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Please note the University is closed until Thursday 2nd January 2025 and your disclosure will not be read until the University reopens. A member of staff will respond to your disclosure as soon as possible on our return.

If you have an urgent concern or are in need of immediate support during this period, please contact University Security on 0114 222 4085 or where appropriate 999.

For anyone who has experienced sexual assault or rape, the South Yorkshire Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC), Hackenthorpe Lodge is open every day of the year with staff able to provide information and support.

You can choose to disclose anonymously via Report + Support, or to give your personal details. Your disclosure may relate to a concern which you personally experienced, a concern that you witnessed as a bystander, or a concern which you are reporting on behalf of either a colleague or student.

Disclosing giving your personal details: 

My disclosure is about a student If your disclosure relates to a student and you decide that you would like the University to consider initiating an investigation, we will pass your details onto the University’s Student Conduct and Appeals team - who will contact you directly to provide further information.  

My disclosure is about a staff member If you are making a disclosure about another member of staff, the information you provide will be directed to the relevant team within Human Resources.  An HR Adviser or Manager will contact you discreetly about your disclosure within 3 working days to discuss what happens next.  You can advise whether you prefer to communicate in person, by email or telephone etc and we will honour your preference wherever possible.  

My disclosure is about someone else (for example, a visitor, a contractor working on campus) Depending on who your disclosure is about, we will ensure that it is directed to the appropriate place for it to be addressed, such as Security, EFM.  

What happens next?  Depending on the nature of the disclosure you have made, HR may: 

  • Talk to you in more detail about the incident that you’re disclosing 
  • Discuss any support you may need and help you to access this
  • Signpost you to external support services, if appropriate
  • Provide further information about relevant University policies and procedures and your formal reporting options  
    • to the police (where appropriate)
    • and/or to the University (if the 'reported' person is a University of Sheffield student or member of staff).

 At this initial stage you do not have to make a formal report to either the Police (if relevant) or the University.  We want to ensure that you have as much information as possible to make an informed choice about your reporting options. If you decide that you only want to access support from the University, and do not want to make a formal report, then you will not be pressured to do so.  

Please be aware that if you make a report on behalf of a colleague, depending on the circumstances, we may also need to contact the person who experienced the behaviour to gain their consent to address concerns further.

Confidentiality and risk Information that you share will be treated confidentially and sensitively.  There may, however, be situations where we need to take action despite your wishes; we will always seek your co-operation with this and try to minimise the impact on you, but if we believe there is a risk to you, or someone else, we will take reasonable action to manage the risk and protect the relevant parties.  Depending on the circumstances of the report you are making, different policies and procedures may apply (e.g. grievance, Bullying, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct).  Where possible, concerns are dealt with informally in the first instance.  As a broad principle, there is likely to be a fact-finding investigation.  You will have the opportunity to set out your concerns and your version of events, and the reported person will separately have the opportunity to respond to the concerns and give their version.  An independent decision-maker will review the evidence and decide on any further action needed.  In some cases, the Police may also conduct an investigation. The University will only undertake an internal investigation where we are certain that it will not jeopardise any enquiries being made by the Police.  Occasionally, measures might need to be taken to limit interactions between individuals or the University based on assessed risks.  This does not imply any guilt and is only instigated to allow an investigation to take place. There is a need to balance your confidentiality with that of the person you are reporting.  In some cases, the final outcomes after the investigation may not be able to be shared with you.  For example, if the reported person was subsequently subject to action under the University’s staff Disciplinary policy.  

Disclosing Anonymously:

If you have disclosed anonymously then we will not be able to contact you directly in order to offer support, however we strongly encourage you to read the support information available on Report + Support. If your disclosure relates to Sexual violence/harassment then you may also find the support resources at www.consentcollective.com/sheffield helpful.  If at any point you would like to access further support you can submit a disclosure with your personal details via Report + Support.  

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There are two ways you can tell us what happened