 The Women’s Support Project has linked with Public Health Scotland for an exciting new pilot focusing on improving how sexual health service respond to women involved in selling or exchanging sex.
We know that sexual health and wellbeing is a key issue for women who sell sex and that staff in clinics and services can be pivotal in ensuring that women have their needs met. In recent years, the nature and context of selling sex have changed, with increasing ease of entry especially via online platforms. It is hard to truly ascertain the numbers of women involved, but rough estimates published in 2016 suggest there are over 72,800 people working in the ‘sex industry’ in the UK, and approximately 80% of them are women. There is little published research in the UK that explores the sexual health needs of the full spectrum of those in the ‘sex industry.’ Within England, sexual health surveillance data shows that in 2019 only 6,531 people attending sexual health services identified as a sex worker. Women can find it challenging to disclose that they are selling sex for a number of reasons, as highlighted in recent research commissioned by the Scottish Government. These can include concerns around confidentiality, feeling judged or stigmatised, losing control of their information, and the impacts of immigration, police and social work involvement. The underreporting of involvement in selling sex means there is limited understanding of the complexities of women's health and wellbeing needs. It also means there are clear opportunities to develop and improve the health responses provided to women. We want to better understand the current health service responses to women involved in the selling and exchanging of sex and find examples of good practice to learn from, build upon and share. We undertook a short survey with sexual health staff in Grampian, Greater Glasgow, Lothian and Highlands helped to identify staff’s information and training needs, with initial results showing limited awareness of the Scottish policy position on prostitution and its implications for practice. There were also varying levels of discomfort in asking enquiry questions on selling sex and commercial sexual exploitation, as well as varying levels of confidence in supporting women. Following the survey, the Women’s Support Project will support existing workforce development opportunities and test new approaches in four NHS Board areas. This includes developing and delivering new training using the findings from the scoping and surveys, along with the lived experiences of women as reported in the Scottish Government’s commissioned research. The training will be delivered both online and in person throughout 2023 and learnings will be shared early in 2024. Comments are closed.
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CSE Aware is a project from the Women’s Support Project developed alongside other agencies and the Encompass Network. The work is funded by the Scottish Government through Delivering Equally Safe.
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