When a student raises concerns about their physical or psychological safety due to the behaviour of someone else, the Student Life team, part of UEA Student Services, may carry out a risk assessment.
Risk Assessments Explained These can be completed after meeting with a student or when we receive information from a third party such a worried friend or from a UEA Security Report.
The document is a single place where factors such as these are recorded:
- The details of the students concerned
- An overview of the case
- An assessment of the contact that is being reported
- The personal safety of everyone concerned
- Any other relevant factors that we need to consider
Once the document has been completed it allows us to see what types of support the students concerned may benefit from.
The risk assessment is not static and will be reviewed at regular intervals determined by the Student Life Team. This might depend on any updates from the students involved or a concerned third-party, such as harmful and purposeful contact from someone ,or if anything changes regarding concerns surrounding their physical safety or mental health.
When is a Risk Assessment Carried Out A risk assessment is completed when a student raises concerns about their physical or psychological safety due to the behaviour of another student or external responder/situation. This could be reported by the student themselves which is the most common way but also if we receive third party information.
The Student Life team may do a risk assessment immediately after first meeting with a student, or at any point during the process of working with or supporting that student.
What happens after a Risk Assessment is Completed After a risk assessment is completed, it is used to identify potential areas of support for the students named within it. These areas of support are identified to reduce the risk to the physical and/or psychological safety of those named students.
Type of support You may hear the support being referred to as a risk mitigation tool. This is because the support is designed to mitigate or minimise the risk to the physical and/or psychological safety of those students named in the risk assessment.
There are many different types of support (risk mitigation) that can be put in place, and these will be bespoke to the case and students named within the risk assessment. Below is a list of some of the supportive measures to give you an idea:
- Referral/Signposting to other services within Student Services
- Referral/Signposting to other relevant external services
- An accommodation move if you live on campus
- A No Contact Order
- A ban from an on campus accommodation block
- Change of seminar/module groups
Can I request any of these supportive measures Risk mitigations like those in the list are recommendations that may come from a full risk assessment process that will be carried out by the Student Life Team. This is part of the support you may receive following your report of behaviours that have made you feel unsafe.
Risk mitigations cannot be issued at the immediate request of a student. A full risk assessment must be completed first and this risk assessment must indicate that some/one of these measures would mitigate some of the identified risks.
If you have concerns about your safety due to the behaviour of another student, please contact the Student Life team by submitting a Report & Support and an adviser can contact you to discuss the next steps.
How long do Risk Assessments last for Risk Assessments are not a static document and are reviewed on a regular basis. This means that you should tell us if the situation changes or develops, such as someone contacting you in a harmful and purposeful way or if anything changes regarding concerns surrounding your physical safety or mental health. This means that how the risk is mitigated can change and so different supportive measures may be implemented following a risk assessment review.