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Safe Exit
Safe Exit is an original initiative of Toynbee Hall, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Metropolitan Police and Providence Row Charity.
About Safe Exit
The initiative develops better services for people in prostitution and reduces the impact of prostitution on communities. This includes strategies to reduce harm to those involved; to support them to change their lifestyles and to prevent vulnerable people entering prostitution.
Safe Exit at Toynbee Hall brings together voluntary and statutory agencies in partnership including the Metropolitan Police and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The initiative is financially supported by the David Isaacs Fund and the Tower Hamlets Partnership.
Safe Exit can be contacted at SafeExit@toynbeehall.org.uk.
- Safe Exit Diversion Scheme
- Safe Exit Handbook
- Power and Control Wheel for women involved in street prostitution
- Forum Members
Research and reports
- Map of Mental Health Services
- Prostitution and Olympics Summit Report
- Housing Need Research
- Demand Research
- The Change Course
- Careers Education paper
The Diversion Scheme is part of Safe Exit and aims to use the soliciting/loitering framework to support women to access services to meet their needs as an alternative to the Criminal Justice System, with a long term aim of empowering women to change their lifestyles and exit prostitution.
Traditional enforcement of soliciting/loitering law through fines is not an effective way of reducing prostitution, encouraging changes in women’s activity or supporting local communities. It occurs at great cost in terms of time and resources to the Police, CPS and Courts.
The Diversion Scheme is open to women arrested for soliciting/loitering in Tower Hamlets. On arrest, the woman (or man) will be given information about the Diversion Scheme. The woman will be required to attend and engage in two meetings to complete the Diversion Scheme.
During the first meeting with the Diversion Scheme Worker, the client will have a needs assessment and with the worker, identify an appropriate referral agency for her second meeting. This second meeting will be with the identified agency around a priority need for the client such as health, housing, substance misuse, general support, counselling, legal advice etc. If the client completes both meetings the case against her will be discontinued, if not the client will be required to attend court on the given date.
^Safe Exit Handbook
In 2005 Safe Exit published a pioneering Handbook that is a comprehensive guide for people involved in prostitution in Tower Hamlets. The second edition of the Handbook has been reprinted after an extensive update and is now available.
Click on the links to download Handbook:
Power and Control wheel for women involved in street prositution
In May 2008, Safe Exit held an event in partnership with Tower Hamlets Domestic Violence Team and the Stella Project for professionals working in the domestic violence and prostitution sectors. The aim of the event was to explore how to improve responses to DV in relation to women who have multiple needs and to share knowledge and useful tools across both sectors. At the event we developed a Power and Control Wheel for women involved in street prostitution, showing the range of violent and abusive behaviours which can be present in their relationships.
A Guide to Secondary Mental Health Services in Tower Hamlets for Agencies Supporting Women Involved in Street Prostitution
The aim of this guide is to provide a summary of secondary mental health services in Tower Hamlets, in order for agencies supporting women involved in street prostitution to better understand what services are available, and how to access them. The guide includes a description of the most relevant services, and outlines their criteria and referral procedures. Included in the guide are named contacts who can offer telephone advice and consultation to professionals on the most appropriate service for their service user.
Prostitution and Olympics
Major sporting events such as the Olympic Games can have an adverse impact on local communities and particularly those most vulnerable such as women selling sex. In preparation for the 2012 London Olympics, Safe Exit’s concern was to ensure that women involved in prostitution are treated fairly and that their needs are represented in decision making. In May 09, the project examined the state of prostitution in the five boroughs hosting the Olympic Games, the existing provision of services for women and the potential impact of the Olympics. This scoping paper gathers the views from a range of service providers and other professionals coming into contact with women involved in prostitution and it highlights their key concerns regarding the potential negative impact and increased risk that the event can cause to women’s lives. It provides an insight into the current situation but does not attempt to map the extend of prostitution across the five boroughs.
