A guide to the Independent Sexual Violence Advisory Service – Hertfordshire Sexual Assault Centre
The role of an Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA)
Throughout our working relationship, when speaking to you, other professionals and agencies, I will refer to myself as an ISVA – this stands for Independent Sexual Violence Advisor.
The ‘Independent’ part of the job title means that I am separate from all other agencies, this means I am impartial and do not work for or against any particular side or organisation, such as the police or social services. This enables me to give fair unbiased advice, advocate on your behalf and support you, ensuring that you are given the assistance and information to make the right informed decisions for you and to access the right support.
The home office definition is as follows;
ISVAs are victim focused advocates, funded to work with victims of recent and historic serious sexual crimes to enable them to access the services they need in the aftermath of the abuse they have experienced.
The support provided by an ISVA will vary from case to case, depending upon the requirements of the victim and their particular circumstances. However, the Core role of an ISVA includes making sure that victims of sexual abuse have the best possible knowledge on what counselling and other services are available to them, on the process involved in reporting a crime to the police and on taking their case through the criminal justice process, should they choose to do so.
My role is to provide this service to residents of Hertfordshire that have experienced sexual violence, either recently or historically, whether or not they have, or wish to report the matter to the police.
If you are considering reporting the matter to the police, or have already done so I can provide information to you on the criminal justice process.
The term ‘criminal justice process’ is used to define the process of what happens from when a matter is reported to the police to when it is finalised, for example, the reporting of the crime is the beginning, as part of a crime going through the ‘criminal justice process’ the matter will be investigated by police and from there it may be reviewed by the crown prosecution service (CPS) and can result in court hearings and trials.
If your case is going through the criminal justice process I can support you in the following ways.
Provide information on:
Provide support by:
As explained earlier, we provide support whether or not you wish for the matter to go through the criminal justice process.
The next step in supporting you will be to complete a needs and risk assessment together to enable us to form a care plan, this will look at matters such as;
Ø Your safety
Ø Your health and emotional wellbeing
Ø Additional needs you may need support with such as mental health and/or drug and alcohol use
As a result of the needs/risk assessment we will then look at what specialist support you need and signpost you to the correct agencies and assist you in communication to them if necessary and appropriate.
These can include the following;
Previous experience, current knowledge and strong working relationships with different agencies in the Hertfordshire area allows us to advise you on what services we feel would be most beneficial to you and your individual circumstances.
The Hertfordshire Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) service
This section will explain to you what you can expect from our service in terms of contact and the type of support provided.
Contact with an ISVA
Ø ISVA’s are based at the SARC in Hemel Hempstead but cover all of Hertfordshire. If it is necessary to meet with you we may ask for you to attend the SARC, if this is impracticable, we will try and arrange a mutually convenient venue. This may be, for an example, a children’s centre, doctor’s surgery, police station or local community centre. The services risk assessment does not allow us to attend service user’s homes unless we are with another professional.
Ø Appointments with ISVA’s are usually for the duration of an hour, though this can differ dependant on the purpose of the appointment and needs / issues that arise.
Ø We work Monday – Thursday 8am – 4pm, and Friday 8am – 3.30pm. You will be provided with my work mobile number but please note it will only be on during those hours.
Ø It may not always be possible for me to answer the work mobile or office phone. If I do not answer, please leave a voicemail or send me a text message with the purpose of your call and I will endeavour to get back to you within 48 hours. If I am on leave or unavailable for the next 48 hours my voicemail will reflect this, or another ISVA will answer my phone.
Terms of contact
Ø The type of contact (for example telephone contact or face to face), duration of meetings and frequency I contact you differs for every client dependant on your needs and circumstances. This will be discussed during the needs and risk assessment so you know what you can expect from the service. The support you feel you need is likely to change over time and we will discuss this as we go and adapt the service as necessary. We also ask for you to have a level of understanding that we work with a variable number of clients and the service we are able to offer may change dependant on this and other service users needs.
Ø If you cannot attend an appointment we need as much notice as possible and the reason why so we can reschedule.
Ø If you fail to attend an appointment and do not make contact to inform us without good reason this could result in a review of whether you can access the service
Ø If we try to make telephone contact with you and you do not answer your phone we will leave you a voicemail or send you a text letting you know we attempted contact and stating whether we require you to get in touch. If we do not hear back from you within 1 week we will attempt to make contact again. If after a further week we do not hear from you without good reason we will review whether you can access the service.
Ø If your details change from when you initially referred to the service it is your responsibility to make contact with us and update us with your new number/address
Type of support
Ø It is important that you understand that we are not a counselling service, but as described earlier, can signpost you to counselling services. Our role is to Advocate, support and signpost you to the relevant agencies.
Ø In order to remain impartial, as detailed in the beginning of this document, it is vital that you understand that you cannot discuss with me the details of the offence/s. The reason for this is that it could ‘contaminate evidence’ if you disclose to me details of the case I am obliged to record this and these records could then be used as evidence in criminal proceedings. I would therefore then not be able to be impartial and best support you.
