Routes Out Service
Background – Since 1989 Glasgow has provided comprehensive support services to women selling sex in the city. These have been delivered from bespoke premises at 75 Robertson Street since that time, placing the service within the traditional ‘red light area’.
The services delivered by Routes Out have changed over this time to better reflect the needs of women and in response to the changing nature of the sex trade both within the city and globally. What has remained unchanged is the vulnerabilities, inequalities, inherent dangers posed by sex buyers and the structural factors that drive the majority of women into selling sex to survive. Women continue to become (and remain involved) and men continue to seek women to exploit by purchasing sexual services.
The impact of the Covid pandemic and sustained lockdown directly impacted on many women accessing Routes Out, and other city centre services, resulting in changes to their support needs, ability to access services and how organisations responded and delivered frontline responses.
Despite all covid restrictions being lifted from March 2022 we have not seen a return of women to the drop-in or the city centre in the same numbers pre-covid. The decrease is significant with only 20 individual women accessing the drop in over 53 occasions.
Our partnership approach with Police Scotland provided Routes Out with clear evidence that at least since June 2022 women and purchasers moved to the East End of the city with very little activity in the city centre.
Given the dramatic changes to the city centre brought about by a combination of factors it is assessed as unlikely that activity in the city centre will ever return to pre covid levels. This information, combined with the change in Outreach delivery as outlined below and the precarious nature of the current tenancy of 75 Robertson Street, led Routes Out to proactively reviewing their service model and service location needs.
Data – Throughout the lockdown, unsurprisingly, the number of women involved in on-street prostitution declined significantly. Prior to the pandemic 64 women were engaged in outreach, during the pandemic this reduced to 11 women and despite returning to ‘normal’ only 22 women were engaged in outreach 2022/23. 71 women presented at the drop-in prior to the pandemic, this reduced to 35 women during the pandemic and in 2022/23 we recorded our lowest number of only 20 women accessing the drop in.
Despite the reduction in numbers at the evening service this had little impact on the case numbers for the Case Management Service as referrals from other services and self-referrals increased which kept live case numbers relatively in line with previous years with monthly live cases varying from mid-20s to mid-30s.
Our Outreach Service moved focus to the East End since February 2023. Due to the larger area to cover, lack of camera coverage and the area being very different from the city centre, all staff completed driver training to allow us to carry out our outreach service using Glasgow City Council (GCC) pool cars. Data from Police Scotland provided information that women were in the area earlier than our start time and we commenced a pilot of providing outreach between 7.30pm – 11pm which began at the beginning of July 2023 and the observed increase in the numbers of women and purchasers highlighted below confirms the move from the city centre to the East End:
For context, the total outreach sightings in the city centre for the last financial year, April 2022 to March 2023 was 42 made up of 11 women. 21 new women were identified last year (excluding women identified on East End outreach) compared to 20 between February and June this year on outreach in the East End. The total number of punters observed last year (excluding East End) was 12. See below:
The majority of the women engaged with by evening staff in the East End are new to our service and as such, it takes time to build trust with them due to trauma, distrust of services and stigma. This is completely in keeping with our past experiences engaging with new women and by maintaining a trauma informed approach, women will eventually accept support from Case Management Staff, but this is usually a lengthy process.
Service changes 2024 – Due to the shift in activity, night staff are now based out of Eastgate to prioritise outreach in the East End. This means that the evening service is now outreach only and continues to include outreach in the city centre. Given the decline in numbers accessing the drop in and the focus for the service being outreach this is a more efficient model of service delivery. Our operating hours will change in October to 7pm to midnight, to better meet the needs of the women.
We are more flexible, adaptable, and responsive as an outreach only service. By moving to this model, the office at Robertson Street has been closed as the evidence provided confirms it is not useful to the women we are trying to engage with.
For Case Management Workers the closure of the office has had little impact on how they support their clients. Most of the work with clients is done in the community and not in a fixed office environment, in addition, staff have access to other premises to meet with clients, i.e. Simon Community Hub, Tomorrow’s Women and Council offices.
You can also find out more about the Routes Out service from this workshop at the “Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls is Everyone’s Business” event in 2017.