Disclosing with personal details:
If you have disclosed an incident with your personal details, then you will be contacted by a member of the University’s Student Welfare and Wellbeing team (if you live in University Residences then you will normaly be contacted by staff in Residence Life).
If what you are disclosing relates to sexual violence and/or harassment then you will be asked if you'd like to be put in touch with a Sexual Violence Liaison Officer (SVLO).
When you meet with an adviser they will:
● Talk to you in more detail about the incident or concerns that you’re disclosing
● Discuss the support you need or would like to consider and help you to access this. This could include support relating to your physical health, mental health, sexual health (for example access to STI checks and contraceptive advice)
● Make a referral to external support services, if appropriate. For example, specialist sexual assault or domestic abuse organisations
● Provide further information about your formal reporting options, to the police and/or to the University (if the reported person is a University of Sheffield student or staff member).
The University has a number of resolution options which can be discussed with you. Further information about University Resolution Options.
At this initial stage, you do not have to make a formal report to either the Police or the University. We want to ensure that you have as much information as possible to make an informed choice about your reporting options. If you decide that you only want to access support from the University, and do not want to make a report, then you will not be pressured to do so.
There are however some specific circumstances where we may be required to disclose your personal information without your consent. More detailed information on the circumstances where we may have to share information.
If your disclosure relates to another student and you decide that you would like the University to consider taking action, then we will pass your details onto the University’s Student Resolution Service - who will contact you directly to provide further information.
Disclosing Anonymously
Anonymous disclosures are reviewed and triaged by the Safeguarding and Welfare Team (for students) and Human Resources (for staff). We may use the information provided to take action, where possible. While it’s unlikely that we can take forward a report against an individual with only an anonymous disclosure, we can share information with other teams and services and use this information it to identify patterns of behaviour. This may lead to actions including:
- collecting and preserving evidence (such as CCTV) should a named disclosure come in at a later date
- delivery of training to specific groups, for example a sports team or academic cohort
- alternative resolutions with individuals identified in multiple disclosures
- increased monitoring of locations/ buildings
- awareness / information campaigns
If you have disclosed anonymously then we will not be able to contact you directly in order to offer support, however, we strongly encourage you to read the support information available on Report + Support and on our Harassment and Sexual Misconduct webpages.
If at any point you would like to access further support you can submit a disclosure with your personal details via Report + Support.