Newham Council to introduce 10-year Sex Work Strategy

[puntingking]

LINK TO ARTICLE : External Link/Members Only

[sparkus]

Thanks for this.  At first glance it looks quite sensible, after all Romford Road has quite a reputation for street walkers (remember those Channel 5 vice programmes) and it can't be much fun for families (I've heard firsthand about the waste and also catching druggy street walkers and clients at it during daytime behind houses).

But the strategy itself conflates anti-social street prostitution with indoor-based sex work 

There's more detail in the strategy itself: External Link/Members Only

I don't see how street prostitution often involving drug users and taking place in public view with sex buyers can be comparable to an AW punt in a contained new build (or even someone nipping round the 'corner house' for a P&D).  But that's just my own "lived experience", as the strategy itself calls it.

[londonbloke]

Thank you PuntingKing and Sparkus; both documents make ineresting (if slightly grim) reading.

As Sparkus outright states one big mistake that seems to already being made is the misguided view that sex work = street prostitution whereas I would expect that everyone who's a member here knows that the variety of kinks catered for under the banner is far more complex (massge parlours, AW girls, phone sex, chemsex rent boys, BDSM, etc, etc etc - the list to reflect that spectrum of desire would be potentially endless) but the Newham initiative seems to conflate that "sex workers" are responsible for long list antisocial behaviours.

As such projects do I'm sure this initiative comes from a good place and a desire to help human beings but the usual 'buzz phrases' such as 'inter-agancy working', 'info sharing' 'personised care' seem to be a small stone's throw away. Not wishing to out myself but I read with some interest point 4.20 onwards under the heading 'Sex Work in Newham': The document correctly identifies the (comparatively) high prevalence of complex/childhood traumas, mental health issues/psychological need and drug and alcohol misuse within sex workers. However as someone who has both historic and recent experience of working within these areas in Newham I would opine that they are in no way set up to provide an assertive approach that such intereventions would require

Rant over. Not really sure what I'm trying to say... If the above comes across as unfocussed gibbering please forgive me while I suffer with a fairly debilitating bout of bronchitis? Be safe everyone and look after one another