Preventing and Addressing Harassment & Sexual Misconduct

Mountview’s commitment

Mountview is committed to creating a work / study environment free of harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. Mountview will not tolerate bullying, harassment, or discrimination of any kind. Allegations of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct will be taken seriously, investigated and, if appropriate, disciplinary action will be taken. Mountview will also not tolerate victimisation of a person for making allegations of bullying or harassment in good faith or supporting someone to make such a complaint.

Everyone in Mountview is responsible for ensuring that staff and students are treated with dignity and respect by discouraging any form of bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct, by making it clear that such behaviour is unacceptable and by reporting any incidents or matters of concern.

We want everyone to enjoy their time learning, training, and working at Mountview and we are committed to promoting an inclusive culture where everyone has the right to learn, work and socialise in an environment which is free from either bullying or harassment. Our document, Creating Culturally Safer Spaces in Dramatic Training, demonstrates our commitment to developing cultural competency in order to contribute to a culturally safer space, an environment where difference is viewed as a strength, where identity is not denied or erased, and where people feel able to participate fully both emotionally and physically.

Mountview aims to make a significant and credible difference in protecting students from harassment and sexual misconduct by ensuring that:

  • Students and staff receive relevant training
  • A suite of robust policies and procedures is in place, including clear processes around investigations
  • Students and staff know how to report any incidents of harassment or misconduct, either to themselves or to others
  • Support is available for anyone involved in an incident of harassment or misconduct

Training

All new students receive mandatory face-to-face consent training.  This takes place during the first week of each academic year.  

Online bystander training is available for all students.

Key staff (e.g. Personal Tutors, Student Services team) receive training in receiving disclosures about incidents of harassment and sexual misconduct. All staff receive training on issues around harassment and discrimination at regular development days.

Key policies, including policies around harassment and discrimination, are part of all staff members’ induction programme.

Designated staff members are trained Sexual Violence Liaison Officers (SVLOs), who are available to support anyone who has experienced an incident of sexual violence or misconduct.

Policies & procedures

Student policies around issues of harassment, discrimination and sexual misconduct are located on the HE policies page of the website and also on the Student SharePoint site. These include:

Bullying, Harassment and Misconduct Policy (215KB)

Creating Culturally Safer Spaces in Dramatic Training Guidance

Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Policy (208 KB)

Free Speech Code of Practice (291 KB)

Sexual Misconduct (265KB)

Non-Academic Concerns and Complaints Procedure (263KB)

Non-Academic Misconduct Policy & Procedure (330KB)

Staff-to-student Sexual Misconduct Policy (337KB)

Student Code of Conduct (181KB)

 

Staff policies are located on The Hub (staff SharePoint site).

Staff-Student Relationships

Unless already established prior to joining Mountview, romantic/sexual relationships – even when they are considered to be consensual by both parties – and business/commercial/financial relationships between staff and students are prohibited and will be treated as misconduct. Should an established relationship of this kind exist prior to either party joining Mountview, both parties must declare this through the appropriate channels. For staff members, this should be via the People & Culture Team and their line manager. Students should notify their personal tutor. Failure to declare a pre-existing relationship will result in disciplinary action being taken against the employee.

Relationships between members of staff and students must remain strictly professional and the ultimate responsibility for this lies with the member of staff.

For more details, current students should refer to the Staff-to-Student Sexual Misconduct Policy, available on the Student SharePoint site.

Reporting

All members of the Mountview community are strongly encouraged to disclose and/or report any behaviour which may amount to harassment, discrimination and/or sexual misconduct.

Students can report to any member of staff but in particular their Personal Tutor, Head of Course, the Student Welfare Manager, People & Culture team (if complaint is about a member of staff), any member of the Executive team, or the Principal. Reports can be made in person, over the phone or by email.

Mountview’s SVLOs are specially trained in responding to disclosures of sexual violence and can provide support to anyone who has experienced sexual violence or misconduct, wherever and whenever it occurred. The SVLOs can be contacted via [email protected].

Staff can report to their line manager, the People & Culture team, any member of the Executive team or the Principal.

Please refer to the relevant policy for details of formal reporting processes.

Mountview also has an Anonymous Reporting Form available online here. Users should be aware, however, that reporting anonymously does make it very hard to investigate any allegations fully and adequately, and Mountview would not be able to let the reporter know of any action that has been taken.

Support for students

Support is available to all students who have experienced bullying, harassment, or misconduct during their time at Mountview. Concerns can be discussed informally, or formally, with Personal Tutors, the Student Welfare Manager, and Heads of Course, and in cases where a formal complaint is submitted, both the reporting student and the responding party will be supported throughout the process. A student does not have to make a formal complaint to receive support.

The Mountview Counselling Service is able to provide short-term counselling support and information can be found on the Student Share Point or via the Student Welfare Manager.

The TalkCampus platform is available to download on smart phones, and provides 24/7 peer-to-peer support to all students using their Mountview email address.

Investigating disclosures and incidents

Where Mountview investigates an incident, we will make sure that the decisions reached are credible, fair, and reflect ‘principles of natural justice’. We will engage external investigators where we consider it appropriate and proportionate to do so.

Details of the investigatory process are given in the relevant policy document:

Non-Academic Misconduct Policy & Procedure (for student-to-student cases)

Staff-to-Student Sexual Misconduct Policy (for staff-to-student cases)

Staff Disciplinary Policy & Procedure (for staff-to-staff cases)

Handling information

We process personal data collected during any investigation or disciplinary procedure in accordance with our Data Protection Policy. In particular, data collected as part of an investigation or disciplinary procedure is held securely and accessed by, and disclosed to, individuals only for the purposes of conducting the investigation or disciplinary procedure. Any inappropriate access or disclosure of data should immediately be reported in accordance with our data protection policy as this constitutes a data protection breach. It may also constitute a disciplinary offence, which we will deal with under the appropriate disciplinary procedure.