A network of specialist services#
The Survivors Trust is a national membership body for specialist voluntary sector services that support people after rape, sexual violence and sexual abuse. It has more than 120 members across the UK and Ireland, which together support over 100,000 survivors a year. Most are charities, independent of the police, offering counselling, helplines and advocacy to women, men, non-binary people and children, and all follow its national service standards. It runs accredited training for independent sexual violence advisers and works on policy, including the response to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. In October 2026 it warned that members face funding cuts and growing waiting lists.
Ways to get help#
- The helpline. The national helpline is free and open seven days a week for people aged 16 and over, survivors and supporters alike, at hours that vary by day; its page lists them, and there is an email address too. If you leave a voicemail, it aims to call back within about five working days from a private number. Out of hours it points to the 24/7 national support line and to Samaritans.
- Local services. Support in your area is a map of member services by region, with a list of members that work nationally.
- An ISVA. A separate map finds independent sexual violence advisers, and the trust does not back ISVA services that charge.
- When there is no local ISVA. Its free online ISVA Advisory Service is for adults living in the UK whose local ISVA list is closed or who have none nearby, and who do not already have an IDVA or live in a refuge. Appointments are by video and capacity is limited.
The site has a Quick Exit button and suggests private browsing.
What the helpline does with your details#
You do not need to give a name or contact details to start a call or chat, and the trust says it will not share your information or what you tell it without your agreement, unless someone is at risk of serious or immediate harm or a court orders it. Unlike some lines, its calls are recorded, for monitoring and training: recordings are kept for 45 days unless a safeguarding concern arises, and only the helpline management team can hear them. Its page also notes that, even without your name, it may be able to see your phone number or your device's IP address.
Guides that bear on a new start#
The trust publishes nothing on changing a name. Its guides to reporting and the law collect material from other organisations: guides from report to court and from charge to trial, the Crown Prosecution Service's guide for rape victims, a guide to reporting non-recent abuse, compensation guides, and a guide to sexual violence and housing.
Housing and a name can go together. If you move away after an assault and take a new name, your landlord and any tenancy need updating; changing the name on a tenancy agreement explains what landlords ask for, and a separate page sets out what about a new name is public. A member service or ISVA near you is the right place to talk the timing through.
This page describes what The Survivors Trust publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. The Survivors Trust has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
