Appropriately trained staff
116. The Taskforce agreed that having appropriately trained staff is important to an
effective response and can markedly increase students’ confidence to report
incidents as well as ensuring that the necessary support is in place. This applies
in cases where a student has been directly affected, and where they have
witnessed an incident. This training will depend on factors specific to an
individual institution such as student demographics and size. In some cases,
training may be external depending on the issue but in others may consist of
raising awareness amongst staff of specific policies and procedures.
117. Much of the published research and evidence from stakeholders highlighted
staff education and training as an important requirement for providing the
necessary support to students. Universities also identified staff training as a
priority for further guidance and resources.
118. For those staff closely involved in preventing or responding to incidents of
harassment, hate crime or violence against women, there is a need to
understand and have knowledge of:
the circumstances within which particular incidents might occur
the barriers to disclosure, whether this is informal or to the police
specialist support and services available to a student (which will vary
depending on the nature of the incident and the location of the university)
the potential magnitude of the emotional and psychological impact
physical and mental health implications
intersectionality
These staff should also work closely with the university’s chief safeguarding officer.
119. Feedback from specialist agencies revealed concerns that universities only have
a partial understanding of the specific issues affecting students. This was
particularly emphasised in relation to handling incidents of violence against
women and sexual harassment. The evidence highlighted that university staff
are not well equipped to handle the issue of forced marriage and often made
assumptions about the victim. A number of organisations including Rape Crisis
and the CFR suggested that they would be willing to develop and provide
specialist training around sexual violence. Annexe E includes case study 12
which describes Brunel University London’s approach to training staff as part of
the Universities Supporting Victims of Sexual Violence (#USVreact) project
being run at a number of universities across Europe.
Universities should conduct a thorough assessment of which staff members need
to be trained and what training needs to be provided. A clear, multi-tiered
training strategy covering different types of incident can then be developed.
Where possible, this should identify external sources of expertise and consider
whether engagement with other institutions will minimise the burden on
specialist support services.
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