Confidentiality
When you are referred to our service you are created a ‘file’ on the SARC’s systems. I record personal information about you and details of contact that we have had. The only people that have access to this record are myself, another ISVA, the SARC Manager and Administrator. I will regularly access the record to update it. Other members of the SARC will only access it if they have a justified reason to do so, such as you have had contact with them or if my manager is reviewing your case.
Whilst the SARC advocates to be a confidential service there may be circumstances where it is necessary for us to share information with other authorities/agencies.
Such circumstances may be:
Ø I believe you, or another member of the public is at risk of significant harm.
Ø I believe a child is at risk of harm.
Ø I have information that can prevent or detect a serious crime
Ø When ordered to do so by the courts
If I intend to breach confidentiality, where practicably, I will seek to inform you of this first and explain why I feel there is a need to do this. If I do have to breach confidentially only the relevant information from what you have told me/your record will be disclosed.
Information Sharing and Consent
There are some circumstances where it is to your benefit that I share information internally within the SARC and with external agencies.
Examples of this are as follows
Ø When my Manager is reviewing my cases to ensure the correct work is being carried out.
Ø When we have discussed you accessing support from an external agency and I need to complete a referral form for this.
Ø When there is more than one agency involved in supporting you and we need to communicate to ensure there is a co-ordinated approach to the support you are being provided with to make sure the support you are in receipt of is effective and as beneficial to you as possible.
Ø When I am advocating on your behalf to the police/CPS/local authorities/external
In order for you to receive the best service from all agencies, it is extremely useful for you to give me consent to act on your behalf and share relevant information with other agencies. If we meet in person, I will ask to you sign a form agreeing to this, or if we speak via the phone I will seek your verbal consent. Consent can be withdrawn anytime.
When I complete the initial needs / risk assessment with you we will discuss who we both feel it is appropriate for me to make contact with. As time goes by your needs may change and it may be appropriate for me to share information with agencies we did not initially discuss. I will seek to update you when I do this.
Anyone who receives confidential information about you from us is also under a legal duty of confidentiality and I will only give the information that is relevant to that agency.
We will not disclose your information without your permission, unless it meets the criteria outlined in the ‘confidentiality’ section.
You can request a copy of information we have about you at Herts SARC by contacting the SARC manager in writing.
Anonymous intelligence
If you have not reported the matter to police, there may be some circumstances where I suggest that I submit information regarding your incident to the police. The information I submit would not contain any personal information on yourself and you would not be identifiable by the information.
The purpose of submitting such information – referred to as ‘anonymous intelligence’ is so that the police can be aware of the details of an offender and incident, without having your details / officially reporting the matter.
If the police want further information from you regarding the incident, or wish to contact you, they will do so by contacting me and asking that I contact you. You are under no obligation to have contact with police, disclose your information to police, or communicate with police.
Ending of the service
There is no set time limit on how long you can access the ISVA service for, but the aim is to empower you to assist in aiding your recovery following the incident.
Therefore, once the criminal justice process has come to an end (if you have gone through the process) and / or you have had the choice to access other support that will assist your recovery, we will close your case.
Feedback of the ISVA and SARC service
We are really interested in hearing your thoughts, both positive and negative, as it helps us to continue to develop and improve what we do. Your responses will be completely confidential and you will not be identified in any way.
If you have any feedback you can either email: or if you prefer give to us directly we can do that.
The responses will only be used for the purpose of developing the service provided by Herts SARC and the other partners who are directly involved.
All feedback is given to our commissioners anonymously.
ISVA – Independent Sexual Violence Advisor
SARC – Sexual Assault referral centre
OIC – Officer in charge of the case – this is the officer that is investigating the crime you have alleged.
ABE – ‘Achieving best evidence’ this is a video recorded interview given by a Victim/witness regarding the incident.
SOIT – Sexual offences investigation team
CAIU – child abuse investigation unit
CPS – Crown Prosecution Service - The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for prosecuting criminal cases investigated by the police in England and Wales. They are Lawyers that will review cases and decide whether they are charged and represent cases in court.
COUNSEL/PROSECUTION – this term may be used to refer to the barrister or other legal advisor dealing with the case and prosecuting the Offender.
CCWCU – Crown court witness care unit
OFFENDER/PERPETRATOR – the person who is accused of committing the crime
BAIL – whilst an offender is being investigated for a crime they may be arrested or asked to attend the police station to have an interview. They may then be released on ‘police bail’ – this means they have to report back to the police station at a date set by police and the police will review then how the crime is going to progress.
If they have been charged, they will get court bail – and have a date they need to return to court. Conditions can be attached to ‘bail’ such as ‘not to contact you’ Bail conditions end once the case has been finalised.