Ms Linda Latham:

From the point of view of our service, traditionally we were more concerned with dealing with harm reduction measures, such as protecting oneself, the medical models, assessment for any clinical dysfunction, provision of condoms and safe needles and so on. However, it does not have to be one or the other. Our service has most direct access to women working in prostitution and women who say they have exited prostitution. Therefore, our service is more involved with women who work indoors, week in and out.

I believe we need a joint model of partnership between services like Ruhama and ourselves, that really works in partnership. From our experience of trafficking, I saw that when the services worked together and grouped their expertise and set up a clear referral path, it worked. If we do not make it part of our policy or do not say we will do something, it does not happen. I have been a long time in the clinic running the service and for a long time I felt we were not offering enough to these women. It has made a big difference that now all the staff offer all women an opportunity to avail of the service. We do not have the scale or expertise to deal with all of this, but we refer to and work with Ruhama in that regard. A joined-up statutory pathway would make a significant difference.

However, we must consider the prohibitive factors that stop women exiting prostitution, such as money. They have no money. A couple of months ago one woman left the building crying. She thought that when she came into us that would be it and she would be out of it with what we could offer. However, we had nothing to offer her. We had no home to send her to or anything. She needed money, so she had to go back out again that very night, despite having made the leap of faith that she was getting out. We had no social welfare payments to pay out. She cannot come to us if she is not in prostitution any more. These are the issues we need to consider.