Report and Support Annual Report 2023

Introduction

Queen Mary University of London, launched the 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. This report covers the fourth year since Queen Mary launched Report + Support, covering the period from the 20 October 2022 to the 19 October 2023.

Insights from this report support the work of the Preventing and Addressing Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Working Group (PHASE). Informing intervention and prevention approaches to make Queen Mary a safe and inclusive community. The working group is jointly chaired by Alex Prestage, Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Simon Jarvis, Head of Student Wellbeing. The group has representation from across the Queen Mary Faculties, HR, Student Experience and the Directorate of Governance and Legal Services, as well as partnership with Queen Mary Students' Union. The group reports to the Queen Mary Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group (EDI-SG) and is informed by the Office for Students Statement of Expectations and sector guidance.

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.

Changes and updates to Report + Support in 2022/23

This year we have updated our Data protection policies and we no longer notify an individual when they are named in a report as the reported party. We hope this is a step to reducing understandable concerns around retaliation.

In October we introduced sub-categories for Hate Crime, in response to a rise in the number of hate crime/hate incident reports received in 2022/23. These provide us with more detail on who is being impacted by hate incidents and will inform our prevention work.

We had intended to share detail in this year's report on sanctions applied when a case progressed to a disciplinary stage. Due to a lower number of student cases reaching disciplinary panel stage this year we are unable to provide meaningful and unidentifiable information on sanctions. We will continue to look to include this in future reports and we will shortly be updating our process flowcharts to provide more transparency on what happens when a report is made.

Data insights

Overview

The data reported here comprises anonymous and named reports received through Report and Support from the 20 October 2022 – 19 October 2023. It does not include data on reports made directly to another department or service at Queen Mary. In this period a total of 293 reports were received (duplicate reports or inappropriate reports have been removed).

Total number of reports in 2022/23 compared to 2021/22

We had an increase of 94 reports compared with the last reporting period. This reporting year we received the highest number of reports since Report + Support was introduced in October 2019.

Number and % of anonymous v named reports for the period

As a University we are limited in the action we can take from an anonymous report. 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; raising this 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 the chart below, we received 171 named reports and 122 anonymous reports.

The chart below shows a comparison to the previous reporting period, there has been a small increase in the number of named reports since last year.

% of anonymous v named reports year on year comparison

Students are more likely to report providing their details than anonymously. This year 67% of reports from students were named, a slightly increase on last year where 60.2% of reports from students were named.

Anonymous reports are more common from staff members, making up 55.7% of reports received this year. Overall we have seen an increase in the number of staff reports, 41 in 2021/2022 and 66 reports in 2022/2023.

Who is reporting?

Relationship to organisation

The majority of reports we receive are made by the person who has experienced the issue (76.3%). Reports made on behalf of someone else accounted for 22.4% of reports.

As shown in the table below, Undergraduate students are the largest reporting group. For staff there is a similar number of reports from academic and professional services staff. This trend remains consistent with previous reporting periods.

We received 32 reports (16% of all reports) from those who selected their connection to the University as: Other, Friend or Family, Visitor or Alumni. 18 of these reports were anonymous and we are unable to verify if these reports were relating to an incident connected to the University.

Departments

The chart below shows the number of reports we had from each faculty or department of the University. and if they were anonymous or named reports. The reporting party and reported party may not be in the same faculty or area of the University and some reported parties are not a member of the Queen Mary community. Where reports are made anonymously it is not possible to rule out multiple reports made by one person. When possible we have sought to remove duplicate reports.

Incident types

Please note that the reporting party selects the incident type rather than the University categorising the incident reported.

Number of reports received per incident type

The chart below shows the overall number of reports received by incident type. Consistent with previous reporting periods, bullying remains the top reported incident. There has been a slight decrease in the number of reports of harassment from last year, from 16.% in 2021-2022 to 9.6% in 2022-2023. However, there has been an increase in the number of people making hate crime/hate incident reports, from 13 reports (6.6%) in 2021-2022 to 49 reports (16.7% of all reports) in 2022-2023.

