About the Live Fear Free helpline

Call 0808 8010 800

The Live Fear Free helpline is there:

• for anyone experiencing domestic abuse
• if someone you know needs help, for example, a friend, family member or colleague
• for practitioners seeking professional advice.

What will happen if I call the helpline?

All calls are confidential and are taken by staff that are highly experienced and fully trained. You will be listened to, believed and offered help and support. You will not be judged or blamed and you don’t have to be ready to take any action.

If it is necessary to share information with other agencies, this would only be done with your full consent. The exceptions to this are if you, or someone else, including a child, is at risk of serious harm, injury or a life is at risk. In these circumstances, the authorities would be informed to ensure the safety and well-being of you and your children.

What will I be asked?

The first consideration will be whether you are in immediate danger and if it is safe for you to speak. Safe arrangements may be made to call you back if you have to terminate the call.

Helpline staff will then listen to why you are calling, and will respond to your needs. Whatever the need for the call, and whatever the outcome, Helpline support workers will help you to identify ways in which you can access help and support and increase the safety of you and your children irrespective of what choices you may be making about your relationship.

The Helpline may:

• refer people (with or without children) to emergency safe accommodation
• carry out on-line crisis and safety planning
• refer you to face-to-face support via community based advocacy, drop-in, advice or outreach services in your area
• listen to you and offer emotional support and (if appropriate) refer to counselling services
• provide practical help and information about calling the police, housing rights and entitlements, information on getting injunctions, or reassurance about going to a Sexual Assault Referral Centre or to court.

You may be asked a series of questions to help assess the level of danger you are in. If you are assessed as being at very high risk of harm as a result of domestic abuse, the Helpline support worker will talk to you about how you will get a co-ordinated response from local agencies in order to increase you safety.

We monitor calls for training purposes.

The helpline is free and will not show on telephone bills

The helpline number will not show up on your telephone bill. From UK mobiles*: You may still hear a recorded message saying that calls to 08 numbers may be charged. This message is automatically generated when any 08 number is dialled, but your call to us from those networks will still be free. Other mobile networks may charge for calls to our helpline. Please contact your network for more information.

(*Calls to the helpline will not show up on landline phone bills, and are free from all UK landlines and the following mobile providers: 3 Mobile, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone).

The Live Fear Free Helpline is managed by Welsh Women’s Aid and funded by Welsh Government.