Using this service
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The Support Line is a free phone and online chat service for anyone aged 16+ in England and Wales who has been affected by any kind of sexual violence, abuse or harassment – no matter when or where it happened.
It's also a service for anyone who's not sure what happened or is feeling confused.
Run by the national charity Rape Crisis England & Wales, the Support Line is staffed around the clock by a trained team of specialists. They are there to listen, answer questions and offer emotional support in confidence. This means that we won't tell anyone else what you say to us (except in rare cases).
We are open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
⚠️ The Support Line is not an emergency service. If you are in immediate danger or need urgent medical help, please call 999.
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The Support Line is for anyone aged 16+ in England and Wales who has been affected by rape, child sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment or any other kind of sexual violence or abuse – no matter when or where it happened.
This includes people who have experienced something sexual that they didn’t want, didn’t consent to or are feeling confused about, as well as their friends, family or anyone else who is trying to support them.
If you contact us, we will never think that you're wasting our time or making a fuss. We will always listen to you and believe you, and we will never judge.
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Unfortunately, we can't offer support to the following people:
- Children and young people under the age of 16.
- Anyone living outside England and Wales.
However, there are other organisations out there that might be able to help you:
Support for children and young people under the age of 16
You can contact Childline about anything that's making you feel bad or worried. Call them free on 0800 1111 or have a free online chat with a counsellor.
To have an online chat with a counsellor, you will first need to sign up for an account.
Other support
Some of our member Rape Crisis centres offer counselling and other forms of support for children and young people. If your nearest Rape Crisis centre doesn't offer support for children and young people, they might be able to give you information about other organisations in your area instead.
Search for your nearest Rape Crisis centre
Support for victims and survivors outside of England and Wales
Over on rapecrisis.org.uk (the main Rape Crisis England & Wales website), we have information about organisations in Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, Europe, the United States and Australia.
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In most cases, yes. Anyone who calls the Support Line on the phone can ask to speak to us in another language. We will then try to find you an interpreter via the interpreting service LanguageLine.
We will need you to stay on the phone while we do this. It is not currently possible for us to call you back once we have found an interpreter, or to book interpreters in advance.
Interpreters are usually available straight away but this is not guaranteed. If an interpreter for your requested language is not available, we will ask you to call back another time.
❗ Unfortunately, we can't currently offer support in more languages on our online chat service.
Find information about the Support Line – and sexual violence and abuse – in more languages
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We are here to listen to you, believe you and answer any questions that you might have.
We can also share information and resources that might help you to:
- Better understand what happened to you.
- Work out what you would like to do next (if anything).
- Support you through times of difficulty or when you feel like you can't cope.
- Find longer-term support, such as counselling or another type of therapy.
For lots of people who have experienced some form of sexual violence or abuse, talking to someone about what happened can really help. And sometimes it can feel easier to talk to someone who doesn’t know you.
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We can't:
- Give you advice or tell you what to do.
- Make a referral to another support service for you.
- Give you long-term or ongoing support.
- Offer you counselling or another form of therapy, or practical support.
What we can do instead:
- Support you to make your own decisions (if that's what you want).
- Give you information about other services that might be able to support you, including organisations that offer longer-term support (such as counselling).
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Yes, this service is completely free.
The number to call us on is a freephone number and you also won't be charged if you start an online chat.
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The Support Line is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
However, we only have a limited number of operators who answer calls and respond to online chats so you might not be able to get through straight away.
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Only if there is an operator available. Unfortunately, we only have a limited number of operators so all of them might be busy on another call or chat when you contact us.
If you contact us and no one is available, you may be able to join a queue or be asked to try back later.
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We know how hard this can be but please know that we do care about you. While you wait, you might want to try one of the grounding exercises on rapecrisis.org.uk (the main Rape Crisis England & Wales website). These are activities that can help you to feel safer, calmer and more present.
Grounding exercises can be good to try if you’re:
- Feeling overwhelmed, upset, scared or panicked.
- Experiencing flashbacks (intense memories of a past event that can feel like they’re happening right now).
