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Summary of meetings

Here you will find a summary of the discussions at previous Preventing Sexual Misconduct Strategy Group meetings.

October 2017

  • SetÌýthe scene on pressing issues ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº faces for both staff and students
  • Reviewed current and upcoming actions including Student Support and Wellbeing Rape Crisis training, Zero Tolerance workshops led by ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Student Union and ‘Where do you draw the line?’ workshops led by the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team
  • Reviewed draft Terms of Reference
  • Two meetings to be held in November: 1. To progress work and 2. To have an inquiry where external groups would be invited to speak e.g. Rape Crisis.
  • Agreed to develop principles to underpin the work of strategy group.

November 6th 2017

  • Presentation by Fiona Ryland, Executive Director of HR on ‘The nature and scope of complaints dealt with by HR’.
  • Presentation by Rebecca Hitchens, Operations Coordinator, Rape Crisis South London on ‘A critique of ¹û¶³Ó°Ôºâ€™s policies and approaches from an advocacy perspective’.
  • Presentation from Vicki Baars, Strategy and Review Manager – Sexual Harassment Goldsmiths University on ‘Key Lessons learnt from Goldsmith’s Journey’.
  • Presentation from Fiona McClement, Acting Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion on ‘Report from best practice from US Universities’

November 27th 2017

  • Reviewed redrafted Terms of Reference
  • Case study on how a student complaint is dealt with by Lina Kamenova and Nick McGhee
  • Reviewed summary of recommendations that had emerged from previous meetings and develop a clear plan for 2018 to be presented by SMT.

March 2018

  • Terms of Reference were agreed (see published)
  • Full time post to lead this work had been agreed to by SMT and would be advertised around Easter.
  • Student services mapping exercise conducted to assess support offered and understand benefits and disadvantages of students accessing respective services.
  • Updated on HR including launching a new reporting tool, piloting a pool of external investigators and having a dedicated case management team.
  • Agreed for the need for a robust student policy.

July 2018

  • Preventing Sexual Misconduct Manager in post and provided an introduction and draft plan for the first year of work.
  • Advertised for Dignity at Work Advisors and PSM Manager would recruit, train and co-ordinate.
  • Agreed for the need of strategic approach to staff and student policy changes, including thorough consultation and working with the Unions .
  • Reviewed the principles that underpin the work of the Strategy Group.
  • Lessons from a recent Statute 18 case were shared noting the need for improved support and fair treatment within policy review.
  • Explored power dynamics within staff-student relationships and agreed to review the personal relationships code to address possible abuse of power.
  • Communications plan would be embedded into the institution-wide campaign ‘Full Stop’.

September 2018

  • Student policy sub-group met to review Harvard Policy and discuss current challenges in procedure.
  • Agreed that the launch date of ‘Report + Support’ would be delayed to incorporate students.
  • Working with Communications and Marketing to develop campaign videos for the ‘Full Stop’ campaign.
  • Eight ‘Taking the Lead’ have been scheduled to be delivered to Heads of Departments, HR Business Partners and Deans.
  • Specialist Rape Crisis full day training delivered to key staff and student facing roles.
  • 37 Dignity at Work Advisors through to training and to be supported by the PSM Manager.
  • Group reviewed Monash Universities Staff Student Relationships policy and discussed purpose of review and existing challenges.
  • Group to seek guidance from 1752 Group to see if there are model policies to review.

October 2018

  • Group discussed recent media coverage and reiterated the purpose of the group as a key strategic group to combat widespread and problematic cultures at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº.
  • Agreed to provide updates to ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº community on a regular basis now that many projects were underway and had support.
  • Sub-group to meet to discuss an overarching policy for staff and students on behaviour.
  • Pilot of ‘Report + Support’ in Faculty of MAPs to close by the end of January ready for institutional launch.
  • Launch for ‘Report + Support’ and ‘Full Stop’ campaign planned for late February 2019.
  • ‘Full Stop’ consultation to be conducted with staff and students to seek input on key priorities and challenges.
  • Evaluation framework to measure ‘Where do you draw the line?’ developed through Wellcome Trust grant.
  • Group provided comment on staff-student relationships policy draft and agreed to review Roehampton Policy.

December 2018

  • Group conducted a workshop on the definitions of bullying, harassment, sexual misconduct and consent.Ìý

​​​​​​​January 2019

  • Group reviewed a draft action plan for 2019, including the key objectives for the next year.Ìý
  • Agreed to develop a sub-group focusing on data collection to inform reporting and preventative work.Ìý
  • Group agreed to publish key objectives on website once agreed.Ìý