reportandsupport.qmul.ac.uk Written and edited by Melanie Dupin Designed by Jake Nathan Ilustration by Ella Strickland De Souza reportandsupport.qmul.ac.uk Contents 4 Introduction 5 Report Handling Process 6 What are People Reporting? 8 Targeting Factors 9 Anonymous vs Named Who is Reporting? 12 Incident Hotspots Queen Mary, University of London, launched its Report + Support platform in October 2019, following a pilot during September 2019. Report + Support is a secure online platform which allows students, staff and visitors to report issues of bullying, harassment, hate crime or sexual violence. Reports may be anonymous, or may request contact with staff. Regular trend analysis reports are shared with the Dignity at Work and Study Steering Group, to inform intervention and prevention approaches to make Queen Mary a safe and inclusive community. Data contained in these reports is fully anonymised to ensure there is no risk of identification. The Dignity at Work and Study Steering Group comprises representatives from the StudentsŐ Union, Student and Academic Services, Human Resources, Academic Registry and Council Secretariat and each of the Academic Faculties. The group exists to develop a strategic and sustainable approach to tackling all forms of violence, harassment, bullying and discrimination at Queen Mary, and reports to the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group. It is our aim to increase awareness of the Report + Support platform and to encourage reports, because reports are essential to effective prevention and response. We expect to see increases in reports following communication campaigns and events, and consider an increase in incoming reports to be an indicator of trust and confidence in the reporting process and subsequent response. Specifically, an increase in contact requests (i.e. non-anonymous reports) over time is an indicator of increased trust in the university process. How reports are handled The data reported here comprises anonymous and non-anonymous reports received through Report + Support from 16th September 2019 Đ19th October 2020. It does not include data on reports made directly to another department/service at Queen Mary. A total of 217 reports were made since launching Report + Support (having removed any duplicates or inappropriate reports). As can be seen in Figure 1, incidents of bullying and harassment were by far the most reported type of incident, making up 53% of all reports. Ą 81.1% of all reports made by Queen Mary staff accused another Queen Mary staff member as the alleged perpetrator (i.e. the reported party). Bullying and harassment was by far the most commonly reported issue (69%) by staff. Ą 21.5% of student (UG, PRT, PGR and alumni) reports related to bullying and harassment from another student. Where gender-based violence (GBV) incidents are grouped (sexual harassment, sexual violence, sexual misconduct, domestic violence, so-called ÔhonourŐ-based violence, forced marriage and FGM), it becomes the second most reported type of incident (24.8% of reports). It is acknowledged that these individual incident types can affect any person. However, women, and people who identify as women, are disproportionally affected and reportandsupport.qmul.ac.uk therefore it is common for literature and specialist agencies to refer to Ôgender-based violenceŐ or ÔVAWG Đ Violence Against Women and GirlsŐ). Ą Gender was cited as a perceived contributing factor in 46 of the 54 (85%) gender-based violence incident reports. Ą 38 of the 54 (70.3%) people reporting these incidents identify as female (a further 18.5% did not disclose their gender identity). Ą All male respondents in these cases were reporting of behalf of someone else. Incidents of GBV were most commonly reported by students, about students (83.3%). Staff were accused of sexual harassment in 3 reports, two of these were reports made by Queen Mary staff. The perpetrator was not known or not connected to Queen Mary in the remaining 6 reports. Figure 1: Number of reports received, by incident type According to the NUS Hidden Marks (2010) misconduct in higher education, 4 in 10 survey report, victims of stalking, violence or sexual respondents who were current students had assault were likely to know their attacker. Across experienced at least one experience of sexualised all types of sexual assaults, the majority of behaviour from staff. Less than 1 in 10 who perpetrators were students (58%), the majority experienced staff sexual misconduct reported it to of whom studied at the same institution (70%). their institution. It is important to acknowledge that [5] an absence of reports naming staff as perpetrators of sexual misconduct should not be interpreted as According to the 1752 Group report, Power an absence of incidents. [6] in the Academy (2018) examining staff sexual bullying and harassment were by far the most reported type of incident, making up 53% of all reports