The SMV pilot scheme is a UK-wide partnership led by SBS that provides victims of domestic abuse and their children with NRPF problems with limited housing and subsistence costs from a last resort No Recourse Fund. The pilot also provides advocacy to assist women in accessing legal immigration advice and other wrap-around services such as counselling and support groups, with the majority of these services being funded in kind by SBS and our delivery partners, which include BAWSO, Shakti Women’s Aid, Foyle Women’s Aid, Ashiana Sheffield and Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid.
In the absence of a longer-term solution, the pilot has been extended twice, and it is now set to end in March 2025. The Home Office evaluation report covers the SMV pilot’s work during its first year, which ran from April 2021 to March 2022. In May 2021, Southall Black Sisters (SBS) commissioned the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at London Metropolitan University to produce an independent evaluation, ‘Living at the Edge’. Links below:
Contacts for further information:
Hannana Siddiqui [email protected]
Asmita Sood [email protected]
