Other information you may find useful
What happens after you’ve contacted us
Our procedures for supporting you with your concern include what to expect when you raise a concern with us.
Raising a concern without revealing your identity
We consider all concerns equally, including complaints raised anonymously.
An anonymous complaint can be more difficult to investigate if we can’t get enough information from you to look into what happened, and we may not be able to progress this as a result. However, we’ll do all we can to get the information we need to move forward with a complaint.
Telling the police and other relevant bodies
Whether or not you go to the police is your choice. But if you’re thinking of doing so, you may find it helpful to speak to an Independent Sexual Violence Advocate (ISVA) who can explain the reporting process and support you to decide whether to inform the police.
When you contact us, we may ask you if you’ve reported your concern to the police in case there’s any information which is relevant to our investigation, but we’ll consider your concern whether you decide to inform the police or not.
There may however be times when the concern you’re raising with us is so serious that it may also be criminal in nature, for example, rape and sexual assault, and/or involve a safeguarding concern, for example, when a child or vulnerable adult has suffered, or is at risk of suffering, harm.
In these cases we may have a responsibility to share the concern with the police and/or social services ourselves if you haven’t done so. Before sharing the concern we will inform you of our intention and check any objections you may have to us disclosing this information.
Our work to tackle sexual misconduct
Following Sir Anthony Cooper’s review in 2017 of how we handled the case of a convicted paedophile, as well as our own review of cases from 1945 to 2016, we acknowledged there was still scope for improving the way we handle complaints about sexual misconduct and harassment. This led to a programme of work titled Embedding Learning from Sexual Abuse cases. Read the report on Embedding Learning from Sexual Abuse cases programme.
