Frequently asked questions

Report + Support is an online tool developed by Culture Shift where staff and students can report issues of concern anonymously or by providing contact details enabling an adviser to contact them to discuss. Report + Support is also home to information about internal and external support, policies and procedures and campaigns. 

LSE students and staff can make a report through Report + Support. Visitors are encouraged to report complaints through the public complaints process.

The report will be viewed by one of the administrators (see below for a list of administrators). The administrators will first review the report to identify any risks that relate to duty of care. If no immediate risk is identified, no further, direct action will be taken. If any identifiable information is provided, the administrator will then remove the identifiable information.

The information kept will be for trend analysis and inform proactive prevention. 

LSE does not know who has made an anonymous report, and therefore cannot reach out and provide support. Whereas if someone wants to receive support or consider informal or formal options to address a concern, they would make a named report and speak to an adviser. 

What information will I be asked to share?

If you're not reporting anonymously, you will be asked to indicate if you're a student, staff member, alumni, or a member of the public.  You will be asked to give a description of what happened or is happening, this can be as brief or detailed as you like.  You will be asked if you think the behaviour was directed at you due to your sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion, age or class and, if appropriate, what action you would like us to consider taking.

What if I don't know the name of the person I want to report?

You can still make a report if you don't know the name of the person(s). Provide as much information as you can – this could include a description of how you know the person(s), for example, as a member of your class group, or someone you regularly see in the same place on campus / in halls.

Will the person I'm reporting be informed?

Your identity and your other personal data will be disclosed within LSE on a need-to-know basis only and will not be disclosed to any third parties without your consent unless there are legitimate reasons requiring us to do so – for example, where the information you have provided highlights a potential risk to an individual or relates to a possible criminal offence.  In these circumstances, we may disclose the information to the police and / or other members of staff within LSE.

What if I'm not sure if the matter is serious enough to report?

This is a common and natural response to experiences of bullying, harassment, hate incidents and sexual violence. If someone else’s behaviour has left you feeling uncomfortable, confused, threatened, scared or violated, then it is likely that what they did wasn’t okay. If you feel in any way that your experience was a form of discrimination, sexual violence or harassment we would invite you to make a report so that we can respond appropriately.

An adviser may be in student or staff facing/supporting role, which may include staff from Student Services or Human Resources (HR). The administrators (see below), assign a case to an appropriate adviser. Each of the advisers are provided with a login and can only access cases that are assigned to them.

The adviser receives an email notification that a case has been assigned to them – no identifiable information is provided within this email alert. The adviser then logs into Report + Support to access information provided using their personal login details. The adviser then makes contact with the person who has made the report and they arrange a meeting to discuss the report. 

Information provided within anonymous reports will be used as statistical data to understand what is happening and to inform proactive prevention work. The (roles or teams) will work with areas identified to address any concerning trends.

Does reporting to LSE mean that I shouldn't report to the police?

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 LSE student or staff member, you can also choose to report this to LSE through through Report + Support or by talking to a member of staff.  Reporting to the police and to LSE are entirely separate processes with different procedures and possible responses and outcomes. LSE staff and external organisations can support you in considering whether or not you want to report to the police and / or LSE. 

Is there a time limit on reporting?

There is no time limit for you to report any incident of sexual violence, discrimination, bullying or harassment that you experienced or witnessed.  LSE takes all reports extremely seriously and will investigate to the best of our ability, no matter when an incident took place. 

If a report is found to be malicious or vexatious, such reports will be addressed under existing student and staff procedures.

LSE will do trend analysis reporting and use this data to inform policy, support options and campaigns.

The data collected from Report + Support is used to produce anonymised annual reports. These reports may include the number of cases, most reported types of harassment and location. Data gathered from anonymous reports may also be used as part of annual reporting.

Data held on Report + Support is GDPR compliant and further information about how data is collected and stored is outlined in the Privacy Notice. The system has been security tested by both the developer, Culture Shift, and by LSE.  

We will only retain personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil purposes we collected it for. We will keep records of reports one year from case closure on the Report + Support system as outlined in the Privacy Notice. All personal data will be kept according to the Records Retention Schedule.

Head of HR Partners
Deputy Head of Student Services (Advice & Policy)