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National Service Standards

Our National Service Standards help us ensure that no matter where a victim or survivor lives, they will receive consistent, high quality services from any member Rape Crisis centre.

The Rape Crisis National Service Standards (RCNSS) are a robust set of specialist quality standards, developed in partnership with Rape Crisis Scotland.

The organisations that meet them have to demonstrate they are independent, community-based and work from a trauma-informed perspective to provide confidential, specialist services to victims and survivors of all forms of sexual violence and abuse.

Partners, commissioners and funders can find out more in our summary booklet.

Download the guide
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The RCNSS were most recently refreshed in 2018, with funding support from the Home Office. We continue to develop and adapt the standards to ensure they align with best practice.

All our member Rape Crisis centres have achieved accreditation through a rigorous process of evidence gathering, review, site visits, and external assessment by a panel of independent professionals.

RCNSS accreditation demonstrates quality and specialism in every aspect of a specialist Rape Crisis centre’s service provision, including Independent Sexual Violence Advocacy (ISVA) services, emotional support and therapeutic services.

The kitemark covers Rape Crisis centres' work with all sexual violence and abuse victims and survivors who are eligible to access their services, including women and girls, men and boys, trans and non-binary people, and children and young people.

By aligning their service standards with our key lines of enquiry, Rape Crisis England & Wales is helping develop practices based on a shared understanding of care quality. This helps people using services to access consistent care and support built around their needs.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) England