What is devolution?

With one month to go until the election of the new Mayor of the North East on 2 May 2024, in this blog our Policy and Public Affairs Officer, Tara, examines the role devolution can play in creating long-term support for women and girls facing multiple unmet needs.

Devolution is a common term for the de-centralisation of power to make political decisions. In the UK we have historically had a centralised system of power, where most major decisions about policy are made in London at the Houses of Parliament. Devolution gives governance bodies, such as local and combined authorities, more power to make decisions at a regional or local level. This can include giving areas more power over how to spend money, or make decisions based on the needs of their communities. For example, communities in Cornwall may be facing different issues to those in Norfolk, so devolution gives local authorities more freedom to decide how they address local problems.

The capacity for local and regional policymakers to meaningfully change the physical and social infrastructure of specific places has historically been limited. However, there is great potential for the lives of women and girls who experience multiple disadvantage to be transformed by a more localised approach. The new North East Mayoral Combined Authority (NEMCA) is one such example of a devolution deal that could deliver change for local communities, including specific support for women and girls.

The North East Mayoral Combined Authority is a new devolution deal which will come into action on the 7 May 2024. It will bring together Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland, and Durham under one Mayoral Combined Authority. This will replace the two existing combined authorities in the area (currently the mayoral North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) and the non-mayoral North East Combined Authority (NECA)). The new Combined Authority will have a new mayor, voted in by constituents on 2 May 2024, and access to significant new funding and powers for the region. There is already £6bn of new Government funding confirmed through the deal. (1)

The mayor will lead an eight-person NEMCA cabinet, including leaders from the seven local councils included in the deal. The mayor will hold the same voting rights as other members. Local councils hold a range of responsibilities in their areas, such as education, planning, and housing, and will still exist in the North East, retaining their responsibilities over social care and other public services. The new mayor will bring these decision-makers together to make regional decisions.

Women with multiple unmet needs face intersecting disadvantages, including experiences of poverty, homelessness, substance misuse, contact with the criminal justice system, domestic abuse, and poor mental health. In the North East, they are at increased risk of regional health inequalities.

The final report for our project, Transforming Together for Women’s Futures, found that women are at greater risk of death in the North East when compared to the rest of the country. In 2021, 1.7 times more women died as a result of suicide, drug and alcohol misuse, and domestic homicide in the North East, when compared to England and Wales as a whole. Our research also found that:

• Between 2021-22 in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear 81% (over 145,000) women who needed mental health support did not get it.
• The typical life expectancy of a woman in the UK is 83 years (ONS); Changing Lives has reported that the average age of women who are known to have died whilst accessing their services in the region is currently just 37 years old. Prior to 2020, it was 47.
• Our findings from surveying 47 women in the North East with lived experience paints a concerning picture of current service provision in the region: 44% are currently in contact with three or more workers at once; 64% of women with multiple unmet needs have felt judged or blamed by a practitioner when accessing services; and 26% experienced sexual harassment and/or sexual abuse while accessing public services, either from another service user or a professional.
• NIHR research shows that women in the North East spend over a quarter (26%) of their lives in ‘not good/poor’ health compared to 23.3% of those in the country as a whole.

The NEMCA deal has promised a Radical Prevention Fund, which will focus on increasing preventative actions in healthcare. The Fund could be truly transformative if it is distributed in a targeted way that supports those experiencing multiple unmet needs. It must particularly consider the gendered impacts of multiple disadvantage and provide informed support. The fund provides a clear opportunity to embed long-term support into the devolution deal, with potential to reduce health inequalities for women in the North East.

In partnership with Changing Lives, we are convening the Transforming Together network, bringing together a coalition of 60 professionals and women experiencing multiple unmet need in the North East. The network will work together to implement real change for the most marginalised women in the region, understanding the barriers to progress locally and demonstrating the power of embedding lived experience across public service design.

The Transforming Together network is asking all mayoral candidates to commit to:

• Radically reducing the number of women dying in the North East as a result of their unmet needs, committing to halving the mortality rate for women dying as a result of suicide, drug and alcohol misuse, and domestic homicide. 
• Forming a “Tackling Women and Girl’s Multiple Disadvantage Taskforce” with a bold ambition to improve public services for the most disadvantaged women and girls in the North East. The Taskforce must establish a clear vision for change, working to break down siloes and improve care and support for the most at-risk women and girls.

These pledges have been developed in partnership with women with lived experience and practitioners with an understanding of regional disparity and local need, and provide opportunity to deliver targeted local change.  We are pleased that one candidate, Labour’s Kim McGuinness, has already committed to these pledges.

The NEMCA deal offers a clear opportunity to establish long-term support for women and girls with multiple unmet needs from its origin. We look forward to seeing how the new Combined Authority will act to deliver change for women and girls in the North East, and continuing to work with the Transforming Together network to create conditions which enable that change.