What is Report + Support?
Report + Support is an online tool developed by Culture Shift where staff and students can report issues of Bullying, Discrimination, Harassment, Sexual misconduct, etcetera anonymously or via contacting a student advisor by visiting https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/sscs/wellbeing/access/ . Report + Support is also home to information about internal and external support, policies and procedures.
Who can make a report?
Aberystwyth University students and staff can make a report through Report + Support. Visitors are encouraged to report complaints through the public complaints process.
What happens when someone makes an anonymous report?
The report will be viewed by one of the administrators, see below for a list of administrators.
The administrators will first review the report to identify any risks that relate to duty of care. If no immediate risk is identified, no further, direct action will be taken. If any identifiable information is provided, the administrator will then remove the identifiable information.
The information kept will be for trend analysis and inform proactive prevention.
What is the difference between anonymous and advisor reports?
Aberystwyth University does not know who has made an anonymous report, and therefore cannot reach out and provide support. Whereas if someone wants to receive support or consider informal or formal options to address a concern, they would make a named report and speak to an advisor.
What happens when someone wants to contact an advisor?
An advisor may be one of several members of staff trained to deal with a range of incidents. These staff members include, but are not limited it, Wellbeing Practitioners, Student Advisors, and Sexual Violence Liaison Officers. The administrators (see below), assign a case to the requested advisor. Each of the advisors are provided with a login and can only access cases that are assigned to them.
The advisor receives an email notification that a case has been assigned to them – no identifiable information is provided within this email alert. The advisor then logs into Report + Support to access information provided using their personal login details. The advisor then makes contact with the person who has made the report and they arrange a meeting to discuss the report.
What action does the University take from anonymous reports?
Information provided within anonymous reports will be used as statistical data to understand what is happening and to inform proactive prevention work. The Wellbeing Service will work with areas identified to address any concerning trends.
How will Aberystwyth University manage malicious complaints?
If a report is found to be malicious or vexatious, such reports will be addressed under existing student and staff procedures.
What does the University do with the data gathered from advisor reports?
The data collected from Report + Support is used to produce anonymised annual reports. These reports would include the number of cases, most reported types of harassment and location.
How secure is the data and information sent through the system?
Data held on Report + Support is GDPR compliant and further information about how data is collected and stored is outlined in the Privacy Notice. The system has been security tested by both the developer, Culture Shift, and by Aberystwyth University.
How long is data stored on the system?
We will only retain personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil purposes we collected it for. We will keep records of reports one year from case closure on the Report + Support system as outlined in the Privacy Notice. All personal data will be kept according to the Records Retention Schedule.