Staff Guidance on Professional Boundaries

This guidance supports the Staff and Students Personal Relationships Policy and sets out the expectations for all staff in maintaining professional boundaries based on trust, confidence and equal treatment. 

Staff are described broadly and describes people who perform work on behalf of the University (paid or unpaid). This includes casual staff, postgraduate students conducting teaching, graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), honorary staff, emeritus staff as well as third parties (e.g. contractors). These examples are not exhaustive.

Students are described broadly and describe a person who is studying on any course arranged by or through the University, for example a taught undergraduate or postgraduate qualification, postgraduate research qualification, or apprenticeship qualification.

Guidance for Maintaining Professional Boundaries with Students

Relationships 

• Staff should not enter into friendships with students that may be seen as favouritism or special.
• Be clear with students that you are not in a position to offer complete confidentiality and that you may need to share disclosed information if the student is at risk.
• Staff should think carefully prior to socialising with students and never do so away from campus or a non-University event. Staff should avoid consuming alcohol in such settings. Where staff are invited to a social event by a student, they should discuss this and seek advice from their line manager.

Communications

• Staff should only use University email account, University telephone, University software and applications for communications with students.
• There are times when it may be impossible to use these communication methods. Staff should give careful consideration before giving their personal mobile phone number and have a clear rationale and justification for work purposes.
• Following difficult or contentious telephone calls, it may be beneficial to provide a summary of the conversation to the student University email account.
• Ensure contact is made during reasonable hours and times of the day.
• Write and communicate with students in a professional and business style.
• Avoid ‘banter’ recognising that it has the potential to easily be misinterpreted.

 In person contact  

• Staff should maintain an appropriate physical and emotional distance from students, even where a student may appear upset or distressed, signposting to the University’s Student Support services unless their role is specifically to provide such support.
• Staff may wish to consider meeting in one of the University cafés or meeting rooms.  However, ensure that meetings and discussions occur on campus or other University-approved premises only.
• Having open office hours can be good practice in managing the timing and frequency of meetings between colleagues and students.

Guidance for Maintaining Professional Boundaries with Staff

• Write and communicate with staff in a professional and business style.
• Avoid ‘banter’ recognising that it has the potential to easily be misinterpreted.
• Maintain an appropriate physical and emotional distance from other staff at work.
• Refer colleagues who require additional wellbeing support to appropriate University services e.g. the Employee Assistance Programme, Multifaith Chaplaincy or Occupational Health service.
• Avoid paying undue special attention to a particular member of staff.
• Only use University email accounts, telephone and internet access for work-related communications with staff to maintain professional communications and boundaries.
• Where possible, ensure that work meetings and discussions occur on campus or other appropriate premises.
• The Staff and Students Personal Relationships Policy applies in the workplace (whether onsite or remote) and in any setting outside the workplace which involves University staff or students, care should therefore be taken to ensure professional boundaries are maintained, especially where alcohol may be consumption.
• Ensure that work and business meetings occur on campus or other University-approved premises.
• Be aware that any email sent to a staff member about a colleague may be disclosed to them under the General Data Protection Regulations.
• Staff should ensure they have read and understood the University’s Dignity at Work and Code of Behaviour policies.

Definitions

Intimate personal relationship means a consensual relationship that involves either physical intimacy (including isolated or repeated sexual activity), romantic intimacy, or emotional intimacy.

Close personal relationship means a relationship where the parties are related, there is a financial dependence, a business/commercial relationship or a very close friendship. A very close friendship would be where the individuals are well-acquainted and engage frequently in activities together which are unrelated to work or study.

Conflict of interest is a situation in which someone cannot (or can be perceived not to be able to) make fair decisions, judgements or actions because it also impacts them personally or their personal interests (e.g. financially, romantic interests, family ties).

Abuse of power is where someone uses their position of power or authority in an unacceptable manner such as to exert influence, control or manipulate people.

Vulnerable adult is anyone over the age of 18 years who may be unable to protect themselves from abuse, harm or exploitation which may be due to factors such as illness, disability or other types of physical or mental impairment.

Position of trust is a legal term that refers to certain roles and settings where an adult has regular and direct contact with children, young people or adults at risk.

Consent to an intimate relationship is agreeing by choice and having the freedom and capacity to make that choice. The person seeking consent should always take steps to ensure that consent is freely given, that it is informed and recognises that it can be withdrawn at any time.

Staff and Students Personal Relationships FAQs

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.

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 do I talk to if my relationship is with my manager?

You should talk to your manager’s manager or seek advice