What if I know about/am made aware of a relationship which is impacting on a colleague, team or student? Who do I tell/what should I do?
If the relationship is between a staff member and a student, you may raise concerns via the University’s Report & Support service. Where the relationship is between staff members, you may wish to speak with your line manager in the first instance (or another appropriate manager in your Institute/School/Department).
Before the new policy was introduced, I was already in a personal relationship. What do I need to do?
You should read the Staff and Students Personal Relationships Policy in full to understand if your relationships should be declared, not all personal relationships need to be declared.
If your relationship is one which needs declaring, speak to your manager, even if you have spoken to them about it previously. The policy places new responsibilities and actions on managers in relation to ensuring safeguards are in place where close and intimate personal relationships exist. You should have this conversation as soon as reasonably practical (and within 1 months of the introduction of the new policy).
A member of my team has told me that they are in a personal relationship with another colleague. What should I do next?
Not all relationships need to be declared, for example if the relationship does not create any real or perceived conflict of interest, exploitation, favouritism or bias to occur. Where a colleague tells you that this may be or is the case, you should ask them to complete the relevant Declaration Form and meet with them to discuss the declaration.
It is the responsibility of the manager to take action (where required) to ensure the relationship does not allow for real or perceived conflict of interest, exploitation, favouritism or bias to occur. Managers should read the Staff and Students Personal Relationships Policy in full to understand their responsibilities. Managers are reminded about their data protection obligations, including ensuring the confidentiality of information.
During the meeting you should:
- Consider and agree who else needs to know about the relationship and/or the alternative operational arrangements, including ensuring the other party is aware of the declaration.
- Discuss professional/personal boundaries and personal responsibility for behaviour with the individual(s).
- Put parameters in place where possible to mitigate against confidential information being shared due to the relationship.
- Discuss other potential impacts on the team and team members, and how to best mitigate these.
- Agree alternative operational arrangements as appropriate (and if required). Where a personal relationship exists between a line manager and a person for whom the line manager has responsibility, advice can be sought from HR&OD to agree and implement alternative arrangements (e.g. approval of leave/expenses, PDR, work allocation etc).
A member of my team has told me that they are in a personal relationship with a student. What should I do next?
Where an intimate personal relationship exists or develops between any staff member and a student, even if there is no direct academic or professional responsibilities, the staff member must declare the relationship. A close personal relationship that exists or develops between a staff member and student needs to be declared where the staff member has direct academic responsibilities or direct professional responsibilities for the student.
Where such situations exist, you should ask the colleague to complete the relevant Declaration Form and meet with them to discuss the declaration. It is the responsibility of the manager to take action (where required) to ensure the relationship does not allow for real or perceived conflict of interest, exploitation, favouritism or bias to occur. Managers should read the Staff and Students Personal Relationships Policy in full to understand their responsibilities. Managers are reminded about their data protection obligations, including ensuring the confidentiality of information.
Where a staff member has direct academic responsibilities or direct professional responsibilities for a student where a close or intimate personal relationship exists, the staff member must immediately stop this activity i.e. teaching, tutoring, assessing, pastoral welfare, supervising, mentoring, research, personal development, pastoral care (this list is not exhaustive). The student’s Head of School/Institute must be made aware of the declaration.
During the meeting you should:
- Consider and agree who else needs to know about the relationship and/or the alternative operational arrangements, including ensuring the other party is aware of the declaration.
- Discuss professional/personal boundaries and personal responsibility for behaviour with the individual
- Put parameters in place where possible to mitigate against confidential information being shared due to the relationship
- Agree alternative operational arrangements as appropriate (and if required)
There is specific guidance for where a declaration concerns a relationship between a postgraduate research student and their supervisor.
Who do I talk to if my relationship is with my manager?
You should talk to your manager’s manager or seek advice from HROD.
Does this policy apply to students who perform work for the University?
Yes. Students who are employed on teaching or research contracts, or who are engaged as casual workers alongside their studies are prohibited from having an intimate or close personal relationship with another student for whom they have direct academic or professional responsibility (e.g. supervising, pastoral care, assessment or marking responsibility).
The aim of the policy is to ensure that appropriate safeguards and processes are in place to prevent and protect staff and students from impropriety, bias, abuses of power, conflicts of interest, harassment and sexual misconduct (or allegations of these). Where students have a dual role as both a student and staff member, we would encourage them to speak to their line manager about any intimate or close personal relationships in the first instance.
What information will you hold about my relationship and how long will you hold it for?
The focus of the Declaration Form is on actions to prevent any safeguarding issues and to protect staff and students from impropriety, bias, abuses of power, conflicts of interest, harassment and sexual misconduct (or allegations of these).
Any Personal Data collected and processed in accordance with this policy will be processed by the University as described in the policy and as follows:
- The legal basis on which the Personal Data collected via the declarations made under this policy is ‘Public Task’. This lawful basis exists where we can demonstrate that we are carrying out the task in the public interest, in this case that is for the protection of both students and staff where there may be risks as described in this policy. We are also exercising our ‘official authority’. In this case the University is required to take appropriate and reasonable action to comply with relevant regulatory requirements from the Office for Students (OfS) Condition E6: Harassment and Sexual Misconduct.
- The information will be shared on a need-to-know basis with those internal individuals, schools, institutes or departments identified in this policy who reasonably need to be aware of the relevant information in order to assess and manage any risks associated with the declarations, including support for the affected staff and/or students.
- The data will be held in the relevant staff member(s) record identified in the declaration for 6 years after the termination of the employment contract.
I’m concerned that people may be ‘outed’ against their wishes because of compliance with this policy?
We would expect that the individuals within the relationship will discuss the requirements of the policy prior to declaring it. The policy is in place to prevent safeguarding issues and to protect staff and students from impropriety, bias, abuses of power, conflicts of interest, harassment and sexual misconduct (or allegations of these) in accordance with the OfS E6 Condition on Harassment and Sexual Misconduct. On balance, we consider the policy to be appropriate and proportionate.
If my manager changes, or I change job, do I need to let my new manager know about my relationship (or will information be passed to them)?
If the relationship is one that needs to be declared, this information should be passed onto the new manager as part of handover arrangements so that they are aware of the relationship and any action which is in place to prevent safeguarding issues and to protect staff and students from impropriety, bias, abuses of power, conflicts of interest, harassment and sexual misconduct (or allegations of these).
Where the new manager is as a result of you having changes roles, the manager will need to review the actions and identify if this is still appropriate given the new circumstances.
We would encourage employees to speak with their new manager about personal relationship in the first instance.
Who should I speak to if there has been a change to a personal relationship I needed to declare?
You should talk to your line manager (where appropriate), or another suitable manager, in the first instance, as they may need to discuss the change in circumstances confidentially with others who need to know. The manager will then need to contact the Employee Relations team within HROD at ! HROD Advisory so that the relevant staff member’s record can be updated.
Where staff are uncertain about whether they should declare a relationship, or where the circumstances concerning a previously declared relationship have changed, they should seek advice from their line manager in the first instance. Students should seek advice from their Head of School/Institute/Research Degrees.