Once a woman has decided she wants to change, the two main issues Magdalene offers help with are housing and drugs. Almost without exception, street prostitutes are addicted to drugs and a large number are homeless. The group gives women a sponsored referral to a local housing association, puts them in touch with drug treatment programmes, and offers them support throughout the process.

Talbot is unenthusiastic about the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's proposed crackdown on prostitution. She thinks that the proposed legislation, which would make men criminally liable if they use women who have been coerced into prostitution, is right in principle but problematic in practice. It is often difficult for her organisation to work out to what extent someone is being coerced, and the situation is usually not clear-cut. She is more positive about the Swedish system, which criminalises all men who use prostitutes but decriminalises those who sell sex. "That would send the right message - that people are far more than sex objects." The number of prostitutes in Sweden has fallen by 40 per cent in the decade since the legislation was brought in. Talbot argues that simply legalising prostitution does not get rid of the more dangerous and unpleasant side of it, which remains underground.

The Magdalene Group has only two paid members of staff, and is privately funded by donations. This gives it the freedom, not possible for a government-funded organisation, to be experimental in how it responds to individuals' needs - it recently paid, for example, for one woman to join a gym. The group is founded on Christian principles, but Talbot is keen to point out that they are not in the business of pushing faith upon people. "Our mission is to offer care and opportunities for change, based on the belief that each individual is infinitely precious and infinitely redeemable."