1. What is Report and Support?
Report and Support is an online tool developed by Culture Shift. Our Report and Support tool enables current and former staff (UK, overseas and Units), students, alumni and others to safely report incidents of bullying, discrimination and harassment anonymously or with contact details.
Report and Support also provides information about internal and external support, policies and procedures.
Report and Support also provides information about internal and external support, policies and procedures.
2. Who is the Report and Support administrator?
Alex Hollander-Carney, Head of Legal and Compliance.
After a change in September 2023, reports submitted to Report and Support are ordinarily triaged by the Compliance team.
After a change in September 2023, reports submitted to Report and Support are ordinarily triaged by the Compliance team.
3. Who can make a report?
Anyone can make a report via the Report and Support tool. However, Distance Learning students wishing to raise a formal complaint should initially follow the University of London complaints procedure.
4. I have experienced or witnessed bullying or harassment - who can I speak to?
Reporting options (Summary)
Reporting options (Summary)
6. I have made a report - what happens next?
7. What happens when someone makes an anonymous report?
LSHTM’s Report and Support administrators (see q.2) will receive notification of the submitted report and will first review the report to identify any risks that relate to safeguarding and duty of care (see Duty of Care Guidance). If no immediate risk is identified, no further direct action will be taken. If any identifying information is provided, the administrator will remove this.
Anonymous data will be kept will be for trend analysis and to inform proactive prevention only.
Please see our Report and Support Confidentiality Note (Section 1. Anonymous reporting) for further information.
8. What is the difference between anonymous and advisor reports?
LSHTM will not know who has made an anonymous report, and therefore cannot reach out and provide direct support. If someone wants to receive support or consider informal or formal options to address a concern, they should make a named report and speak to an advisor.
9. What happens when someone wants to contact an advisor?
LSHTM’s Report and Support administrators (see q.2) will receive notification of the submitted report. After completing a review to identify any risks that relate to safeguarding and duty of care (see Duty of Care Guidance), the administrator will assign the case to the requested advisor. Reportees have the option to select which type of advisor they would like to be contacted by.
LSHTM’s Report and Support administrators (see q.2) will receive notification of the submitted report. After completing a review to identify any risks that relate to safeguarding and duty of care (see Duty of Care Guidance), the administrator will assign the case to the requested advisor. Reportees have the option to select which type of advisor they would like to be contacted by.
An ‘advisor’ includes a number of roles:
- Anti-bullying and harassment advisor
- HR partner – responsible for London-based staff and internationally employed MRC Unit staff
- MRC Unit HR manager – responsible for locally employed MRC Unit staff
- Student Support Services – responsible for student support
- Registry – responsible for the formal student complaints process
- Taught Programme Director - Taught Programme Directors have oversight of all taught programmes within your Faculty and are a point of contact for concerns relating to Masters degrees
- Faculty Research Degree Directors - Faculty Research Degree Directors have oversight of all research degree programmes within your Faculty and are a point of contact for relating to Research degrees.
- Taught Programme Director - Taught Programme Directors have oversight of all taught programmes within your Faculty and are a point of contact for concerns relating to Masters degrees
- Faculty Research Degree Directors - Faculty Research Degree Directors have oversight of all research degree programmes within your Faculty and are a point of contact for relating to Research degrees.
Advisors are provided with individual login details 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 identifying information is provided within this email alert.
The advisor logs into Report and Support to access the report and then makes contact with the reportee to arrange a meeting to discuss the report.
Please see our Report and Support Confidentiality Note (2. Named reporting (reporting with contact details)) for further information.
As noted above, Distance Learning students wishing to raise a formal complaint should initially follow the University of London complaints procedure.
10. How quickly can someone expect a response to an advisor report?
We aim for a response to be made within five working days. This is for an administrator to assign an advisor and the advisor to make contact.
11. What direct action can you take from anonymous reports?
No direct action will be taken unless a safeguarding risk has been identified – see question 4 above. Information provided within anonymous reports will be used as statistical data to understand what is happening and to inform proactive prevention work. The team managing the tool will work with areas identified to address any concerning trends.
12. How will LSHTM manage malicious complaints?
If a report is found to be malicious or vexatious, such reports will be addressed under existing student and staff procedures.
13. What do you do with the data gathered from anonymous reports?
The Legal and EDI teams will complete termly and annual analysis of reports. These will be provided to EDI committee, Senate and PEDIC.
Termly and annual analysis reports will also be made available on the Report and Support tool under Support / Policies and Guidance
14. What do you do with the data gathered from advisor reports?
Personal data contained in an advisor report will be used for the purposes of providing advice and support, and taking any other appropriate steps, in relation to the incident or behaviour reported in an individual case.
The individual-level data collected from Report and Support are aggregated and this aggregated data are used to produce anonymised termly and annual reports. These reports would include the number of cases, most reported types of harassment and location.
Further detailed information on how LSHTM processes personal data in the context of Report and Support is contained in the dedicated LSHTM Report and Support Privacy Notice.
15. How secure is the data and information sent through the system?
As required by the GDPR, LSHTM and the developer of Report and Support, Culture Shift, have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.
Report and Support has been security tested by Culture Shift and is periodically re-tested to maintain confidence in the application.
16. How long is data stored on the system?
We will only retain personal data for as long as necessary. All personal data will be kept according to the LSHTM Records Retention & Disposal Schedule.
17. How do I raise a formal student complaint?
If all informal efforts to resolve the issue have been unsuccessful or, in exceptional circumstances, where the issue warrants an immediate formal approach, the final option is to raise a formal complaint through the ‘Student Complaints Procedure’. To initiate the first formal stage of the Student Complaints Procedure, students should put the complaint in writing using the Student Complaints Form (doc) and send it to the studentcomplaints@lshtm.ac.uk.
18. How do I raise a whistleblowing concern?
LSHTM is committed to promoting an open environment where our community feel comfortable raising concerns about relevant laws and regulations, and/or if they consider something is unethical or potentially harmful. Please refer to our whistleblowing policy.
18. How do I raise a whistleblowing concern?
LSHTM is committed to promoting an open environment where our community feel comfortable raising concerns about relevant laws and regulations, and/or if they consider something is unethical or potentially harmful. Please refer to our whistleblowing policy.