- Experiencing dissociation (feeling disconnected from yourself, your body or feelings, the world around you or other people, or feeling like any of these things aren’t real).
- Feeling like you want to self-harm.
You might also want to try an activity that you find comforting, such as:
- Watching a favourite TV show or film.
- Texting with a friend (it doesn’t have to be about what happened to you or how you’re feeling).
- Going for a walk.
- Making a cup of tea or other hot drink.
- Having a bath or shower (please note that if you've recently been raped or sexually assaulted and are considering reporting it to the police, having a bath or shower could affect forensic evidence).
⚠️ If you are in immediate danger or need urgent medical help, please call 999.
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One of our specialist operators, all of whom are women. All of our operators understand how complex sexual violence, abuse and harassment can be. And they also understand that everyone's experiences and feelings are different.
They will listen to you and believe you, and they will never, ever judge.
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No. Unfortunately, this is not possible.
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Once you are connected to an operator, you will have up to:
- 40 minutes to speak on the phone.
- 45 minutes to speak over online chat.
You do not have to talk to us for this long though – you can end the call or chat at any time.
❗ If the operator you're connected to is finishing their shift soon, they might not be able to talk to you for this long. In such cases, the operator will let you know at the start of the call or chat. You can then choose to either continue talking to them or end the call/chat and try again to get through to another operator.
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We know it might feel scary or hard but there is no right or wrong way to start the conversation.
If you're not sure what to say then you could try one of the following suggestions:
- Hi.
- I want to talk to someone.
- I need support.
- Something happened to me.
- I'm not sure what happened to me.
- I've never done this before.
- I'm not sure what to say.
- This feels really hard.
- I'm not doing well.
- I'm struggling.
- I don't know where to start.
- I can't say the words.
- I think I need to talk to someone but I don't want to say what happened.
Please remember that our operators are specialists and understand how difficult it can be to take this step. You will not be pressured to talk about anything that you don't want to talk about and you do not have to tell the operator what happened to you.
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No, you do not have to tell the operator anything that you don't want to.
Our operators will let you lead the conversation and will never tell you what to say or do. It is completely up to you to decide what you want to tell them.
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No. The Support Line is run by the charity Rape Crisis England & Wales and has absolutely nothing to do with the police.
It is completely up to you whether or not you report what happened to the police and we will never pressure you to do so.
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Yes, you can contact the Support Line more than once. However, as it is not designed to be a long-term support service, we do not keep detailed records of conversations.
If you contact us again, the person you speak to will not be able to bring up any information that you've told us before. This might mean that you have to repeat yourself (if there's certain information that you want the operator to know).
You can find information about other support and services that you might be able to access – including longer-term support – over on rapecrisis.org.uk (the main Rape Crisis England & Wales website).
❗ Please don't contact us more than once a day or talk to more than one operator at once, and please don't contact us more than twice in one week. This will help us to support as many different people as possible.
Privacy and confidentiality
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No. You don't have to give us your name, contact details or any other information in order to talk to us.
What you decide to tell the operator or talk to them about is completely up to you – you don't have to share any details or information that you don't want to.
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We take your privacy really seriously and won't tell anyone else what you say to us unless:
- We believe that a child or adult at risk of harm is in danger (either you or another person that you have told us about).
- A court has told us that we have to.
- You give the police permission to request any information that we have about you. They might want to do this if you report what happened to you to the police. However, it's really important to know that you don't have to give them your permission to do this. It's completely your choice.
Please know that we make decisions about sharing information really carefully. We understand how important privacy is for many people who contact us and we want you to feel as comfortable as possible when talking to us.
❓ Adults at risk of harm are people over the age of 18 who have extra health or care needs that mean they can’t always protect themselves.
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We don't ask you to give any information before being connected to an operator and the person you speak to will not be able to see your phone number or IP address.
This means that they will only know what you decide to tell them during your conversation – and, if you contact us more than once, the person you speak to will not know what information you have shared with other operators before.
However, we might have to access your phone number afterwards – or at a later time – if any of the following happens:
- We believe that a child or adult at risk of harm is in danger (either you or another person that you have told us about).
