As part of the implementation of our Dignity and Respect policy, Sussex launched the Report + Support online tool for staff and students in August 2021. The tool, developed with input from our community at Sussex, provides the way to report behaviours such as bullying, harassment, a hate incident, sexual violence, domestic abuse or discrimination.
When we launched Report + Support we committed to sharing data on how our staff and students are using the tool every six months and to using that information to develop a full action plan twelve months after launch.
The first six month report on staff use of the tool has now been published on the Report and Support site. The report on student use will follow shortly.
Assistant Director HR: OD, Culture and Wellbeing, Sharon Neal said: "Thank you to all our staff who took part in the focus groups that helped us launch the Report + Support tool. This first data report gives us some invaluable initial insights into experience here at Sussex and supports our action planning.
"Please do take time to look at the data and share your thoughts on how we can improve our support for dignity and respect at Sussex by taking part in our next staff survey, due to be launched on 25th April, or by emailing your suggestions to reportandsupport@sussex.ac.uk."
The report about outlines that 46 reports were received from staff (26 anonymous and 20 with contact details offered). The reports covered a range of issues including:
- Bullying and harassment
- Discrimination
- Sexual violence and misconduct
- Hate incident or crime
- Stalking and harassment
The report also shares feedback on why some reporters chose to report anonymously.
The data summary includes information on the volume of work undertaken by the volunteer Dignity and Respect Champions' network. We have recently recruited three new members to the network.
The summary includes an interim action plan with a number of actions that the University has implemented. We will continue to work on these over the next six months, until we reach the first anniversary of the launch of Report + Support and produce the full action plan. These include:
- continuing to use our staff survey responses alongside Report + Support and Dignity and Respect data to deepen our understanding of experience and identify and implement prevention strategies
- making learning available to staff on when and how to be an active bystander or upstander
- making learning available to leaders and managers on their responsibilities when they witness disrespectful behaviours or hear them reported
For more information on dignity and respect see our web pages.