Women and the cuts
Public service union UNISON has launched a nationwide survey aimed at gauging the impact of the coalition government’s cuts to local services on women and their families.
Women make up over thee-quarters of local government staff (77%) and they are more likely to use public services than men, so they are the first to be affected when services are cut.
Heather Wakefield, head of local government at UNISON, 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.”
The survey covers areas such as children’s centres, community centres, sexual violence support services, libraries, leisure services, parks as well as local bus services and street cleaning. It takes 5-10 minutes to complete and all answers will be completely anonymous. It can be completed at: