On Wednesday 12 November 2025, Bristol Women’s Voice held a monthly community and members’ meeting for women to learn about and discuss how the Bristol Council’s proposed budget cuts would impact women and develop a collective consultation response to the Council.
The meeting was attended by diverse women around Bristol and Shona Jemphrey, Green Party Councillor in Lawrence Hill.
The attendees discussed four of the main proposals, including proposals on the Respite Care Model, the Adult Social Care Charging policy, the Adult Social Care day service model, and the Care Package assessment, highlighting the gendered impacts of the proposed changes.
‘We feel invisible’: The Gendered Impacts of the Council Budget Cuts
As the conversations revealed, the proposed changes did not incorporate a gendered lens, resulting in what could potentially be adverse impacts on women and other marginalised groups.
The Council’s proposal to “make savings” on Respite Care while “meeting needs” was questioned by the attendees for its contradictory nature. The proposal, as the women pointed out, did not factor in affordability, accessibility, and other gendered barriers women experience as they navigate family, work, and caring responsibilities. Accessing respite was already a complex process, and further cost-saving measures could be detrimental to carers and the people they care for.
The women also demanded greater clarification on proposed changes to the Adult Social Care charging policy. The attendees were concerned that either Disabled individuals or carers would bear the cost of funding care packages. One attendee mentioned that her young son continues to pay for his own care package to the council out of the Universal Credit he is entitled to, which lays bare inadequacies in the current policy.
Although the attendees welcomed the Council’s efforts to provide more meaningful daytime activities for adults with additional needs, there was further scepticism about how the new centres or services would be funded. The women stressed that the council should identify paths to connect adult day care and older day care services, as well as connect the day care services to community centres where women, for instance, could engage in recreational activities while the person they care for is making use of the day care services.
“We already feel invisible- as a pension age woman, as a carer. They want to take all the props away“, one of the attendees lamented, and this was echoed by the other attendees.
An Air of Anxiety and a Call for Change
The meeting closed with some advice from Councillor Shona Jemphrey , who emphasised the importance of communicating and engaging with local councillors and participating in Council and Committee meetings.
Overall, the participants expressed their worries about the cumulative impact of the proposed cuts, and called on the Council to reconsider, as any further funding reductions could disproportionately disadvantage women and marginalised groups.
Bristol Women’s Voice has a guide on how you can campaign and advocate in the city in order to have your concerns heard.