Learning from frontline member centres

The 37 Rape Crisis member centres around the country are automomus but struggling with the same challenges - waiting lists being one of their biggest. We attended the Rape Crisis national conference, ran a survey and discussion groups to hear first hand how frontline staff are managing waiting lists. We worked to gather best practice case studies from across the membership on both management of waiting lists and supporting people while they waited. A big part of this work was knowledge dissemination between the centres.

Telling the story

A big part of this work was compiling the findings into a narrative that told the story of this system wide issue to funders and other people working within the system. Centering the voices and views of victims and survivors of sexual abuse was an important part of this story so that people further removed from the frontline were able to understand the real life impact of having to wait for support. By bringing together the wider context, data, experiences of staff and services users, together with possible ways forward we were able to paint a picture a full of the situation and table evidence to inform commissioning moving forwards.  

Impact and outcomes

The work provided a knowledge base for local Rape Crisis centres to draw on when managing their own waiting lists. It also tabled the starting points for better ways to support people while they wait that were co-developed with service users themselves. At a more strategic level it provided evidence to support commissioning at both a local and national level with a particular focus on ensuring the funding available is used in the best way possible to support as many people as possible.