For International Sex Workers Day, Sarah McIntyre, Women’s Wellbeing Coordinator at Wirral Ways, shares her top three tips for staying safe.
- Tell someone you trust
Before you start work, let someone you trust know where you’ll be. Share your location with them, agree to check in at set times, and have a code word ready that means “I need help” if you’re ever in danger. This gives someone outside the situation the information they’d need to act quickly if something goes wrong.
It’s also worth knowing about National Ugly Mugs (NUM), a UK-wide scheme that shares safety alerts about dangerous individuals and lets you report incidents, anonymously if you prefer. You don’t have to be a member to make a report, and reports can also support a police investigation without you having to go to the police yourself if that doesn’t feel safe.
- Take control of your health
Take regular breaks and don’t let a client rush you. Use condoms and go for regular sexual health checks, your local sexual health clinic can offer confidential testing and treatment, and some outreach services will come to you or work flexibly around your hours.
If you’re using drugs, use a little at a time so you stay in control of the situation and can respond if something feels wrong. Wirral Ways can support you with this directly, including harm reduction advice, testing strips and naloxone.
- Trust your instincts
You can always say no, you can always change your mind, and you get to set the boundaries, at any point, even partway through. If a situation doesn’t feel right, you’re allowed to end it. Trusting that instinct and having a plan in place (see tip one) makes it easier to act on it.
Support is available
You don’t have to manage any of this alone. Wirral Ways’ Women’s Wellbeing service offers non-judgemental, confidential support, including one-to-one sessions with Sarah and the team.
- Wirral Ways: www.wirralways.org.uk | wirral.services@cgl.org.uk | 0151 556 1335
- National Ugly Mugs (NUM): for safety alerts and incident reporting, nationaluglymugs.org | caseworker line 0800 464 7669 (Tues to Fri, 10am to 4pm)
- Your local sexual health/GUM clinic: for confidential STI testing and contraception
- In an emergency, always call 999
If you’d like to talk something through, get in touch with the Wirral Ways team, we’re here to help.
Last Updated on 25 August 2026