A support service for the county’s survivors of rape and sexual abuse is being threatened with having to “significantly reduce services” because of a lack of funding.

West Mercia Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre (WMRSASC), which offers counselling and other support to thousands of survivors every year, said it is expecting its funding to be cut by nearly half by 2025 – at a time when referrals were rising.

The service received more than 3,000 new referrals in the last year for survivors of rape, sexual violence, abuse, harassment, and exploitation and supports children as young as five years old.

The lack of secure funding meant staff were facing the risk of redundancy and burnout because the service did not have enough money to replace exiting staff.

The struggle for funds was highlighted by Joy Griffiths, chair of the trustees of WMRSASC, who called on the Worcester City Council to use its influence to provide more funding for the struggling service with more than 550 adults and children already waiting for specialist counselling.

Ms Griffiths said WMRSASC received £411,000 from the Department for Justice in 2022/23, with Worcestershire getting £214,000, and has only been offered £366,000 for both Worcestershire and Herefordshire for the next 20 months.

“We have challenged the decision, to no avail, and we are now looking at significantly reducing service provision,” she said at a council meeting in the Guildhall in Worcester on Tuesday (September 26)

“Given that one in four women will be raped in their lifetime and one in six children will be sexually abused before they are 16 years old, perhaps the council could also use their influence closer to home and lobby to provide funding for the survivors of rape and sexual violence?”

Lib Dem councillor Sarah Murray had also brought a motion to the council asking for support for a number of measures including writing to the government urging them to address the backlog in the courts, spend more money on services for victims and make misogyny and public harassment a hate crime.

“Ending violence against women starts when we change the story,” she said at the meeting in the Guildhall on Tuesday (September 26).

“I am asking the council to help to change the story by committing to making consistent choices and actions so that women can live their lives free from men’s violence.”

Cllr Stephen Hodgson, who was one of the seven Conservative councillors to vote against the call, said it was “incorrect and lazy” to suggest that cuts had been made to funding and said that, in fact, more money had been put towards supporting victims by the government.

“As a Conservative, I cannot support a motion that says, ‘sustained cuts of the justice system.’ It’s incorrect and a lazy argument that unfortunately opponents of my party and government seem to like using.

“In fact, more resources have been put into victim support.”

Cllr Hodgson said he was “sympathetic” but had “reservations” about the wording of Cllr Murray’s motion and criticised it for not recognising the work that was already being done by charities in the city.

“I wish the motion was ‘more local’ and just addressed the good things that are happening in the city,” he said.

This was echoed by the council’s Conservative leader Cllr James Stanley said there was a “notable absence of the incredible work already done.”

“There is an enormous amount of work still to be done to change misogynistic and sexist behaviour, however, it would be a real mistake to suggest that progress hasn’t been made.”

He said the government was “quadrupling” support for victims and witness support by 2025.