Summary of meetings

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

October 2017

• Set the scene on pressing issues UCL faces for both staff and students
• Reviewed current and upcoming actions including Student Support and Wellbeing Rape Crisis training, Zero Tolerance workshops led by UCL 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 6^th 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 UCL’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 27^th 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 UCL.
• Agreed to provide updates to UCL 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