LMI Lecture: Working with Sex Workers

Shelly studied Social Science, Race and Equality Studies at University. During this time, she initially worked as a volunteer at a domestic violence project in Merseyside and went on to be a full-time worker. She volunteered at a sex work support project in Liverpool between doing sessional outreach and supporting the sex worker drop-in, alongside this she studied for a post-grad in Gendered Criminology, Rights, and Justice.

She joined the NHS in 2005 as an outreach worker for street sex workers. In 2006, Shelly secured Home Office funding for a specialist post to support sex workers who had been victims of rape and sexual assault, she became the first Specialist Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (SWISVA) in the UK (or in the world) to work exclusively with sex workers, a project that went on to receive critical acclaim both nationally and internationally and is known as the ‘Merseyside Model’. This changed the way sex workers are viewed and policed strategically in the UK and has had some international impact too.

She became a Crisis Worker in 2008 when Merseyside opened SAFE Place, its adult SARC. She was then promoted and became its Operational Manager. She continues to do crisis work at the SARC. Shelly worked on many strategic projects alongside the Clinical Lead, Dr Caroline Jones and SAFE Place was part of a multi sited project to find the best service for rape victims in Europe. SAFE Place was ultimately voted as the best service.

Shelly sat on the planning group for the National Rape Action Plan for the UK alongside the DPP giving her expertise on victim care to ensure that the policy was trauma informed and victim centred.

She carried out the Home Office funded UKNSWP (UK Network of Sex Work Projects) consultation project around setting up a National ‘Ugly Mugs’ Scheme which she and Dr Rosie Campbell OBE wrote up and published in Summer 2011 and presented to The Rt Honourable Teresa May. This meeting secured the implementation of National Ugly Mugs.

She was a director of National Ugly Mugs and a board member of UK NSWP, sat on the National Police Prostitution Working Group at the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC formerly ACPO) and is involved in several local and regional forums relating to domestic and sexual violence, sex work and CSE. Shelly is a passionate advocate of decriminalisation for sex work/ers. She has been involved with sex workers and fighting for their rights since the late 1990s.

Since 2021, Shelly has been a lecturer in Policing, Law Enforcement and Investigation studies at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). She teaches across a range of Policing programmes as well as Criminology and Psychology. Her specialist areas of interest are sex work and particularly violence against sex workers, domestic and sexual violence and CSE. Shelley is an experienced trainer in these fields and has presented papers at conferences nationally and internationally about these subjects. She has also published several journal articles and books. She has won many awards for her commitment to rape victims and sex workers.

Host or Publisher Liverpool Medical Institution