No. Submitting a report with details is a means of accessing your own personal advisor, and bespoke support. It is not a tool for triggering an investigation under our procedures.
However, there may be certain circumstances where we will need to disclose information that you have shared with us:
Should this be the case, the College might decide to take immediate action. In these circumstances we would look to obtain your consent first where possible and it will be explained to you in full why we believe there is a need to disclose information, and who will have access to this information.
If you do not provide us with consent to share this information or it is not practicable for us to try and obtain it, in very rare circumstances we reserve the right to break confidentiality. This would only happen if there were a serious risk to your own or others’ safety, or if we were compelled to break confidentiality by law.
Even in such circumstances we would do our utmost to discuss things with you before taking action. In the event of a serious and imminent risk of major harm, other members of the College may be informed or called upon to assist in managing the immediate situation. We may also contact external agencies if appropriate.
Please, read our Student Confidentiality Policy for more information.
This is entirely up to you. However, there are a few key things to consider:
You can see the questions in advance here.
If you report with details, an advisor from the SafeSpace Zone Team will be in contact within two College working days. The SafeSpace Zone Team can:
Yes.
No. Sanctions are put in place against those who are formally reported and found proven of misconduct. These include, but aren’t limited to, formal reprimand, temporary exclusion, formal written warning, temporary suspension, permanent exclusion from specified parts of the College, permanent expulsion, depending on what misconduct the individual has been found proven of enacting. For more information, please read our Student Disciplinary Procedure.
Informal resolutions such as mediation may also available as a different form of resolution if the person reporting prefers these options.
The SafeSpace Zone Team will not make a judgement about you or what you are disclosing but will support you, regardless of how much information you are willing to share.
We appreciate that meeting an advisor for the first time could feel like a stressful experience, therefore we have written the online form to give reporters the opportunity to disclose any information that they would like to share before the initial meeting. Each reporter will feel differently about this. Some will want to provide lots of information, others will want to provide no information at all. Either way, your disclosure will be taken seriously.
Throughout the anonymous disclosure form on SafeSpace Zone, we try to make it clear that anonymous reports will not usually lead to direct formal action being taken. There may be certain circumstances where the College might decide to take direct formal action (e.g. If your life or the lives of others is at risk; or if multiple reports are made regarding the same incident or the same alleged perpetrator).
However, without a named reporting party, the alleged responding party may be unable to answer investigative questions if they do not know who the complaint is in relation to or who has reported them. It also limits investigations, as the investigating officer will only have one anonymous disclosure to base an entire investigation from and cannot gather potentially important further details from a reporter if they are required.
Nevertheless, indirect action can be taken on the back of anonymous reports. This can take the form of training sessions being delivered by the SafeSpace Zone Team to particular clubs, societies and departments that are displaying behaviours that breach the College’s regulations.
If you would like direct formal action to be taken by the College, please submit a Speak to an Advisor form, or else we are limited in our response.
No. The SafeSpace Zone is available to all students, staff and visitors who have experienced Bullying and Harassment, Discrimination, Hate Incident/Crime, Sexual Misconduct.
The SafeSpace Zone Team understand that this could happen to students and staff beyond the College campus and even overseas. Support is available regardless of where the individual is based in the world or where it happened. The SafeSpace Zone Team will simply work to tailor the support and reporting options to the individual’s circumstances.
No. Over 50% of all sexual violence is committed by acquaintances, and the SafeSpace Zone Team are fully aware of this. College policies and the law make it clear that consent cannot be assumed on the basis of a previous sexual experience or previously given consent, and consent may be withdrawn at any time. The status of someone’s relationship with another person is therefore not important when it comes to sexual misconduct. If consent is not ongoing and the individual does not have the freedom and capacity to consent – then it is sexual misconduct.
No. No incident needs to be physically violent in nature nor leave scars, marks or bruises on someone’s body to be classed as harassment. We understand that harassment can be subtle, can happen online and can sometimes even be invisible to the naked eye or ear. These understated actions would still constitute harassment and can be disclosed via the SafeSpace Zone.
If someone feels that their dignity has been violated, or that they would benefit from the support provided by the SafeSpace Zone Team to help them feel safer and more comfortable whilst at the College, then we would encourage disclosing via the Speak to an Advisor form.
No. Submitting a report with details is a means of accessing your own HR advisor, and bespoke support. It is not a tool for triggering an automatic investigation under our procedures.
However, there may be certain circumstances where we will need to disclose information that you have shared with us:
Should this be the case, the College might decide to take immediate action. In these circumstances we would look to obtain your consent first where possible and it will be explained to you in full why we believe there is a need to disclose information, and who will have access to this information.
If you do not provide us with consent to share this information or it is not practicable for us to try and obtain it, in very rare circumstances we reserve the right to break confidentiality. This would only happen if there were a serious risk to your own or others’ safety, or if we were compelled to break confidentiality by law.
