Having a Welfare Focus
At a glance
Providers should recognise that students involved in an incident of harassment and/or sexual misconduct may experience trauma, because of that incident or connected to other life experiences.
Providers should support staff in developing their knowledge and understanding of a trauma-informed approach, proportionate to the role they undertake.
Providers should support all students involved in an incident of harassment and/or sexual misconduct by directing them to relevant sources of advice, guidance and support. Good quality support will include emotional, psychological and physical wellbeing as well as more practical elements (e.g. support with concerns around concerns around academic progress, financial status, immigration status, etc).
Providers should proactively consider how the interaction with other relevant procedures (including requests for additional consideration, academic appeals, fitness to study and fitness to practise processes) can be designed to reduce the number of times a student has to share sensitive information about harassment and/or sexual misconduct, and reduce administrative burden on all parties.
Where a reporting or responding person is both a student and a member of staff, providers may be able to identify whether the harassment and/or sexual misconduct that is reported took place clearly in a staff or student context. Where this is not easy to separate, providers may operate bespoke processes. Providers should document their reasons for the decisions they make about which processes to follow in individual instances.
57Students who have experienced or witnessed harassment and/or sexual misconduct may experience trauma as a result. Some reporting students may also be affected by trauma from another cause. Responding students may be affected by trauma from their own experiences.
58The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (‘SAMHSA’) defines trauma in this way: “Individual trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being”. The Survivors Trust uses this definition, “Trauma is the severe distress that occurs when someone is in real or perceived danger. It has a lasting effect on that person’s wellbeing and functioning and makes it hard to feel safe even when that danger has passed. Sexual abuse, harassment and bullying are recognised as major causes of trauma which can have devastating effects on the individual.”
59The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities explains in its Working definition of trauma-informed practice that, “the purpose of trauma-informed practice is not to treat trauma related difficulties, which is the role of trauma-specialist services and practitioners. Instead, it seeks to address the barriers that people affected by trauma can experience when accessing health and care services”.
60Providers should adopt a trauma-informed approach to responding to harassment and/or sexual misconduct disclosures and reports throughout the entirety of their process. Trauma-informed practice is a specialist skill set (1). Providers can decide the level of expertise in trauma-informed practice that it is proportionate to develop in-house and/or when it may be appropriate to use external support. As a baseline, providers should ensure that staff who are designated to receive disclosures and reports, staff who investigate reports, and staff who make decisions under formal disciplinary procedures, understand that trauma may affect how students engage with its processes. Responses to trauma are individualised and do not follow a set linear pathway to particular outcomes.
61There are several different frameworks that outline core principles of trauma-informed practice. Broadly these include:
a. prioritising the physical, psychological and emotional safety of individuals, including trying to prevent re-traumatisation
b. building trust in a process by being transparent about what can be done, what cannot be done and why, and by following through on actions that have been agreed
c. respecting the individual’s right to choose wherever possible, with the intention of supporting the individual to retain control of what happens to them
d. asking the individual what they need, listening to their views and working collaboratively
e. recognising the cultural context, including diversity and intersectionality, that informs an individual’s lived experiences and the organisation’s response
62Even where students have not experienced trauma, providers should treat students fairly and with kindness. The principles of compassionate communication can be a useful tool for providers to guide how they interact with students.
Ongoing support
63Students making disclosures or reports, students who experienced the behaviour being reported and responding students will all benefit from support. This may take the form of support that is focused on the student’s physical or emotional wellbeing. Support may also have a more procedural focus, including providing information about the provider’s processes and keeping a student up to date. It is not good practice for the same member of the provider’s staff to offer wellbeing support to both the reporting and responding students involved in a particular incident. It is good practice to keep a clear separation between providing wellbeing support to the students involved in an incident in any capacity, and reaching decisions about whether a student has breached the provider’s behavioural expectations in respect of that incident and whether to apply any penalties. A person carrying out investigatory or decision-making roles may be responsible for keeping students informed about that process including explaining different routes within a process, provided this does not amount to advising any student about their evidence.
64It is good practice to support students to access wellbeing services including counselling services. It is important that all students involved have someone they can talk to, especially where they may be asked not to talk to specific members of the provider’s community for a period to protect the integrity of an investigatory process (see paragraph 190).
65Providers should direct students to support services available, for example the SRB. Providers should be mindful that students may need advice and support related to other matters that have been affected by the incident of harassment and/or sexual misconduct that may not be within the provider’s control, for example accommodation or student finance. It is good practice to give students access to support and advice and, where it is not practicable to do so internally, providers should consider arranging for students to access support services at partner providers or signpost students to other local community services or national support groups.
Interaction with other procedures
66It is good practice to offer proactive advice and support to help students engage with other relevant processes within the provider. For example, it is likely that students who have experienced harassment and/or sexual misconduct may wish to seek additional time to complete work, to make a request for additional consideration of how their circumstances affected their academic work, or they may wish to seek some time away from their studies. Responding students may also experience distress, and precautionary measures may have impacted upon their ability to pursue their studies.
67Taking a trauma-informed approach includes minimising the need for students to give their account of events multiple times. It is also good practice to minimise administrative burden for students in distress. Providers may consider options such as waiving the requirement for a form to be filled in or allowing a person who is supporting them to make a submission on their behalf.
68It is good practice to take a flexible approach to the evidence that students are expected to provide when engaging with these kinds of processes. It is important to respect the confidential nature of the information. For example, a claim for additional consideration regarding a student’s academic performance might only need to state that a report of an experience of harassment and/or sexual misconduct has been made, that there has been a significant impact on the student’s wellbeing, and to state the duration of the impact. It is unlikely to be necessary for the claim to include details of what the student experienced.
69Responding students are also likely to have concerns about confidentiality, which is particularly important if no formal finding has (yet) been made under a disciplinary process. Again, it is unlikely to be necessary for a claim to include detailed information about the specific concerns that have been raised about how a student has behaved.
70Providers should also take a flexible approach to normal deadlines for students to engage with processes. A student’s ability to engage with academic appeal or additional consideration processes in a timely manner may be impacted by their experience of harassment and/or sexual misconduct.
71Where a student has made a report about a member of staff, they are likely to be very concerned about decisions that might be made by that individual or within the same department. Students may feel that it would not be safe to make a request for additional consideration if they would have to disclose the circumstances. Providers should ensure that their processes are flexible enough to allow for variation in what information is shared with the decision-maker in a request for additional consideration process, and when a decision-maker can be substituted. Providers should also consider how the fairness of other processes, such as marking of assessed work, can be assured.
(1) Trauma-Informed Wales: A Societal Approach to Understanding, Preventing and Supporting the Impacts of Trauma and Adversity includes a model that providers may find useful, making a distinction between being trauma-aware, trauma-skilled, trauma -enhanced and providing specialist interventions, with examples of “what does good look like” for each level.