Hundreds of sexual violence survivors waiting as long as two years for support
Nottingham's Old Market Square. (Picture: Joe Raynor, Nottingham Post.)
By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Hundreds of sexual violence survivors are waiting up to two years for support from a service in Nottinghamshire, new documents show.
Therapy and counselling services for sexual abuse survivors are currently provided through the ASA hub, which is operated by the Nottinghamshire Sexual Violence Support Services (Notts SVSS).
The ASA hub offers a range of services, having been created in 2020 in partnership with local commissioning groups and designed with survivors.
That includes the county’s police and crime commissioner, both the city and the county councils, and the county’s integrated care board – which commissions and controls health services. It has a £1m budget.
During a Nottingham City Council Health Scrutiny Committee meeting on Thursday (February 20), councillors were informed the wait list for the service was more than 600 people.
Nicola Wade, commissioning manager for the office of the police and crime Commissioner, said: “It is a waiting list of over two years for therapy and we know that is too long.
“We have been taking action, further action, to tackle it. But we have significant funding challenges, too.”
Council documents show the waiting list, as of September last year, stood at 656 survivors.
Around half of them are waiting specifically for therapy.
Cllr Maria Joannou (Lab), a member of the committee, said: “You said the budget is £1m for this service. It doesn’t seem adequate for this service.
“Is that part and parcel of why we have got such a long waiting list?”
Ms Wade responded: “Of course, it would be lovely to have more money.
“But we are aware there is a wider difficult funding context. I think there are things that we can do, that we have already planned to do, that will improve the service but also impact on the waiting time.”
She said the service now operates on clinical need, rather than a blanket therapy offer, and 80 per cent of outcomes are positive.
Survivors on the waiting list are offered some form of support, Ms Wade added, including drop-in sessions, regular check-ups, group sessions and mindfulness help.
“We do want to be clear, while people are on the waiting list, it is not nothing,” she said.
In 2018, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) investigated the abuse of children who were in the care of the city and county councils.
More than 400 survivors reported abuse to Nottinghamshire Police’s Operation Equinox, which was set up to manage police reports about child sexual abuse.
Some people involved in the inquiry set up a survivor group, which met regularly with involved councils, and other leaders, to advocate for survivors.
They called for a significant improvement in sexual violence support services, particularly specialist therapies.
Council documents say that, at that time, specialist sexual violence support services were “fragmented, quality was variable and mainstream NHS services were not provided in a way that met survivors’ needs”.
These discussions led to the creation of the new hub and support services.
It is is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 1pm, and then 4.30pm to 7.30pm on Saturdays.
Therapeutic services are open from 9am to 8pm Monday to Friday, and from 10am to 1pm on Saturdays.
People can call the helpline on 0115 941 0440, or use the 24-hour Domestic and Sexual Violence Helpline on 0808 800 0340 for out of hours help.
Explore more
