Despite facing significant funding cuts of around one third for 2025/26, Devon Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Services is excited to be purposefully moving forward to become a charity with a greater focus on enabling our community of survivors to access more immediate support. We have completed our service transformation work and are now seeing survivors 80% quicker than we were able to before, offering immediate comfort, solidarity, and help. We have also maximised our resources to be able to help 33% more people. We are proud of this achievement and recognise the effort that our staff and volunteers have put into achieving this. We continue to see powerful life changing outcomes for Survivors living in the Devon and Torbay area.
IF YOU NEED HELP AND SUPPORT YOU CAN MAKE A SELF REFERRAL HERE
Update on our helpline and email service
However, as we face a drastic cut in our proposed funding next year, we do still need to make some really difficult decisions to secure our future. The first is that from the 28th of February 2025 our helpline and email support service will close.
This service has been delivered for the last 14 years and has been the foundation of our charity. We are grateful for the service of the 204 women who have volunteered over those years. They have taken over 7000 calls and contributed to around £250k in social investment through 12,000 hours of volunteering. We therefore celebrate this incredible achievement and ask our community to show their gratitude alongside us.
We are promoting the use of the National Rape and Sexual Abuse Helpline, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for anyone over the age of 16. This can be accessed by calling 0808 500 2222. There is also a live chat facility which can be accessed here 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line. For children and young people, you can contact Childline on 0800 1111 or visit their website to send an email or have an online chat with a counsellor.
Update on our therapy waiting list
With a static budget over the last three years, and increasing demand year on year, unfortunately we have been unable to reduce the length of our therapy waiting list adequately in the last 12 months. It is now over a two year wait with 350 people waiting for therapy right now.
With a predicted drop in funding, we therefore cannot keep our therapy waiting list open for new additions and this will also close on the 28th of February.
However, we are determined to do our best to get our waiting list and waiting times down to a manageable target of 6 months during this closure. To achieve this, we are trialling several new initiatives including a post therapy support group, bookable therapy recap sessions of one hour and working with student therapists. Our sessions will also reduce from 16 sessions to 12 - which evidence indicates will still help survivors gain positive outcomes.
We will also be using our current operating model to immediately help and support survivors so that they can live in the moment and cope daily with their trauma, rather than joining a list which extends their possible recovery time and leaves some of their needs unmet. If you are a student at the University of Exeter, please visit this page to explore your support options with us.
We understand how difficult it is for survivors of rape and sexual violence to get the help and support they need after sexual harm. We also recognise that any closure of support options reduces choice and can feel devastating.
As a charity we do not charge for our support and rely purely on funding from central government, local and national charitable trusts and donations. All charities are experiencing significant cost increases right now due to national insurance rises, increased business costs and reduced availability of funding.
But despite this we are not closed for new referrals and remain open for specialist support, which includes 1-2-1 trauma stabilisation based on therapeutic principles, group work, advocacy, self-help and solidarity through community and peer support. There is a minimal waiting time to access Specialist support for a Support Planning Session and our specialist support workers will help you to navigate your recovery journey, with care, skill and understanding.
To access this support, please use our self-referral form on the website. Our highly experienced and trained team of specialist support workers will help you to determine what you need right now and how you might be able to get your needs met. You can find out more about what specialist support is here
We will be keeping our website and social media channels updated and will provide more information when our waiting list for therapy will open for new referrals.
If these closures and our precarious funding situation has affected you, and you want to do something to help – we would be delighted to hear from you if you would like to fundraise for us. Email us at Fundraising@devonrapecrisis.org.uk and we will share our fundraising tool kit and discuss with you your fundraising ambitions and ideas, supporting you to achieve them.
We thank you for the compassion, love and support we have already received from our community and will continue to do all we can to keep being able to offer vital and well needed support for you all.
Dr Davina Cull – Chief Executive Officer