Incident type reported split by relationship to organisation

The table below provides a further breakdown of the type of incident per group. Consistent with previous years bullying remains the top reported issue by staff accounting for 65.2% of all staff reports. Harassment was the second most commonly reported incident type accounting for 12.3% of reports by staff members.

Bullying also remained the top reported incident type by students and accounted for 24% of all student reports.

When the incident types of Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Violence and Sexual harassment are grouped they become the second most reported incident types by students making up 21.3% of reports. Hate Crime/Incidents accounted for 20.3% of reports by students.

Reports from students about another student accounted for 59.4% of reports. 20.3% of reports from students were regarding a member of staff. In the remainder of reports the reporting party did not know the connection of the reported party to the University or they were reporting an incident by someone external to the University.

Reports from staff about another staff member accounted for 77.2% of reports. 21.2% of reports from staff were regarding a student.

Reasons for reporting anonymously

Please note that people can select more than one reason

Our anonymous reporting form includes a question about the reasons for choosing to report anonymously. This helps to identify common barriers to named reporting and allow us to consider strategies to overcome these barriers. We want to increase people’s confidence in coming forward with their contact details, so that action can be taken on specific reports.

Concerns about retaliation, that nothing would be done if a report was made and concerns about impact on current or future career continue to be the top reasons given for reporting anonymously.

Please see our introduction for steps we have taken since the previous report in response to concerns about retaliation.

Number of each reasons for reporting anonymously

Number of each reasons for reporting anonymously by relationship to organisation

For staff, fear of retaliation, concerns that making a report may impact their career and a belief nothing would be done if they made a report were most commonly selected.

For students, a belief nothing would be done if they made a report, a concern about not being believed, fear of retaliation and not wanting to make a formal report were most commonly selected.

Contributing factors

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). It is also important to note that multiple options could be selected in a single report.

Excluding 'Other' and 'None' categories, Being a woman (32.3%), Ethnicity (24.5%), Nationality (12.9%) and Religion/Belief (11.6%) were most commonly cited as the factors perceived relevant to the victim being targeted across all incident types.

For Bullying, the categories of 'other' (34.7%) and 'none' (26.3%) were most commonly selected. Being a woman (21.1%) and Ethnicity (21.1%) were the third and fourth most selected contributing factors.

For Harassment, Being a woman (42.9%), Other (28.6%) and Religion or belief (21.4%) were the most selected perceived contributing factors.

For Hate Crime, Ethnicity (72%), Religion or belief (26%) and Nationality (20%) were the most selected perceived contributing factors.

When the categories of Sexual Violence, Sexual Harassment, Sexual Misconduct are grouped, Being a woman (75.5%) was the most selected perceived contributing factor. Age was selected in 14.3% of cases.

Demographic data

Please note, to avoid identification of individuals we have grouped categories where suitable or not published where the number in a category is less than 5.

Gender

Age

Sexual orientation

Ethnicity

Disability

Religion

Case outcomes

Number of cases per outcome

Reports are closed and marked with an outcome on the system, the table below details the outcomes of cases in this reporting period. Please note, some cases remain open and in some cases more than one outcome was selected.

Of the 171 reports which provided contact details, 84 requested to be referred to support services and 117 requested an investigation by Queen Mary. (It was possible to choose one or both options.) Incoming reports were triaged to the appropriate support in less than 1 working day (0.36 days).

30 reports were assigned to HR. The employee relations team in HR provide support for staff as well as investigations.

Reports from students are triaged to the Academic Appeals, Complaints and Conduct office and/or the Advice and Counselling service dependent on the outcome requested by the student.

• The Academic Appeals, Complaints and Conduct office were assigned 35 reports.
• The Advice and Counselling service were assigned 33 reports.
• Cases were referred to both the Academic Appeals, Complaints and Conduct Office and the Advice and Counselling service in 30 reports.
• 16 reports were assigned to the team within the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry for raising clinical concerns.

