Our services

About our Chat

Our one-to-one Live Chat provides specialist advice, information and support for anyone in London who self-identifies as a woman, and has been affected by domestic and/or sexual violence.

Our chat also offers support to survivors’ family and friends and professionals who may need advice and information on how to better support survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

What you can expect when chatting to us?

When you chat with us we will:

• Always believe and respect you
• Never judge you or any choice you make
• Honour your wishes and never tell you what to do 
• Explore your situation with you and support you to understand the options available to you
• If you wish us to, sign post/refer you to other services who may be able to support you further.
• Keep what you tell us confidential and secure, and only share information in exceptional circumstances. Please read more about this on our privacy policy

How it works…

• The Live Chat is a text-based service that you can access through the Women and Girls Network Website (just press on the ‘chat’ button)
• Our advisors are experienced in supporting survivors to share things at their own pace. You will have control over the conversation and can end it whenever you want.

If you are finding the idea of using the Live Chat daunting, be assured that our advisors will support you through the process.

• During the session, our advisors are here to listen and offer you support.
• You may not always get the same advisor if you use the chat more than once or if you get cut off.
• If there is no response from you within 20 minutes the advisor will end the chat.
• Our Live Chat operators may ask a user to desist if they find the language used to be extreme and unacceptable. The operator may choose to end the chat if the language persists. The advisor may end the chat if they receive abuse or suspect a hoax chat.
• Our Advisors cannot provide legal advice or give online therapy but can signpost you to specialist solicitors and therapy services.
• At the end of the chat you will have the option to ask for a transcript of the chat, if you wish to receive a transcript you will need to provide your email address. WGN will not have access to your email address.  
• If you have used our chat before and asked for a transcript, you will have a unique code which you can use if you chat to us again. If you do the advisor will be able to see previous chats when they speak with you.
• If you need urgent advice we recommend you call us on our free phone advice line on 0808 801 0660
• In an emergency always call 999.

Our Live Chat advisors

All of our Live Chat advisors are women from WGN’s Advice Service. They have specialist training and experience in providing practical and emotional support to women and girls who have experienced domestic and sexual violence.

What can I do if the live-chat is busy?

We expect high demand on our Live Chat. As our operators only chat to one survivor at a time, and chats may last for a while, you may sometimes find that you are unable to chat with an operator straight away. Please be patient and try again.

If you prefer not to wait you can always call us on our Freephone Advice Line on: 0808 801 0660 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm) or you can email us on: advice@wgn.org.uk

Telling us what you think

When your live chat session has ended, you will be given the opportunity to leave feedback about your experience of the service. We hope that you can take a few moments to do this as it helps us to ensure that we are offering a service that best fits the needs of survivors, as well as assisting to secure future funding for the service.

Your individual feedback will not be seen by any of the Live Chat operators.

Complaints

If you would like to make a complaint about the Live Chat service or an operator, please either email info@wgn.org.uk or call us on: 0808 801 0660

Personal data may need to be collected in the event of a complaint being made. It will only be used for the specific purpose of responding to the complaint and no further processing will be carried out.