such a disclosure, universities must take into account any potential harm that
the unauthorised disclosure may cause to the victim.
108. As well as implementing carefully designed reporting procedures, consideration
also needs to be given to increasing the confidence of both victims/survivors and
bystanders to report. Ensuring that there is clear advice for students, an effective
reporting procedure and support provided by well-trained staff who are
knowledgeable and understand the issues, is likely to contribute significantly to
this. In addition, providing clear information to students on what steps the
university will be able to take in different situations to investigate an incident
and invoke disciplinary proceedings may also improve confidence levels. Further
information on this can be found in chapter 6.
109. The evidence also suggests that increasing confidence and breaking down
barriers to reporting is also linked to wider behaviours and cultures in and
around the university – where campus cultures tacitly condone unacceptable
behaviour, this in itself creates a significant barrier to reporting. The ‘report and
support’ button developed by University of Manchester and their students’
union (detailed in the case study 7 at Annexe E) provides an example of a crossinstitutional initiative to break down barriers to reporting.
110. Initiatives to drive culture change should help to raise awareness of
unacceptable behaviour and create an environment in which students feel safe
and empowered to report an incident. Effective reporting procedures will
underpin this, supporting student victims/survivors and thereby increasing
confidence in the institution’s ability to respond.
111. On sexual violence specifically, the Taskforce noted the importance of handling
disclosures in a way that (i) enables students to be referred to specialist support
as quickly as possible and (ii) records information in a supportive but factual
and non-judgmental manner.
112. In the first instance, all staff should know the process for referring students to
identified staff members who are trained to take detailed disclosures. A failure
to achieve this level of awareness risks students being passed to multiple staff
members before being able to access the right support or falling through the
gaps completely. It may also result in staff members taking disclosures in a way
that may compromise any future court proceedings. The template in Annexe F,
developed by Rape Crisis South London, offers some reflections on responding
to disclosures of sexual violence and sets out a template referral pathway for
institutions to adapt for their own internal use. Individual universities can use
this generic template to develop their own bespoke, clear and easy to use referral
pathway.
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