The Report and Support form asks for quite a lot of information, how much does someone need to disclose?
Meeting a Liaison Officer for the first time can 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 this 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.
What if I don't want to make a formal complaint?
Submitting a report will not trigger a formal complaint. Report and Support is a confidential online platform designed to help guide you through your options and has two options for confidential disclosure.
If someone chooses to Speak to an Advisor, a specially trained Liaison Officer will be in contact within 2 University working days. If you’re 18 or over, your report won’t be shared with the police or formally investigated by the university.
Our specially trained Liaison Officers will help guide you through both your reporting and support options, in complete confidence. Your Liaison Officer will help you decide how far you want your disclosure to go, and support you all the way, whatever your decision.
Or you can disclose incidents anonymously. No direct action will be taken by the university as a result of the anonymous disclosure, however, it will feed into our data and trend analysis. it is simply picked up by a member of the Report & Support team, who will reach out to you within 2 university working days.
If the issue involves a conflict or misunderstanding, there is a Mediation service that can help resolve things informally, without filing a formal complaint.
I have heard that the university doesn’t do anything about people who are reported - is this true?
Report and Support’s specially trained team of Liaison Officers are entirely reporter-led. This means that no one who discloses via Report and Support will be forced to submit a formal complaint to student discipline or HR, nor have to report their experience to the police.
Formal action can only be taken by the University of Warwick if the reporter chooses to submit a formal complaint and the case is found proven. 1:1 support by a Liaison Officer is available to reporters if they do choose to submit a formal complaint.
Contrary to popular belief, sanctions are put in place against those who are formally reported and found proven of misconduct. The number of sanctions imposed each year are publicly available in the Report and Support Annual Report, and include but aren’t limited to expulsion, temporary withdrawal, bans from campus and graduation all the way through to fines, depending on what misconduct the individual has been found proven of enacting.
Informal resolutions such as mediation and awareness training sessions for societies, sports clubs or departments are also available as a different form of resolution if the reporter prefers these options.
What if something has happened to someone in their personal life outside university or the perpetrator is a random member of the public?
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 University of Warwick. What matters is whether a disclosing student or staff member would benefit from the support of a specially trained Liaison Officer. The Liaison Officer will simply work to tailor the support and reporting options to the individual’s circumstances.
Some people won’t disclose experiences through Report and Support because they don’t think they’re ‘bad enough’ -are their fears valid?
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 Report and Support.
If someone feels that their dignity has been violated, or that they would benefit from the support provided by a Liaison Officer to help them feel safer and more comfortable whilst at the University of Warwick, then we would encourage disclosing via the ‘Speak to an Advisor’ form.
Why can't you act on anonymous reports?
Anonymous reports cannot normally lead to direct formal action being taken. The only exception to this is if you include identifying details and there’s a safety concern that requires action.
This is because we are not able to start a formal investigation process without a reporter submitting a formal complaint. 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 Report and Support team to particular sports clubs, societies and departments that are displaying behaviours that breach the university’s regulations. Anonymised data will also help the University to understand patterns in behaviour and inform future policy.
If you would like direct formal action to be taken by the university, please submit a ‘Speak to an Advisor’ form, or else we are limited in our response. You can submit a named report later if you wish to receive support or take further action.
How is my data handled when making a disclosure?
Please refer to our Privacy Policy for full guidance.
Is any disclosure made to Report and Support subject to a Subject Access Request from the person being reported?
Individuals have a right to access their own personal data. If a Report and Support disclosure contains information about the requester, it is generally considered their personal data and would normally need to be included in a SAR.
However, ICO guidance makes clear that when a record contains information about other people, or sensitive/confidential content (for example safeguarding reports, allegations etc), disclosure is not automatic. In these cases, the university must consider confidentiality and the rights of third parties.
This can mean redacting names or identifying details, summarising content, or withholding parts if even redacted information could allow identification of others.
In practice, this means that each SAR involving Report and Support disclosures is reviewed carefully. The process should be to:
- Identify the requester’s personal data in the report.
- Redact or summarise any third party or confidential information.
- Ensure that nothing is disclosed that could indirectly identify another person or breach internal confidentiality.
- Provide the requester with their own data along with an explanation of any redactions or withheld information.