Even in such circumstances we would do our utmost to discuss things with you before taking action. In the event of a serious and imminent risk of major harm, other members of the College may be informed or called upon to assist in managing the immediate situation. We may also contact external agencies if appropriate.
You can see the questions in advance here.
If you report with details, an HR advisor from the will be in contact within two College working days. The team can:
Yes.
Yes.
Yes. If you witnessed something that is unacceptable, you can report this via SafeSpace Zone and ask to speak with a HR advisor. However, before taking any formal action, we will always try and reach out to the person who directly experienced the unacceptable behaviour to provide support and check whether they would like to submit a formal complaint themselves.
You can also help someone complete the online form. If, for instance, someone discloses having experienced misconduct to you, you can sit down with them and assist whilst you complete the form. The SafeSpace Zone Team will confirm receipt of the disclosure and will reach out to the person who experienced misconduct directly.
No. the College will conduct investigations into allegations made in line with the relevant policy. The investigation is a fact-finding exercise that is reviewed to assess next steps.
Informal resolutions such as mediation are also available as a different form of resolution if the person reporting prefers these options.
The SafeSpace Zone Team will not make a judgement about you or what you are disclosing but will support you, regardless of how much information you are willing to share.
We appreciate that meeting a HR advisor for the first time could feel like a stressful experience, therefore we have written the online form to give reporters the opportunity to disclose any information that they would like to share before the initial meeting. Each reporter will feel differently about this. Some will want to provide lots of information, others will want to provide no information at all. Either way, your disclosure will be taken seriously.
Throughout the anonymous disclosure form on the SafeSpace Zone platform, we try to make it clear that anonymous reports will not usually lead to direct formal action being taken. There may be certain circumstances where the College might decide to take direct formal action (e.g. If your life or the lives of others is at risk; or if multiple reports are made regarding the same incident or the same alleged perpetrator).
However, without a named reporting party, the alleged responding party may be unable to answer investigative questions if they do not know who the complaint is in relation to or who has reported them. It also limits investigations, as the investigating officer will only have one anonymous disclosure to base an entire investigation from and cannot gather potentially important further details from a reporter if they are required.
Nevertheless, indirect action can be taken on the back of anonymous reports. This can take the form of training sessions being delivered by the SafeSpace Zone Team to particular clubs, societies and departments that are displaying behaviours that breach the College’s regulations.
If you would like direct formal action to be taken by the College, please submit a Speak to an Advisor form, or else we are limited in our response.
Anonymous reporting, even with no action taken, is incredibly useful for identifying trends, and informing targeted proactive education and awareness raising. All information collected through anonymous reporting will inform our annual report.
One person can submit a disclosure on behalf of a group of reporters and have a group confidential meeting with a HR advisor, if this would make everyone feel more comfortable.
However, the HR advisor will often arrange individual meetings with each reporting party following this group meeting. This is just to ensure that everyone feels like they are able to make their own independent choices and remain in control of their next steps.
No. The SafeSpace Zone is available to all students, staff and visitors who have experienced Bullying and Harassment, Discrimination, Hate Incident/Crime, Sexual Misconduct.
The SafeSpace Zone Team understand that this could happen to students and staff beyond the College campus and even overseas. Support is available regardless of where the individual is based in the world or where it happened. The SafeSpace Zone Team will simply work to tailor the support and reporting options to the individual’s circumstances.
It does not matter if the perpetrator is a member of the public, a partner or family member that has nothing to do with the College. What matters is whether a disclosing student or staff member would benefit from the support of a specially trained advisor.
The SafeSpace Zone Team will simply work to tailor the support and reporting options to the individual’s circumstances. Whilst the College will only be able to take action if the alleged perpetrator is a member of the College community, the SafeSpace Zone Team can provide information regarding external reporting options and services.
No. Over 50% of all sexual violence is committed by acquaintances, and the SafeSpace Zone Team are fully aware of this. College policies and the law make it clear that consent cannot be assumed on the basis of a previous sexual experience or previously given consent, and consent may be withdrawn at any time. The status of someone’s relationship with another person is therefore not important when it comes to sexual misconduct. If consent is not ongoing and the individual does not have the freedom and capacity to consent – then it is sexual misconduct.
No. No incident needs to be physically violent in nature nor leave scars, marks or bruises on someone’s body to be classed as harassment. We understand that harassment can be subtle, can happen online and can sometimes even be invisible to the naked eye or ear. These understated actions would still constitute harassment and can be disclosed via the SafeSpace Zone.
If someone feels that their dignity has been violated, or that they would benefit from the support provided by the SafeSpace Zone Team to help them feel safer and more comfortable whilst at the University, then we would encourage disclosing via the Speak to an Advisor form.
