REPORTING AND HANDLING WELFARE CONCERNS

Modified on Thu, 23 Jul at 2:58 PM

Reporting and Handling Welfare Concerns

Committee members of Clubs & Societies have a legal duty of care towards your members:

A legal duty to take reasonable care of your own health and safety*.
You must also take reasonable care not to put other people (fellow students, members of staff and members of the public) at risk by what you do or don't do in the course of your group activities.

IMPORTANT note regarding Health & Safety Accidents, Incidents & Near Misses

This article focuses on welfare concerns. For information on reporting accidents, incidents and near misses, please see this page instead.

Supporting students in distress/difficult circumstances

Handling welfare concerns could be challenging for both student leaders and the member(s) making the report. Find below some signposting resources and guidelines on what to do when a welfare concern arises:

1. Who should Clubs & Society committee members report concerns to?

Situation	Example	Your options
Emergency – I need help now	E.g., A student is physically attacking another person	See Emergency
Something has happened / a situation is escalating, and I want to tell someone or do something about it, and: If you don’t feel comfortable raising the issue with the person responsible	E.g., The welfare incident has occurred in an event last night	A. Raise an emerging concern or a formal allegation with ICU Complaints (link coming soon). You can speak to the Union Advice Service for support with this process, and they can explain the ICU Complaints Process and other options with the university. B. Report & Support (approx. 48-hour response time)
If you don’t feel comfortable raising the issue with the person responsible, and you need to contact someone out-of-hours.	E.g., It is 5pm on a Friday, and Club & Society activity is taking place the whole weekend. A club/society member is making another member uncomfortable. This has just been reported to you as a club/society committee member.	D. Call Security who will initiate any emergency call cascade to the most appropriate Union staff depending on severity.
If you feel comfortable explaining to the person responsible that their behavior is unacceptable		E. See Imperial’s Student Support’s Bullying and Harassment Advice for suggestions on how to approach the conversation Plus consider A. and B.
If your friend (or any other student) is not in immediate danger, but you are concerned about their wellbeing		See Worried about someone else?
I need advice OR I’m worried about potential risk with an event		You can choose to resolve this informally by raising a ticket with the Activities Team.
If none of the above describes your situation, you can reach out to ICU Activities Team via the ticketing portal

Emergency

In most cases, please contact the Security Control room via the SafeZone App or by calling us on 0207 589 1000 or 4444 (internal), who can then send valuable assistance to assess the situation, provide first aid and escalate if necessary.

In life-critical situations, it may be fastest to call 999 directly to get immediate medical advice and make sure to inform security on 0207 589 1000 or 4444 (internal), who can liaise with the emergency services.

For 24/7 mental health hotlines

The Listening Place
SHOUT
Samaritans

ICU Complaints

If you have a concern about the behaviour of a member during a student group activity, you can get in touch with icu.complaints@imperial.ac.uk to discuss your concerns.

Union Members, associate members and non-members of the Union (e.g. members of the public) can raise allegations of misconduct against Members or associate members. They can do this by emailing icu.complaints@imperial.ac.uk

It is helpful to include in your email the details of any incidents of concern, e.g. date, time, location of incidents/alleged misconduct, so that incidents can be looked into.

After a report is made to icu.complaints@imperial.ac.uk, a Complaints Officer reviews the report and confirms receipt. If there’s probable cause for investigation, an Investigation Report will be produced to summarise the facts of the allegation. The Investigating Officer will then make an initial judgement regarding the report to either:
1. Take no action, or
2. Investigate the incident and make a decision (aka 'Summary Procedure')
3. Refer the matter to a Union Disciplinary Panel (considered by a panel)
4. Make a referral to the University.

This is a mechanism for Members, Associate Members, or non-Members to raise allegations of misconduct against Members or Associate Members.
1. All Imperial students are, by default, members of ICU.

2. What can I do after an incident has happened and before a disciplinary action/outcome is announced?

If you’ve raised an allegation with the Union Complaints Officer and the situation has escalated since, or if there are questions you’ve forgotten to address during any initial meeting, you are strongly encouraged to reach out to the Union Complaints Officer.

Under what circumstances are measures put into place to separate the Reporting Party from the Responding Party?

University Policy: Once an investigation has been started with University Registry (I.e., once a formal complaint has been submitted), some measures might be put in place to separate the two parties concerned. This is guided by the University's Precautionary Action Protocol.

Union Policy: There are limited circumstances where the Union can suspend Union members from all union activities and spaces (or elements thereof) - these are: where there is a safeguarding concern; cases with police involvement; or at the request of the University. As "safeguarding concern" in this context has a specific meaning (i.e., concerning children and/or adults at risk), suspension of a Union member is typically only done at the request of the University. For this reason, the Union Complaints Officer will typically ask reporting student(s) if they feel comfortable reporting their concerns directly to student.disciplinary@imperial.ac.uk, copying in icu.complaints@imperial.ac.uk and stating that they are happy for the university to discuss the case with the Union.

Please note that there is a relatively high threshold for a full union suspension, based on an assessment of risk, under the University's Precautionary Action Protocol. The Union Complaints Officer will be happy to discuss this further with you.