Reporting An Incident

Guide to reporting an incident

Guide to reporting an incident

This guide has been designed to provide information on the University’s incident reporting process. 

The incident reporting process has been set up to provide a confidential route to report an incident or concern of harassment, bullying, or other inappropriate behaviour.  This could be an incident that you have witnessed or an incident against yourself, either on or off campus.

Please note that this process is for non-emergency reports.  Security can be reached at any time at the following:

  • General Enquiries: Internal: 2106 External: 01902 322106
  • In an Emergency:  Internal: 5555 External: 01902 322106

If you are in immediate danger, then please call 999 for the police

Students or staff members can report directly by completing this pro-forma.  Once you submit the form, it will be automatically sent to a confidential mailbox here.

Incidents including bullying; harassment; discrimination; stalking (in person or online); controlling or coercive behaviour; domestic violence or abuse; hate incident or hate crime; micro-aggression; physical violence or sexual assault can all be reported. 

Definitions are provided in a webpage for information, but you will have the option to select “not sure” if you are unsure of the incident type.

There are two ways to report an incident or concern using the web form:

  1. An anonymous report: If a report is made anonymously, the information may trigger an investigation and may be used for investigative purposes, but due to the anonymity of the report, the University will not be able to identify or contact you and the investigation may be limited. 
  2. A full disclosure: By providing contact details rather than reporting anonymously, the University will be able to provide the staff member or student with information on support options, internal and external to the University, and will direct the staff member or student on how to take the informal or formal complaint forward.

The reporting form will ask you to share some information about the experience(s) you are reporting. This includes:

  • Your contact details, which will enable the University to provide you with information on support options, internal and external to the University and will direct you on how to take the informal or formal complaint forward.
  • The type of incident (e.g. harassment, bullying, intimidating behaviour etc)
  • Where the incident took place, as well as the time and date (if you are able to confirm).
  • Whether you think the behaviour was directed at you (or the individual, if you witnessed the incident) due for any particular reason, including, your age, disability (including hidden disabilities and mental health), gender identity, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity leave, race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion (belief or lack of religion/belief) sex, sexual orientation.
  • If you wish, you can provide a brief description of what happened. This can be as much or as little as you want and feel able to share.

Information provided is stored centrally and securely with the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team.  Your report and contact details will be kept strictly confidential. 

If have ticked the box to confirm that you consent to your form being issued to the relevant department, because you would like your report to be investigated and receive support, then it  will be sent to a case worker either in Human Resources if you are a staff member or Student Services if you are a student.

If you have not provided your consent for further processing, then a member of the EDI team staff will contact you if you have provided contact details, within two working days to check whether you would like any action to be taken with your form. You do not have to respond to this request, but if you do, it will help the staff member to signpost you to the relevant support.

Any information you disclose is confidential. Any specific information you provide will remain confidential, and will not be passed on to anyone else without your permission.  If you would like a staff member’s support in liaising with University departments or third parties, we will only do so with your consent. 

If you provide information which indicates an unacceptable risk to an individual or the University, we may need to share this information with relevant partners in line with our safeguarding processes under our duty of care. For example:

  • Where the information you have provided highlights a potential risk to an individual or yourself, then we may take steps to minimise this danger.
  • Where the law requires us to break confidentiality, (e.g. the incident relates to a possible criminal offence) we may disclose the information to the police and/or other members of staff within the University.

Anonymised reports on the data received will be considered by the Universities Equality and Diversity Committees and will be used to build our understanding of what is happening at the University, identify patterns and trends in the experiences reported and inform the University’s approach to harassment and bullying. 

To enable the University to monitor diversity, the protected characteristics relating to the staff member or student submitting the report will be recorded, with their permission.  No names or other identifying information will be included in the data that we use for these reporting purposes.

We will respond within two working days of submission of your form to the report and support mailbox.  The information provided in this form will be kept confidential and stored securely.

If you are in an emergency and need an urgent response or support, then please see the list of emergency support contacts on page 1 of this guidance.

What if an incident happens in the evening or at a weekend?

  • If the incident is a non-emergency you can send the report to equality@wlv.ac.uk and it will be dealt with during normal working hours (9.00-5.00) Monday to Friday.
  • If you wish to speak to someone, you can call the Samaritans free on 116 123 or email them at jo@samaritans.org

Any experience of sexual violence, harassment or hate crime can be reported to the police. If the person who behaved abusively to you is another student or staff member, you can also choose to report this to the University through the incident report form and follow the steps described above. 

Reporting to the police and to the University of Wolverhampton are separate processes with different procedures and possible responses and outcomes. The University of Wolverhampton staff and external organisations can support you in considering whether or not you want to report to the police and/or the University. 

Staff members may report for themselves or offer support to a student or a colleague. 

Employees may use the web based form to raise a concern or complaint informally, as an alternative to the informal route of the Dignity at Work and Study Policy.  A report may also lead to a formal complaint being instigated, following a recommendation from Human Resources and the employee’s agreement. If such a recommendation is not made, then employees retain the right to raise a formal complaint, as outlined in the Dignity at Work and Study policy.

You can find out more about bullying and harassment by reading our guide to the definitions of harassment.

Incident Reporting Form

Submit An Incident Via Our Confidential Reporting Form If The Form Is Not Working Please Contact EDI Team