Confidentiality and information sharing

Overview

Disclosures made via Report + Support are managed by our Safeguarding and Welfare team, and where appropriate are shared with Residence Life (if the reporting student lives in University residences) or with a sexual violence liaison officer, so that appropriate support can be offered. 

It may be necessary for us to share information with other University teams or services, such as the Student Counselling Mental Health and Therapies Service, Disability and Dyslexia Support Service, University Health Service or your academic department in order to provide the best possible support to you. 

If you share information with staff in your school

If you share information about sexual harassment and/or violence, bullying, harassment, discrimination or domestic abuse with a member of staff in a school or faculty, they have a duty, as part of our Safeguarding Policy, to share this information with the Safeguarding and Welfare team. 

Be assured that sharing this information with the Safeguarding and Welfare team will not mean that you have to take forward a report relating to what you’ve experienced. It’s important that this information is shared so we can offer you the most appropriate support and guidance and carry out a risk assessment to ensure your safety, as well as that of the rest of the student community. 

It’s also important that the University holds a central record of any incidents of harassment, discrimination and sexual violence shared with us. This ensures we have an understanding of the prevalence of these behaviours and enables us to identify any patterns or particular areas of concern, so that where possible we can take action to minimise risk of harm within the University community.

How we use your information

We have three student-facing teams who are responsible for coordinating support for students impacted by sexual harassment and/or violence, bullying, harassment, discrimination, domestic abuse or other inappropriate behaviours:

• Safeguarding and Welfare
• Residence Life
• Sexual Violence Liaison Officer (SVLO) Service 

The Safeguarding and Welfare team lead on coordinating support for students and are responsible for triaging all disclosures made via Report + Support. If your disclosure relates to sexual harassment and/or violence, we will contact you to ask if you’d like to receive support from a Sexual Violence Liaison Officer . 

If you request this support, you’ll be assigned a sexual violence liaison officer and your disclosure will be shared with them. Disclosures relating to other concerns are managed by staff in the Safeguarding and Welfare team, or by Residence Life if you live in University residences. 

These teams provide a confidential service to students who have witnessed or been the victim of sexual harassment and/or violence, bullying, harassment, discrimination, domestic abuse or other inappropriate behaviours on or off campus. 

Sharing personal information with other University teams will only be done on a 'need to know' basis. We will always aim to seek and gain your consent before sharing information with any other team or service. However, there may be some circumstances where we have to share information without your consent, these are outlined below.

We don’t share any students’ personal information with third parties including parents, partners or guardians unless we have your permission to do so or where there are specific circumstances that require us to do so.

When we might need to share personal information

There are some specific circumstances where we may be required to disclose your personal information without your consent. These include:    

• If there’s good reason to believe that you or someone else may be at significant risk of harm. In most circumstances we would always seek your consent first, but if there wasn’t time to do so, or if consent was refused, we may need to proceed if there is a legal basis to do so.
• Situations where we're required to in order to meet our statutory safeguarding duties or duty of care to students, for example protection from harm.
• Circumstances where there are fitness to practise concerns relating to students registered on programmes leading to awards by relevant statutory bodies for example medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, social work, clinical / educational psychology and teaching.
• Where we’re legally required to do so as part of a criminal investigation under the  Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act (1966).

If you’re referred to an external service

There may be occasions when you ask our teams to refer you to an external service for further support, such as a local specialist service like a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) or Rape Crisis Centre.  

Before sharing your personal details, we’ll always consult with you about the appropriateness of a referral and seek your consent to communicate with that organisation. 

Similarly, you may ask us to help you to access support from another team internal to the University or Students’ Union. In these circumstances, we will seek consent to liaise with colleagues on your behalf.  

Providing evidence for extenuating circumstances

You may ask us to share information about your wellbeing with your academic school or other University service or department in relation to specific policies or procedures, for example, extenuating circumstances or fitness to study processes.

Information sharing as part of a student discipline procedure

If you make a report that is taken forward in line with  the Student Discipline Procedure, you will be asked to provide a statement and any supporting evidence about your experience. This statement and supporting evidence will be shared with the reported student and their representative ( if they choose to have one), and others directly involved in the process, such as the investigator and any Discipline Panel. This information has to be shared with the reported student, so that they understand what the allegations made against them are, and have an opportunity to respond to these. 

Any statement or evidence provided by the reported student or any witnesses, will not be shared with the reporting party. We understand that this may feel confusing if you’re the reporting party. The reason for this is that the  investigation is to consider whether the reported student has breached the University’s discipline regulations. It is therefore the University who brings forward the case against the reported student because of this alleged breach.

Records of any disciplinary investigation/hearing and outcome will be held confidentially for a period of six years following the conclusion of the case.