Comprehensive Single Source of Information
About this page
This is Results Consortium’s single comprehensive source of information on harassment and sexual misconduct, required by Office for Students Condition of Registration E6. It is the authoritative source. Where any other document says something different, this page applies.
Owner: Designated Safeguarding Lead. Last updated: September 2026. Next review: September 2027
Results Consortium is committed to creating a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for all members of our community. We do not tolerate any form of sexual harassment or misconduct. This page brings together everything you need in order to understand, report and get support. You do not have to make a formal complaint to receive support.
The full policy behind this page is the Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policy.
What are sexual harassment and sexual misconduct?
Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that violates someone’s dignity or creates a hostile, intimidating, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Sexual misconduct is broader and covers any sexual behaviour that is inappropriate, abusive or harmful, including sexual assault, coercion, stalking, grooming and the sharing of intimate images without consent.
Sexual harassment is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010. Harassment can also be an offence under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and sexual assault, rape and the sharing of intimate images without consent are criminal offences. Section 3 of the policy sets out the full definitions, and Appendix 1 gives examples of unacceptable behaviour.
What we do to prevent it
- Mandatory training for all staff and students, with role-specific training for those who handle disclosures, investigate or make decisions.
- A ban on intimate personal relationships between staff and currently enrolled students, with a confidential register of any declared pre-existing relationships and the safeguards put in place.
- Induction that covers behaviour, boundaries, reporting routes and support.
- Multiple reporting routes, including anonymous reporting, so nobody has to report to the person they are worried about.
- Interim protective measures while a case is being looked at, agreed by an Interim Measures Panel.
- Environmental investigations where several reports point to a problem in a particular area, so we deal with the culture and not only the individual case.
Expectations and standards
Intimate personal relationships between staff and students
Results Consortium prohibits romantic, sexual or intimate relationships between staff and currently enrolled students, because of the power imbalance and the risk to fairness, trust and academic integrity. The prohibition applies to all staff, including temporary and visiting staff, and regardless of age or consent.
Where a relationship already exists, for example a staff member’s partner enrols as a student, the staff member must tell their line manager and HR immediately. HR will put a written conflict-of-interest management plan in
place, which may change teaching, assessment, supervision or reporting lines, and will record the declaration on a confidential register. Failing to declare a relationship, or concealing one, is treated as misconduct. See section 5 of the policy.
Freedom of speech and academic freedom
We support lawful freedom of speech and academic freedom. Staff and students are free to explore, discuss and challenge ideas in a respectful and relevant academic context, and academic content delivered in that way is presumed not to be harassment or sexual misconduct.
That presumption does not cover content that is not relevant to the subject, is delivered in a deliberately provocative, discriminatory or targeted way, or causes serious and foreseeable harm without academic justification. Complaints involving academic content are assessed case by case. See section 11 of the policy.
Protection against retaliation
We do not tolerate retaliation against anyone who reports, supports a report or takes part in an investigation. That includes academic or professional disadvantage, exclusion, threats, intimidation, pressure to withdraw a complaint and negative treatment by peers or managers. Retaliation is a serious disciplinary matter and will be investigated in its own right. Tell your Student Welfare and Support Team, the Designated Safeguarding Lead or HR if you experience it.
Non-disclosure agreements
We do not use non-disclosure agreements in relation to harassment or sexual misconduct. We will never ask you to sign anything that stops you talking about what happened to you, and nothing in our processes prevents you from sharing your own experience with whoever you choose.
Ways to report or get help
There are four routes, and you can choose the one that feels safest. You do not have to make a formal complaint to get support, and there is no time limit for reporting: you can raise something that happened at any point, although a delay can affect what evidence is available.
1. Make an anonymous disclosure
Tell us what happened without starting a formal process. You can give your name or not. Either way, no investigation starts unless you choose it. Anonymous reports do not by themselves trigger proceedings, but they help us spot patterns and risks, and we will act if we identify a credible risk to others.
How to disclose:
- Complete the online reporting form on this page: fill in what you want to tell us, then select Submit Form. You do not have to give your name, and you can stop at any point.
- Or speak in confidence to a trained member of staff: your Student Welfare and Support Team, the Designated Safeguarding Lead, or HR if you are staff.
You choose whether to give your contact details. If you leave them out we cannot come back to you, but the disclosure is still recorded and still informs our risk assessments. All disclosures are reviewed promptly by the Designated Safeguarding Lead, your Student Welfare and Support Team or HR.