Project Evaluation

Training for students

This was the fourth year of providing the e-learning module on sexual consent, Consent Matters. Content was updated and re-launched for August 2023. Between August 2023 and 31st October 2023, 1697 students had completed the course, an increase of over 600 students from the 2021/22 academic year.

In September 2023 we launched a new micro-learning course, 'Harassment and Sexual Misconduct on Campus' for incoming undergraduates. The course covers key learning outcomes and behaviours regarding harassment & sexual misconduct, as well as where to report things and get support as needed, learners were also able to ask questions responded to by the Student Life team. The course was sent to 3,610 undergraduates. 74.3% (2,682) accessed the course, with 62.5% (2,256) fully completing the course.

In November 2022 we held an Allyship and Misogyny training for students, delivered by Tower Hamlets council.

In February 2023 we organised workshops for students on 'Combating sexual harassment and violence here in the UK' delivered by London Black Women's Project and a session on 'Body image, communication and pleasure' delivered by Positive East.

Training for staff

In December 2022 we held a training for staff on "Harmful Practices, so called ‘Honour’ based Violence and Forced Marriage" delivered by Tower Hamlets Council.

In August 2023 we held Domestic Abuse Awareness training for staff in Advice and Counselling delivered by Tender, a domestic abuse charity.

Report + Support briefing sessions were held for staff in the Wolfson Institute for Population Health and the William Harvey Research Institute in June 2023.

Awareness campaigns

• 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence (Nov 2022 - Dec 2022) - During the 16 days we held training for staff, workshops for students, a trauma-informed yoga session and stalls to raise awareness of local support services. We organised a consultation session inviting students to shape our responses to sexual violence and harassment.
• Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness week (Feb 2023) - During this week we held training for staff on responding to disclosures, organised workshops for students. We also held a set of stalls with sexual violence service providers.
• Hate Crime Awareness week (Oct 2023) - During this week we held an information stall for staff and students raising awareness of what Hate Crime is and how to access support and report it.
• In August 2023 we created new Report + Support campaign materials to highlight sexual assault and spiking.

Awareness of Report + Support

Our Report + Support webpages received 16,362 unique visits in this reporting period. This is a significant increase from the previous year (4,515). Links to our support articles 'Coercive Control in relationships' and 'What is homphobia, transphobia, biphobia and acephobia' were shared on third party websites which resulted in an increase in visits. Excluding these articles our total unique visits were 5,223.

For the first time we introduced a question in the survey sent to new students following Welcome week relating to Report + Support. 'During Welcome week did you hear about Report + Support?'. 56% of respondents agreed, 24% answered it did not happen, 13% don't know and 8% disagree. We held a stall to raise awareness of Report + Support during Welcome Week 2023 and worked with internal communications teams to ensure it is referred to in University communications for staff and students.

Action plan

This report is shared with the Preventing and Addressing Harassment and Sexual Misconduct working group (PHASE) and approved for publication by the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering group (EDISG).

Data and insights from this report are used by PHASE and the Policy & Campaigns Manager (Tackling Sexual Violence, Harassment and Hate Crime) to prioritise areas of work.

In the remainder of the 2023/2024 academic year we will be piloting our face to face workshops on Consent and Bystander Intervention and rolling out a second round of 'Harassment and Sexual Misconduct on Campus' for the students joining in January 2024.

We are working with colleagues in HR and Appeals, Complaints and Conduct to refresh and provide more detail on the processes that follow after they receive a report, in response to feedback on the need to provide more transparency on processes.

We will continue to work with colleagues in HR and The Appeals, Complaints and Conduct Office in our aim to include information on sanctions, in addition to case outcomes in future reports.

We welcome suggestions and feedback, please contact reportandsupport@qmul.ac.uk to share any thoughts.