Domestic abuse charity criticises 'veiled threat' against its funding in trans row

A leading domestic abuse charity has criticised a "veiled threat" to remove its funding after it stated it does not allow trans women to use some of its services.

Edinburgh Women's Aid (EWA) spoke out after a motion by a Green councillor in the city called for a “review” of the local authority’s agreements and contracts with domestic abuse services “to make it clear that we expect services to be fully trans inclusive”.

The charity previously said it does not allow trans women to use its shared refuges or group counselling services, and does not employ trans women as staff, citing exemptions in the Equality Act 2010.

Green councillor Alex Staniforth, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, tabled a motion at a meeting of the full council expressing “concern” about this. However, the motion was later replaced by an amendment saying the council “remains committed not to defund these vital services”.

Councillor Alex Staniforth | Contributed

Cllr Staniforth said it was never their intention to defund services, adding: “I also want to make it clear that I think Edinburgh Women’s Aid does excellent work. However, this council would surely not allow any other minority to be automatically excluded from services.”

Addressing councillors on Thursday morning, Linda Rodgers, the chief executive of EWA, said it had been operating for more than 50 years, supporting more than 2,000 women and more than 250 children each year.

"This motion should be opposed, not only because of the veiled threat to our funding, but because of the explicit threat to our ability to use our expertise to deliver the best, most trauma-informed, and safest services to women and children affected by domestic abuse in Edinburgh,” she said.

"In our 2024 Care Inspectorate inspection, we were graded six - outstanding - by the Care Inspectorate. We are the experts in our field of work and in the delivery of services to vulnerable women and children in Edinburgh and we need to be able to decide how that is best done."

She said its policy on group work “rests on feedback from survivors that they would self-exclude from groups that included trans women”, adding: “In particular, we found that women from vulnerable and minoritised communities were most likely to voice this.

"We operate a fine balance between meeting the needs and the rights of the different communities we serve, but we will always prioritise women's feelings of safety in our service provision, and work in line with our trauma-informed principles."

Ms Rodgers said the charity offered 20 spaces in its shared refuges, but trans women could access its 11 single-occupancy refuges. She said fewer than 1 per cent of the 2,336 women the charity worked with in 2024/25 were trans.

"Trans women impacted by domestic abuse can access all of our services, with the exception of group work and shared refuge,” she said.

Ms Rodgers added: "It's always disappointing that women's organisations, particularly those set up to tackle men's violence against women, are the only organisations that are targeted on the matter of single-sex services, and it's interesting that there's no mention in the motion of a similar concern about men's homelessness shelters in Edinburgh."

She told councillors the charity’s position was not new. "They are long-standing policies,” she said. “The decision to place them on the website was for clarity, so that people could find them without having to contact us directly."

Cllr Staniforth backed a composite amendment by SNP and Liberal Democrat councillors, which was passed by the full council.

This recognised the “vital work” of Edinburgh Women’s Aid, but agreed that the council leader should write to the charity “to set out the importance of providing services to trans women and to ask how the organisation can provide this”.