In March, the Public Sector Commission published its first analysis exclusively involving Western Australia’s four public universities, Systems to prevent and manage the risk of sexual misconduct: An analysis at WA public universities.
This is part of our work in supporting public authorities to help prevent misconduct.
Following media reports in mid-2019 about sexual misconduct at Western Australian universities, we began looking at systems the universities used to control sexual misconduct risks. The University of Western Australia, Curtin University, Murdoch University and Edith Cowan University all participated.
Analysis found the systems to be mature in preventing and managing the risk of sexual misconduct by public officers. However, we need to guard against complacency.
A summary of suggestions we made to the universities included:
- Continue to remind staff of behaviour policies, their duty to report misconduct and the role of bystanders in challenging norms.
- Review behaviour policies for currency and adequacy including:
- clarifying no tolerance for sexual misconduct and possible sanctions
- ensuring consistent use of terminology for sexual misconduct
- clarifying obligations to notify minor misconduct to the Commission.
- Consider types of positions that may require police checks and the frequency of those checks.
- Emphasise compliance with codes of conduct in some position descriptions.
- Require acknowledgement of codes in some employment offers/contracts.
- Include more information about zero tolerance for sexual misconduct in inductions.
- Consider whether all staff are covered by induction programs.
- Consider how conduct expectations are made clear during staff performance reviews.
- Use surveys to assess staff awareness of policies and confidence to report.
- Emphasise misconduct risk and conduct expectations in strategic risk documents.
The analysis found it is critical to have a continued focus on communicating what types of behaviour should be reported by the university community and how such behaviours can be reported.
The same holds true for all public authorities and their unique integrity risks. Reporting of any integrity issues by staff, clients, suppliers and other stakeholders continues to be a key ‘first line defence’ to detect and prevent misconduct.
Not only do reporting pathways and processes need to be in place, available to all and well communicated, confidence in those processes must also be earned and built. There are several things authorities can do to build this confidence including:
- affirming that reports will be taken seriously and action will be taken where appropriate as a result of reports
- taking action that is timely, consistent and proportionate
- improving policy and practice as a result of investigating reports
- sharing lessons learnt from dealing with integrity matters, both with staff and stakeholders and for the purposes of continuous improvement.
Print this page
