Bullying and Harrassment Policy

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What is bullying and harassment?

Bullying is any offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour. It involves the misuse of power and can make the person being bullied feel vulnerable, upset, humiliated, undermined or threatened.

Harassment is any unwanted physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct that has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. It may be persistent or a single incident.

 

We expect all participants involved in Bread funding to treat each other with dignity and respect. 

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What we expect from the shows we fund

When a show submits a funding application to us, they must confirm that the lead applicant has not had an allegation of bullying or harassment upheld against them for which there is either a current formal disciplinary warning or an active sanction.

If they have, we may reject the application. In such circumstances we encourage potential applicants to contact our co-presidents, in confidence, to discuss their situation before they apply.

It is the show’s responsibility to:

1. Have a policy in place that clearly sets out:

• the standards of behaviour it expects from cast and crew

• their procedure for responding to complaints, including a first point of contact.

The policy should be available to all members.

2. Make sure there is an equivalent policy in place at any sub-awardee organisation, if relevant. If this is a problem, contact us for advice.

3. Investigate allegations of bullying and harassment in an impartial, fair and timely manner. It must:

• protect the rights of all members involved

• take appropriate action.

4. Tell the Bread Committee when a formal investigation has been opened into an allegation of bullying or harassment. This should include a brief factual statement about the nature of the allegation. We reserve the right to ask for the name of the member whose conduct is being investigated, where we consider that we have a legitimate interest in doing so.

5. Contact the Bread Committee again when the investigation has been completed and any final appeal has been heard. This should confirm:

• if the allegation was upheld

• the findings of the investigation

• if any sanctions are being imposed.

 

Why we ask to be informed and what we do with this information

While we recognise that the requested disclosures under this policy may include personal data, we consider that we have a legitimate interest handling this data.

During the application stage, we need to be aware of upheld allegations or those currently under investigation, so that we can make responsible funding decisions. Informing us about an investigation will not affect how we process or review an application, but we may, for example, delay issuing a funding until an investigation is completed. This is to:

• reduce risk to the project and/or

• reduce the impact on other people who would be involved in the project

The information you send us at any point should not include:

• sensitive personal information or information relating to criminal offences or convictions

• personal details about other people, such as the person making the claim.

Any information you send to us will be handled in confidence and in accordance with data protection law requirements

 

Sanctions

If a show upholds a bullying or harassment allegation, we may apply our own sanctions. Sanctions may vary in length, depending on the seriousness of the case and any remedial action already in place.

These will be independent of any set by the organisation. We may:

• withdraw funding from the project. 

• temporarily or permanently restrict them from future funding applications 

We may apply sanctions against a project if we find that it has failed to:

• respond to a bullying and/or harassment complaint promptly and objectively

• keep us informed

 

How Bread handles allegations

Allegations of bullying and harassment should always be reported to the college of the person against whom the allegation is being made. It is the college’s responsibility to investigate, not ours. Alternatively, the ADC has now created its own reporting system here: https://www.adctheatre.com/report

If an allegation is made directly to a member of the Bread Committee rather than to the college, we will:

• first discuss the circumstances with the informant

• then tell an appropriate individual at the college if the informant is unwilling or unable to report the allegation directly to the college.

We will respect an informant’s anonymity, unless we have a legal obligation to reveal their identity. We will tell the informant if we are required to do this.

The college is then responsible for following its own allegation procedures.

We will reserve any judgement about an allegation until the investigation is complete. We will only provide information to our staff or external advisers on a need-to-know basis.

 

Resources:

 

For more information on University procedures and support in regards to reporting misconduct:

https://www.studentcomplaints.admin.cam.ac.uk/

For ADC Reporting: https://www.adctheatre.com/report

For resources collated by the Old Vag Club: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nYULLW9GUfiAmq81D11xLk079VkGcfoVa0cks7bptT8/edit?fbclid=IwAR3duXVS7WAmiEw0q2UGz9P58rYX9dK_7IByaRU5nb9d2Kgf44cND6kPAkM

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