NOTTINGHAMSHIRE SEXUAL VIOLENCE SUPPORT SERVICES (NOTTS SVSS)

SUPPORTING WOMEN FROM WOMEN-ONLY SPACES

Last review: August 2026

Next review due: August 2028

Nottinghamshire Sexual Violence Support Services offers a range of services for survivors of sexual violence and their supporters, who are 18+ and are living in Nottingham/shire.  Support is available by telephone, in person and via our online counselling rooms.

Our service is available to all survivors regardless of their sex, gender or protected characteristic.  We are sensitive to the needs of different survivors and seek to adapt our service to meet needs of individual service users where possible.  As part of this, service users can choose their preferred gender of support worker, and we offer services to women in women-only spaces.

We have written this statement to reassure survivors and help answer questions about how we support women from women-only spaces.  A separate Trans Inclusion Policy is available on our website.

Definitions

We refer here to biological women, as defined by the Supreme Court Ruling. We refer to trans or non-binary people, referring to people who would be covered by the characteristic of Gender Reassignment under the Equality Act.

What do we mean by women-only spaces

Notts SVSS offer our services from a range of buildings. These buildings are inclusive of trans people.

We are committed to providing services in women-only spaces, including providing services in biological women-only spaces.

Within the buildings we operate in there are several single-occupancy toilet/handwashing facilities, which means that anyone concerned about sharing, can use these facilities to meet their individual comfort and needs.

Counselling and support always take place in separate rooms away from any mixed-gender spaces.

How we provide support

Notts SVSS provide a range of support options to all people accessing our services.  As part of this, service users can choose their preferred gender of support worker.  Service users can ask for support from biological women on our staff team.  These staff are people who have self-identified as biological women (with reference to the Supreme Court Ruling).

When running groups, we also offer service users their option of all gender groups, inclusive groups for trans, non-binary and biological women, or biological-women-only groups.  While we try to run regular groups based around different sex/gender requirements, there can sometimes be a delay while we wait for enough people to join the waiting list.

Queries or concerns

If you have any queries or concerns about our support, these should be shared with your support worker or via the helpline.  Concerns about a person who is accessing women-only spaces should also be taken to your support worker or the helpline, and not addressed directly with the person involved.

Further queries and feedback around this policy can also be directed to our EDI Lead via the feedback@nottssvss.org.uk email address.