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Founded in 2015, the Safeline Male Survivors Helpline is still the only service of its kind offering gender-specific support over the phone. A founding Male Survivors Partnership member, Safeline has provided specialist support to male survivors of rape and sexual assault as well as those supporting them for over 30 years, and we’re proud to work with them.

We developed our quality standards for organisations as evidence of best practice, sound management and effective service delivery. The achievement of quality standards is important to us but also vital to male survivors. Our preference is that these standards incorporate an accreditation programme which independently validates that the services of our members meet quality standards.

In 2019, we awarded the Male Survivors helpline and online service at Safeline a ‘Quality Mark’ for achieving quality standards for services supporting male survivors of sexual violence. Over the last eight months, Safeline has been working towards achieving the Helplines Partnership independently accredited quality standards for the helpline and online services. It is with great pleasure that we can reveal that the service passed with flying colours.

The ‘Helplines Partnership Standard’ identifies the practices that enable an organisation to deliver a helpline service which is consistent, relevant to the needs of its stakeholders and effective in what it is trying to achieve. Similar to our quality standards, it focuses on the quality of support provided, but it also incorporates other important criteria. This involves planning and running the service, recruitment and training of staff and working in partnership with other organisations.

The assessment process encompasses reviewing a comprehensive portfolio of documentary evidence produced by the service owner supplemented by follow-up telephone interviews. There are sample contacts to the helpline and an on-site assessment takes place. This includes observation of contacts being handled by helpline workers and conducting telephone interviews with key individuals responsible for information/marketing and delivery partners. Upon successful completion, accreditation to the Helplines Standard is awarded for three years.

When the CEO of Helplines Partnership visited Safeline, she said it was one of the best submissions she had ever received. As a result, we wanted to share this achievement with other specialist male survivor support agencies and professionals.

The helpline and online service is a critical element of support to male survivors and being independently accredited against recognised quality standards is a sign of confidence that the quality of support being provided is of the highest quality.

You can find Safeline’s accreditation on the Helplines Partnership website here.