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Switchboard Terms of Service

Switchboard LGBTQIA+ Terms of Service

Switchboard LGBTQIA+ (charity number: 296193) exists to provide members of the LGBTQIA+ community (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual and related identities), as well as their friends, family and those supporting them, with a listening service that they can contact via phone, instant message and email between the hours of 10am to 10pm.

We are happy to talk to service users about any topic they wish, as long as it is in-line with the guidance contained within our Terms of Service and does not constitute abuse or manipulation of our service that would cause our volunteers harm as detailed below.

Topics we often talk to service users about include: sexual health, safer sex, relationships, coming-out, gender identity, transitioning, mental health, experiences of hate crimes, support for meeting other LGBTQIA+ people and making friends, and much more.

When accessing our services, it is important to bear in mind that:

  • Our listening service is staffed by trained volunteers who all identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community
  • When you contact us, it is unlikely that you will speak with the same volunteer twice
  • People contacting our support line (regardless of the channel used to do so) are not able to choose which volunteer they speak to or request who they speak to based on their personal preference
  • Our volunteers are not trained counsellors or therapists
  • We are not an advice service. You should obtain professional and specialist advice before taking (or refraining from) action, based on any conversation with a Switchboard volunteer
  • We are UK-based and therefore only able to provide information relating to the UK
  • They are also not experts in every topic you may wish to discuss
  • Our volunteers will also not judge service users nor direct you to take action
  • They will instead be there to listen, posing open questions where appropriate, providing information regarding services that may be of interest to you and raising the topic of sexual health to ensure you have the information you need on this topic
  • We cannot guarantee that our services will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any of our services for operational reasons

By accessing our services, you are agreeing to adhere to this Terms of Service. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact admin@switchboard.lgbt

Making changes to this Terms of Service:

Switchboard LGBTQIA+ reserves the right to make changes to our Terms of Service at any time. We will always post the most up-to-date version here on our website. All changes that we do introduce will be applied immediately to our service.

What we will do:

  • Respond to your communication (whether via phone, instant message or email) as quickly as we can based on our rota coverage
  • Ensure you can speak with someone who identifies as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community
  • Conduct ourselves in a manner than upholds our values and adheres to our Terms of Service*
  • Offer a confidential service, ensuring conversations remain confidential within Switchboard unless you ask us to share information with a third party or we are concerned that you or someone else may come to harm (For more information, please refer to our Safeguarding Policy, Confidentiality statement and Privacy Policy)
  • Provide you with the time and space you need to discuss your thoughts and feelings
  • Listen to you and ask open questions to better understand your situation
  • Be empathetic
  • Challenge you if we feel it would be helpful to you
  • Respond to safeguarding concerns or disclosures appropriately and in line with Switchboard's Safeguarding Policy and Confidentiality Statement
  • Provide further information on topics of interest and other services you may want to consider exploring if this is appropriate
  • Listen to any feedback and suggestions you have
  • After listening and talking through your situation for some time, we may suggest you take some time to consider what has been talked about and then contact us again

*To ensure we can do this, it’s important to note that we record all calls, instant messages and emails we receive. These recordings are used to ensure we deliver a quality service, can train our volunteers effectively and are able to investigate any complaints we receive. By accessing our service, you agree to us recording the conversation.

What we won’t do:

  • Provide counselling, therapy or other professional mental health support
  • Share our own lived experiences
  • Identify ourselves
  • Judge you
  • Tell you what to do
  • Provide assurances and guarantees
  • Allow you to choose the volunteer you speak to
  • Communicate with users who, in our reasonable opinion, are abusing or manipulating our volunteers

Abusing or manipulating our service:

As stated above, our volunteers will end the communication at any point if they are at risk of harm or feel the service is being abused or manipulated.

Examples of abuse and manipulation include but are not limited to:

  • Verbal or written abuse that threatens, intimidates or harasses our service and volunteers
  • LGBTQIA+phobic language targeted at our volunteers or members of the LGBTQIA+ community, used with the intention of causing upset or offence
  • Discriminatory language (including, but not limited to discrimination based on race, religion, age or disability)
  • Attempting to gain personal information about Switchboard volunteers or staff members
  • Pretending to be someone else and faking an identity or misrepresenting your affiliation with any person or organisation
  • Misusing the service with malicious intent (for example, making prank calls to our volunteers)
  • Contacting us with the intention of gaining sexual pleasure from the conversation
  • Masturbating while speaking with a volunteer
  • Telling a story with the purpose of eliciting a reaction or emotion from our volunteers (for example, discussing an experience with the sole intention of upsetting or shocking the volunteer you’re communicating with)
  • Sharing links to inappropriate and explicit content
  • Deliberately preventing a volunteer from speaking with other service users

How we will escalate an unacceptable communication:

  • If we believe a service user is not adhering to our Terms of Service when communicating with us, we will provide a warning and ask you to adjust your response accordingly.
  • If we feel you have not done so, we will end the conversation
  • If we believe a service user has contacted us for abusive or manipulative purposes (for example, to masturbate whilst speaking with a volunteer, to recount a story for sexual pleasure or to use the conversation for sexual pleasure at a later date), we will look to block them from contacting us for a period of time. If a service user contacts us repeatedly in this manner, we may look to prevent them from contacting our service again.

The actions we may take are not limited to those described above, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate if we consider that a service user has breached our Terms of Service.

Why we have these Terms of Service:

Our confidential listening service is run by volunteers who all identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community. These volunteers are trained by Switchboard to take calls, respond to instant messages and craft replies to email communications in-line with Switchboard’s values of being non-judgemental, inclusive, committed, empowering, supportive and informed.

Volunteers donate their time to cover our rota, they do not receive payment for the support they provide, and, as members of the LGBTQIA+ community themselves, often discuss topics that are triggering and traumatic. Therefore, we want to ensure that we are able to put measures in place that enable them to respect their boundaries and lived experiences, and also protect and maintain their mental health and wellbeing.

How you can provide feedback:

If you’ve spoken with one of our volunteers and had a good experience, we’d love to hear from you!

Alternatively, we are always delighted to hear from service users regarding changes we can make to our service to improve your experience.

To provide written feedback, please go to our Feedback Form.