SUPPLEMENTARY PRIVACY NOTICE
Report + Support
Introduction
This privacy notice supplements the Enquirers, Applicants and Students and Employee Privacy notice provided by Birmingham City University (‘BCU’). If you are a student at BCU please read this privacy notice together with the Enquirers, Applicants and Students Notice. If you are a staff member please read the notice together with the Employee Notice.
This privacy notice relates specifically to BCU’s use of data in relation to the Report + Support tool.
1. What information will the University collect?
Reports by BCU staff and students can either be made anonymously or you can choose to provide your name. Information about how your data will be collected in both instances is set out below:
Anonymous reports
If a report is made anonymously you will not need to provide any personal data about yourself and BCU will not know who has made the report. BCU discourages the provision in anonymous reports of names or other information that could be used to identify a third party. If any such information is shared, BCU will be limited in the action it is able to take. Where we cannot take any action against individuals, we will use information that is reported anonymously in order to monitor trends and patterns in reported behaviour.
In some cases the University may be required to investigate reports made anonymously as part of our duty of care to act. For example, if an anonymous report is received naming a 3rd party who had allegedly been sexually harassing students, the University may be under a duty of care to act, regardless of whether the person making the complaint was named and/or wanted to be involved. For example, this could be because the University owes an ongoing duty of care to other students who could be affected or put at risk.
In addition, if an anonymous report was received about sexual harassment, but no 3rd party was named, we may again want to investigate as part of our duty of care to act and investigate with any details we have (e.g. we might know the department they are in). An investigation would only usually be undertaken where it is deemed necessary and essential due to a significant risk or ongoing duty of care which the University must act upon. When making such decisions, the University will carefully consider the safety and wellbeing of all potentially affected individuals, as well as considering your reasons for making the anonymous report.
Named reports
If a named rather than an anonymous report is made, we may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about the person making the report. This may include:
· Your name, contact details and other information about you such as your department/faculty (where applicable) and your age;
· ‘Special category’ personal data about you (this may include details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health etc.); an
· Detail regarding your experience of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct and other types of unacceptable behaviour.
We will also process the names and other details about third parties who are involved in the issues reported.
2. How we use your personal data
The purpose of the Report + Support tool is to allow staff and students to safely and, where appropriate, anonymously report any incidents of bullying, sexual assault, harassment and other types of unacceptable behaviour. The tool also allows for staff and students to report safeguarding concerns.
Reports are responded to by the administrator(s) or ‘assigned’ to one of a defined list of caseworkers as appropriate. The caseworkers are a small number of BCU staff predominantly within Mental Health & Wellbeing, but will include some HR staff so that staff cases can be assigned accordingly.
If you have chosen to provide your name a caseworker will then contact you to follow up on the report e.g. signpost to internal and external support services, discuss potential disciplinary action or advise on police reporting.
3. Who has access to the data?
A limited number of approved BCU staff will have access to the Report + Support tool.
BCU will only share your information outside of the University where necessary. For example, where matters reported raise safeguarding concerns, it may be necessary to contact third parties such as NHS mental health crisis teams or to arrange for a safe-and-well check by police.
Where criminal activity is reported, the reporting party would normally be advised to report to the police rather than the University making a report to the police. The University would only in exceptional circumstances report an alleged crime to the police contrary to the wishes of the reporting party. The circumstance in which a report by a University may be justified is if disclosure of the information is necessary to protect the reporting student (or others) from harm or to prevent a further crime taking place but, in deciding whether to make such a disclosure and in deciding what information to disclose, the University will take into account any potential harm that the unauthorised disclosure may cause to the reporting student. This assessment will be undertaken on a case-by-case basis and will depend on the circumstances of the matter.
4. Where will the data be stored?
The data will be held securely within the Report + Support tool. Your data will only be accessed by BCU staff unless there is a requirement to disclose information (see response to Q3)
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Version: 1.0
22/10/2020