Ó Our reporting forms offer the reporting party an opportunity to reflect on and tell us if they feel that the victim was targeted because of any protected characteristics (please note, the victim may not be the same as the reporting party). Gender, ethnicity and nationality were most commonly cited as factors perceived as relevant to the victim being targeted, across all incident types. The following wordcloud represents Protected characteristics, which reporting parties have stated as relevant to the incident(s) reported (may select more than one). Nationality Gender None Other Having children/being pregnant Sexual identity Age Being trans and/or non-binary Having caring responsibilities Disability or impairment Religion or belief Ethnicity Anonymous reporting understandably limits what action can be taken by the University. If there is a cluster of anonymous reports relating to a particular department or a particular type of incident, some generalised action can be taken (e.g. awareness raising campaigns; environmental investigation within a department). For action to be taken on a specific report, we require the individual(s) to report with their contact details so that we may ascertain more information and provide advice on options for further investigation and/or support. As shown in Figure 2, almost two thirds of all reports were submitted anonymously. Queen Mary staff were more likely to report anonymously (78.3%) than with their contact details (21.6%). A similar proportion of students chose to report anonymously (47%) or with their contact details (52.9%). Our anonymous reporting form includes a question about the reasons for choosing to report anonymously. This helps to identify common barriers to named reporting, which hopefully can be addressed as the project goes on, to increase peopleŐs confidence in coming forward with their contact details, so that action can be taken on specific reports. WeŐve found that many people reporting anonymously fear retaliation from the reported party if they reported with their contact details, and a significant number were concerned that nothing would be done by the university if they reported with their contact details. The top four reasons that were given for choosing to report Figure 2: Proportion of anonymous and contact request reports anonymously are on the next page. staff were more likely to Ň report anonymously (78.3%) Ó The majority of reports (58%) were made on behalf of oneself, however 42% were made on behalf of someone else. It is important to bear in mind that the reporting party and the victim are not always the same person. Most of the reports received have come from students. Our reporting form collects optional information on equality monitoring information about the reporting party (who is not necessarily the victim). It is important to note that many respondents left these questions blank or marked Ôprefer not to sayŐ. Figure 3: Reporting partyŐs role at Queen Mary reportandsupport.qmul.ac.uk However, of the responses received from these questions, most reporting parties are: Ą 18-21 years old Ą Do not consider themselves to have a disability Ą White Ą Female Ą Do not have religious belief Ą Heterosexual Ą Their gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth Most student reports accused students (71.6%), and similarly, most staff reports accused staff members of the incident (81.8%). The next page shows the breakdown of where the reporting party and reported (i.e. accused) party are based at Queen Mary. The reporting party and reported party were not necessarily from the same faculty. Both anonymous and contact reports help us define this as a ÔhotspotŐ of incidents. Of these, 79% to identify trends in incident types and any were reported anonymously and so we cannot rule possible ÔhotspotŐ locations or Faculties/Schools/ out that multiple reports were made by the same departments. person. Data for this year shows that most of the reports We will continue to monitor for potential incident received relate to recent incidents (53.5%), which hotspots. took place within the past three months. There have been more reports accusing someone within the School of Physics and Astronomy compared to other Schools or departments, however this is a very small relative difference and these reports only make up 6% of all reports, so it is difficult to reportandsupport.qmul.ac.uk 12 Of the 77 reports that gave contact details, 69 Outcomes and action taken requested an investigation by Queen Mary and 29 requested to be referred to support services. (It was possible to choose either or both options.) These reports were assigned to HR (for reports relatingtostaff),theAcademicAppeals,Complaints and Conduct Team and/or Advice and Counselling. Reports were triaged and assigned or closed with an average of 1.28 days. Cases which have been closed were closed within an average of 103 days (calendar days, not working days). Discussed