold a core focus on designing future solutions alongside women and girls with lived experience, from consultation to legislation, service delivery to service evaluation.

- Champion the sector. After decades of declining investment in vital services, women and girls need high level political advocacy to bring departments together and address the distinct issues the specialist sector supporting them faces. We need funding models which embed full-cost recovery, articulate the cost-savings of prevention, and provide ring-fenced resource for specialist and by-and-for organisations.

We are attaching to this letter detailed policy recommendations which set out our ambitions for what a senior political focus on women and girls could achieve. If we are bold enough to address gendered multiple disadvantage with fresh eyes, the returns will be huge. The 55 organisations who are signatories to this letter are urging you to pledge your support, and call for dedicated political focus on women and girls now.

We would welcome the opportunity to meet you or a member of your team and discuss this manifesto ask further; do not hesitate to get in touch with our Policy and Public Affairs Officer Tara on tara@agendaalliance.org to arrange a meeting.

Yours faithfully,

Indy Cross

Chief Executive of Agenda Alliance

Co-signed by:

A Way Out, Kay Nicholson, Chief Executive

Advance, Liz Mack, CEO

Alliance for Youth Justice, Jess Mullen, CEO

Anawim, Joy Doal, Chief Executive

Barrow Cadbury Trust, Dame Sara Llewellin, Chief Executive

Beyond the Streets, Mari Edwards, CEO

Birth Companions, Naomi Delap, Chief Executive

Black Country Women's Aid, Sara Ward, Chief Executive

Brighton Women's Centre, Lisa Dando,

Cardboard Citizens, Jessie Wyld, Chief Executive

Centre for Justice Innovation, Phil Bowen, Director

Centre for Mental Health, Andy Bell, Chief Executive

Centre for Women's Justice, Harriet Wistrich, Solicitor & Director

Chance UK, Vanessa Longley, CEO

Changing Lives, Stephen Bell, Chief Executive

Children and Young People's Mental Health Alliance, Amy Whitelock Gibbs, Chair

Clean Break, Anna Herrmann, Artistic Director/Joint CEO

Clinks, Anne Fox, Chief Executive

Criminal Justice Alliance, Mark Blake, Policy Manager

Daddyless Daughters, Aliyah Ali, Founder and Chief Executive

Fawcett, Jemima Olchawski, Chief Executive

Greater Manchester Women's Support Alliance, Tracey Sparkes, Chief Executive

Howard League for Penal Reform, Andrea Coomber KC (Hon.), Chief Executive

Inquest, Deborah Coles, Executive Director

IRISI, Medina Johnson, Chief Executive

Kairos, Kellie Ziemba, Chief Executive Officer

Lancashire Women, Amanda Greenwood, Chief Executive

Liz Hogarth OBE, Independent Adviser to the Corston Independent Funders’ Coalition.

Luton All Women's Centre, Caroline Cook, Chief Executive Officer

Maternal Mental Health Alliance, Karen Middleton, Head of Campaigns and Policy

National Ugly Mugs, Dr Raven Bowen, CEO

Nelson Trust, Niki Gould, Director of Women's Services

North Wales Women's Centre, Abby Lewis, Chief Executive

Nottingham Women's Centre, Vandna Gohil, Chief Executive

National Women’s Justice Coalition, Abbi Ayers, Development Manager

One Small Thing, Claire Hubberstey, CEO

One25, Jennifer Riley, Chief Executive

Open Clasp Theatre Company, Catrina McHugh MBE and Ellie Turner, Joint Chief Executives

Pecan, Cat Millar, Women's Services Manager

Prison Reform Trust, Pia Sinha, CEO

PSS UK, Lesley Dixon, Chief Executive

Redthread, Lucie Russell, Chief Executive

Respect, Jo Todd CBE, Chief Executive

Rj4all, Anna Fosse-Galtier, UK Operations Director

Social Benefits Consortium, Sandra Beeton, Chief Executive

Support and Action for Women's Network, Rose Ssali, Chief Executive Officer/Founder

Talk Listen Change, Michelle Hill, Chief Executive

The Drive Partnership, Kyla Kirkpatrick, Director

The JABBS Foundation, Chloé Geoghegan, Head of Programme – Women and the Criminal Justice System

Westend Women and Girls, Huffty McHugh, Centre Co-ordinator

Women in Prison, Sonya Ruparel, Chief Executive

WomenCentre, Angela Everson, Chief Executive

Working Chance, Natasha Finlayson, Chief Executive

Young Women's Trust, Claire Reindorp, CEO

Youth Access, Cassandra Harrison, Chief Executive