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Why are universities being held to a different regulatory standard than other charities? Fun thread outlining our reponse to the @officestudents consultation on reportable events.
Most higher education institutions are 'exempt charities' which means they aren't regulated by the Charity Commission (but instead by the OfS). However, the Charity Commission's guidance on 'reportable events' requires more events to be reported to them than the OfS is proposing.
For example, the Charity Commission guidance states that 'an allegation that a trustee, staff member or volunteer has been sexually assaulted by another trustee, staff member or volunteer' should be a reportable event.
However, the same issue (involving students) in a university would be ‘not automatically reportable’ according to the OfS proposals, i.e. it appears to be up to the university’s discretion whether to report or not.
Even 'findings of a coroner where these relate to a student death and expose a systemic weakness in the provider’s management and governance arrangements' are not automatically reportable - they 'may' be reported, at the institution's discretion.
This is also at odds with the Office for Students’ proposed guidance that states that ‘a matter relating to the provider’s compliance with the Prevent duty as set out in the OfS’s monitoring guidance’ should always be reported to them
These proposals will negatively impact on women and LGBTQ+ students in universities, compared to other groups. This is because these students are more likely to be subject to sexual or gender-based violence while at university.
We propose that the Office for Students hold universities to the same standard as other charities, and follow the Charity Commission’s guidance on what to report.
We also want to know why the Office for Students is requiring universities to report on the Prevent duty while neglecting to monitor universities’ handling of sexual violence and harassment
Read more in our full response to the @officestudents consultation on reportable events - top link here: https://1752group.com/resources/
This response was co-authored with the wonderful @_HelenMott_ who noticed it was happening in the first place and spurred us into action.