risk factors and basic safety advice given 4 External referral (e.g. social services, police, external counselling, GP, Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Rape Crisis) 3 Internal referral: Academic Appeals, Conduct and Complaints Office for investigation 0 Internal referral: Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) 2 Internal referral for local resolution (within academic school/ line manage.ment / residences) 2 Internal referral: Occupational Health 1 Internal referral: Other 0 Internal referral: StudentsŐ Union Aca.demic Advice Service 1 Internal referral: Student Support ser.vices (Advice and Counselling; Disability and Dyslexia Service) 1 Investigation: Formal Action (e.g Disci.plinary Hearing) 0 Investigation: No further action 7 No further action: no case to answer 2 No response / disengaged - case closed 14 Report withdrawn by reporting party 1 Support / advice given 20 Triage: Closed as anonymous / no ac.tion required 68 Triage: Closed as duplicate 2 Triage: Report inappropriate - con.tacted reporting party and signposted elsewhere 6 Triage: Test / spam report 1 Urgent safeguarding action taken 1 In addition to managing incoming reports into Report + Support, the Project Manager: Tackling Sexual Violence, Harassment and Hate Crime is responsible for commissioning training, promoting the Report + Support platform and raising awareness of sexual violence, harassment and hate crime. Training for staff A total of 139 staff have attended training between August 2019 Đ October 2020: Ą 54 attended have attended one of four Hate Crime awareness trainingĐ delivered by Stop Hate UK Ą 44 attended Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) awareness - delivered by Tower Hamlets VAWG team Ą 41 attended Sexual Violence Support Awareness training - delivered by East London Rape Crisis (Nia) and Victim Support Where feedback was available from these staff, this was extremely positive: Ą Do you feel you have improved awareness of the topic? Yes - 100% of respondents Ą Do you know where to signpost victims for support? Yes - 100% of respondents Ą If you were to become a victim would you feel more confident in reporting to a professional? Yes Đ93% of respondents ĄDo you feel more confident identifying and responding to perpetrators of abuse? Yes Đ 98% of respondents Further training sessions were unfortunately cancelled due to the pandemic, though there are plans to offer online training sessions for staff. Training for students We have commissioned a three-year contract for online training on sexual consent, Consent Matters. This was promoted to all students in September 2020 and was accompanied a promotional campaign. To date, 1,564 students have accessed the course (completion rate of 4.2%). There will be a further promotional campaign for this training in January 2021. Awareness campaigns Report and Support has been promoted to staff and students across a number of communications over the past year, alongside key messages to raise awareness of issues of harassment and gender-based violence: Ą Launch campaign and promotion during Anti-Bullying Week (October 2019) Ą Hate crime awareness (Oct 2019 and Feb 2020) Ą Signposting to Report + Support during Asian heritage month (March 2020) Ą Domestic violence signposting support in Lockdown (May 2020) Ą Consent awareness and promoting Consent Matters (Sept 2020) Ą Expected behaviours and online etiquette (Nov 2020) Ą Domestic violence signposting in lockdown (Nov 2020) References [1] https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/nearly-third-people-are-bullied-work-says-tuc [2] https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/tools-information/all-about-bullying/preva.lence-and-impact/prevalence-bullying?gclid=CjwKCAiA-f78BRBbEiwATKRRBKxwui7NrnCG8DE9x.qw7ieaDCthfgsvU9YJSZjtJyz9L-zhrlHw1uxoCl6gQAvD_BwE [3] https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/07/violence-against-wom.en-and-girls-and-male-position-factsheets/#:~:text=In%20the%20UK%2C%201%20in,sexual%20as.sault%20during%20her%20lifetime.&text=5%20in%206%20victims%20(83,assault%20in%20the%20 last%20year. [4] https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-informed/about-sexual-violence/statistics-sexual-violence/ [5] A national online survey of 2,058 women studentsŐ experiences of harassment, financial control, control over their course and institution choices, stalking, violence and sexual assault. The findings are set out in the NUS report, Hidden Marks, available at: http://www.nus.org.uk/Global/NUS_hidden_marks_report_2nd_edition_web.pdf [6] https://1752group.com/power-in-the-academy-report/ [7] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2019-to-2020 The information given in this annual report is correct at the time of publication. The Student Life Team reserves the right to modify or cancel any statement in it and accepts no responsibility for the consequences of any such changes.