- We believe you have broken our policy on how often people can use the Support Line.
- A court has told us that we have to.
- You give the police permission to request any information that we have about you. They might want to do this if you report what happened to you to the police. However, it's really important to know that you don't have to give them your permission to do this. It's completely your choice.
❓ An IP address can be used to identify and find devices that are connected to the internet, including computers, mobile phones and tablets.
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No, we never record calls.
However, sometimes another member of our team might listen in to the call while it's happening. We only do this for training purposes or to make sure that we're delivering a good service.
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Yes, for a short amount of time. This is because we sometimes check them to either:
- Make sure that we are delivering a good service, or
- Help us to reply to complaints.
However, all chats are automatically deleted after 30 days.
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The Support Line is not designed to be a long-term support service and so our operators don't take detailed notes of conversations. They also won't note down your full name or contact details (if, for whatever reason, you decide to share these with them).
❗ This means that, if you contact us more than once, the person you speak to will not be able to bring up any information that you've told us before.
We do sometimes keep copies of full online chats (find out more). However, these are always deleted as quickly as possible and never kept for more than 30 days. Operators cannot access these copies if the same people contact us again.
Information we keep about conversations and people who contact us
- Our operators make a note of certain information about conversations – for example, the type of support given and how long the conversation lasted. As part of this, they might note down your first name (if you decide to share it with them), but they will never note down your full name or contact details.
- At the end of a call or chat you might be asked to give us basic information about yourself, such as your age, gender and ethnicity (but never your name, contact details or any other information that could be used to work out who you are). This is 100% optional though and you do not have to do it.
All of this information is kept for monitoring and reporting purposes – in other words, to check if there are certain groups or communities of people that we are failing to reach, and to make sure that we are providing a good service.
Information we keep about people who break our policy on using the service
To help us support as many different people as possible, we ask that you don't do any of the following:
- Contact us more than once a day.
- Talk to more than one operator at once.
- Contact us more than twice in one week.
If anyone breaks this policy, we may need to keep brief information that will help our operators to identify them in the future. This is so our operators can help them to avoid breaking the policy again.
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No.
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There are three key steps you can take to remove signs that you've been on this site or any others:
- Use the internet in private or incognito mode: before searching for anything on the internet or entering a website address, make sure that you have opened a private or incognito window. If you do this, you won't leave any signs of your internet activity on the computer, mobile phone or other device that you're using (you just need to make sure that you close the window once you're done).
- Delete your internet browser's history: unless you use the internet in private or incognito mode, your browser will automatically keep a record of all of the webpages that you've been on. This is what's known as your browser's 'history'. You can delete Support Line webpages – or any other webpages – from your history.
- Delete cookies from your computer: cookies are small files that are downloaded to your computer, mobile phone or other devices when you visit websites. They are used to monitor your activity and remember certain pieces of information about you.
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When police are investigating a reported sexual offence, it's very common for them to request personal information about the victim or survivor. This can include medical records, counselling notes and text messages or emails. If the survivor contacted our Support Line, the police might also request any information that we hold about the survivor.
❗ We will never release personal information to the police without a survivor's signed consent.
Important things to remember if you've reported a sexual offence
- If the police want to request any information that we hold about you, they have to get your signed consent first. And you do not have to give it to them. It is 100% your decision.
- If you want to check what information we hold on you before giving your signed consent to the police – or at any time – you can send us a subject access request. There's an organisation called the Information Commissioner's Office that can send this for you. Or you can email us at at rcewinfo@rapecrisis.org.uk and we'll talk you through the process.
- You may be able to request a Rape Crisis ISVA (Independent Sexual Violence Advocate or Adviser) from your local Rape Crisis centre. These are people who can help you throughout the criminal justice process by explaining how things work and supporting you to make decisions. Find out more about Rape Crisis ISVAs on our main website
Rape, sexual abuse and other forms of sexual violence
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At Rape Crisis England & Wales, we use the term 'sexual violence' to talk about anything sexual that happens to someone without their consent or that they didn't want. This can be something sexual that involved physical contact or no physical contact.