Taking forward the concerns raised in the Prositution and Olympics Summit paper the project hosted a
Housing Need for Women in Prostitution in Tower Hamlets November 05 - January 06
This document aims to provide a snapshot of the housing needs of clients who accessed Door of Hope, Providence Row and Aldgate Hostel, in Tower Hamlets during the periods Nov 05-Jan 06.
Among the key findings were that 79% of women have unmet housing needs and 74% of women had three or more identified support needs in addition to housing needs.
Click here to download the paper.
^
Demand Research:
It's just like going to the supermarket: Men buying sex in East London
All groups working with women in prostitution acknowledge that it is a multi-faceted problem and that the women involved lead complex and difficult lives. Too much policy which relates to the so-called sex industry is targeted at how to punish the women involved. Often these women have no choice but to sell sex, pushed by desperation into street prostitution. The people who do have a choice are the men involved in the transaction; men like the man who described buying sex with a woman as "just like going to the supermarket".
At Toynbee Hall we believe that it is time that policy makers directed their attention to the demand side of the sex market, and that is why we have commissioned one of the largest pieces of research of its kind in the UK, in order to provide the evidence base from which to identify how demand could be tackled in London and the UK.
Click here to download the paper.
Click here to view the press release.
The research has been funded by the Tower Hamlets Partnership and conducted by the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at London Metropolitan University.
The Change Course - changing attitudes to buying sex
Safe Exit is committed to taking a holistic approach to addressing street prostitution in partnership with voluntary and statutory agencies. This includes developing better services for the women in addition to addressing the demand for prostitution.
The Change Course in Tower Hamlets aims to challenge the attitudes of men caught kerb crawling and is running in London for the first time in partnership with Safe Exit at Toynbee Hall and the Tower Hamlets Borough Safer Neighbourhoods Team.
The course participants must be low-level offenders who admit their offence once arrested for kerb crawling. They will be given the choice of paying £200 to go on the course and receive a caution, or being charged and making a public appearance at Magistrates Court, where they would typically receive a £200 fine.
The course is broken into sections covering the real life of women working in street prostitution - the offending cycle, the consequences of this behaviour and planning for the future. Some of the course fee will go towards a fund to support women involved in prostitution which Safe Exit will coordinate.
Nearly 1,500 men have so far participated in the course in other cities in the UK and re-offending rates have been low at less than 2%. An evaluation of the course has shown that it is particularly effective amongst those offenders who consider kerb crawling as a consumer right. Safe Exit's 2007 research 'It's just like going to the Supermarket: Men buying sex in East London' found that this group accounted for over two thirds of men buying sex in East London. Reaching these men by confronting them with the reality of the lives of women in prostitution should prove a real deterrent.
At the same time, it's vital to take into account concerns about the safety of women involved in street prostitution. The majority of the women are vulnerable, have complex needs and are at risk of violence and exploitation. Therefore, we are concurrently developing a scheme to encourage women to report offences against them to police to enable greater police intervention against those who perpetrate crimes against this group of women.
The scope for careers education for women exiting prostitution and in recovery from substance use: A brief exploration of the views of professionals and clients.
This paper provides a brief exploration of the views of professionals and clients on the scope for using careers guidance to support women who are exiting prostitution and are in recovery from substance misuse. It intends to generate discussion and ideas in this area. This paper includes the views of agencies providing holistic support to women involved in prostitution, those of careers guidance agencies, views of some clients, expert interviews, and is informed by Safe Exit’s knowledge of the issues from Safe Exit’s work. Safe Exit thinks that the key issues arising are around building women’s self confidence and motivation, developing joint working mechanisms to enable the women to benefit from the a careers guidance response integrated into an individual holistic support package, and sharing information and training.
The research explored what the client’s needs are, what is available for the client in terms of careers guidance and education, how it could be best used by the client and at what stage in the client’s journey.
The Safe Exit Forum brings together statutory and voluntary sector organisations that have a stake in prostitution in Tower Hamlets to share information, identify gaps in services, network and share good practice.
Members of the Safe Exit forum: (click the logo to visit members' websites)