There are lots of different kinds of sexual violence. Some of the ones you might have heard about before are:
- rape (including so-called stealthing)
- child sexual abuse
- sexual assault
- sexual harassment
- indecent exposure (including so-called flashing, cyberflashing and dick pics)
But there are many more.
❗ Any sexual activity or behaviour that happens without consent is wrong and not okay. And it is never the fault of the person it happened to.
❓ We use the word 'violence' to talk about anything sexual that happens to someone without their consent because of the harm that it can do to a person and their life.
Something doesn't have to involve other physical violence (e.g. kicking, hitting, punching, tearing clothes) for it to still be sexual violence. In fact, there doesn't have to have been any physical contact at all.
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Sexual consent happens when everyone involved in sexual activity or behaviour of any kind have:
- Agreed to take part by choice.
- Had the freedom and capacity to make that choice.
This means that someone has not consented to sexual activity or behaviour if they:
- Didn't know it was going to happen before it happened.
- Didn't say it could happen or that they wanted it to happen.
- Were drunk or on drugs.
- Were asleep or unconscious.
- Were pressured, bullied, manipulated, tricked or scared into saying yes.
- Seemed unsure, tried to move away or froze while it was happening.
- Were a child.
- Were physically forced into it.
- Weren't able to make their own choice for another reason – for example, because they had a mental health condition that stopped them from being able to do so.
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Rape, sexual abuse and all other forms of sexual violence can have a serious and long-lasting impact on people's lives.
If someone's experienced a form of sexual violence, it can affect their:
- physical health
- mental and emotional health
- behaviour and habits
- job and finances
- daily routine
- social life
- sleep
- relationships of all kinds – both romantic and non-romantic
- sex life
And pretty much any other part of life that you can think of.
❗ Everyone is affected differently by sexual violence, abuse and harassment. There's no right or wrong way to be or to feel.
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Unfortunately, rape, sexual abuse and many other forms of sexual violence are extremely common:
- 1 in 4 women have been raped or sexually assaulted as an adult.
- 1 in 20 men have been raped or sexually assaulted as an adult.
- 1 in 6 children have been sexually abused.
That's not to mention other forms of sexual violence such as sexual harassment.
Unacceptable behaviour on the Support Line
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Our Support Line workers should be able to work without experiencing aggressive or inappropriate behaviour. There's certain behaviour that we won't accept from anyone who contacts the Support Line.
This includes:
- Discriminatory behaviour (such as racism, homophobia or sexism).
- Verbal abuse directed at our workers.
- Engaging in sexual activity while using the service.
- Any other threatening, aggressive or inappropriate behaviour.
- Any behaviour that puts our workers at risk in any way.
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Our response will depend on the following factors:
- The seriousness of the situation.
- If our workers think the behaviour is intentional.
- If the person has already been asked to change their behaviour.
If our workers feel it's appropriate, they might talk to the person about their inappropriate behaviour and give them a chance to change it. However, our workers always have the right to end calls and chats if they believe that it's the right course of action.
In some cases, we may stop someone from using the service completely.
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We believe that anger is a normal emotional response to experiences of sexual violence and abuse, and will continue to support people when they are feeling and expressing anger about their experiences or situation.
However, we won't tolerate anger when it's directed at our workers.
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If we've ended your call or chat – or stopped you from using the service – and you don't agree with our decision, you can contact us at rcewinfo@rapecrisis.org.uk.
Feedback and complaints
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We would love for you to give us feedback!
You can do this by filling out our form.
📞 If you contact us by phone, we might ask you at the end of the call if you would like to leave anonymous feedback. This is optional though so you don't have to.
💬 If you contact us by webchat, you will always have the chance to leave anonymous feedback at the end. Again, this is optional.
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Please visit our complaints page on rapecrisis.org.uk (the main Rape Crisis England & Wales website).
If you make a complaint, we will need to collect some personal data (for example, your name and email address). This will only be used so that we can respond to your complaint – we won’t use it for anything else.