Compliance with the new E6 condition of registration and beyond

Authors

Kay Renfrew, SUMS Associate Consultant

Kelly Prince, SUMS Associate Consultant

Helen Baird, SUMS Managing Consultant, who leads all our work in tackling harassment and sexual misconduct

And with thanks to Professor Graham Towl, SUMS Associate Consultant.

What works in tackling harassment and sexual misconduct?  

The Office for Students’ (OfS) Condition E6: Harassment and sexual misconduct comes into effect on 1 August 2025. It establishes a formal requirement for higher education providers in England to protect students from harassment and sexual misconduct. This includes having effective policies to prevent harassment and sexual misconduct, procedures to address this, and support for students affected.

Truly tackling harassment and sexual misconduct goes beyond compliance with the E6 condition however, requiring culture change and a whole institution approach. Providers should not overlook the importance of and the challenges in changing culture alongside regulations. We suggest the following aspects are important for providers to take into account.

Leadership

While not mentioned in the E6 conditions, strong leadership is a keystone of culture change and offers an opportunity to set expectations by modelling and prioritising safety, dignity and respect. By demonstrating, for example, the organisation’s values through visible actions, such as taking part in awareness raising campaigns, senior leaders can evidence their commitment in a practical way. Some senior leaders are already doing this, regardless of E6. At both an operational and strategic level, senior leadership should at least have oversight of the work being done across the institution; ultimately, the risk to student health and wellbeing sits with them. Practically speaking, they can help bring teams, functions and tasks together in a more strategic way.

Resourcing

The E6 condition states that “the provider must have the capacity and resources necessary to facilitate compliance with this condition” (E6.7). We realise that for providers there can be a disconnect between the priorities of budget holders and those of specialist staff working in this area. For the purposes of continuity and to make meaningful and long-lasting impact, this will require looking beyond the obvious resourcing requirements. For example, is thought being given to supporting the wellbeing of specialist staff working in the frontline in an area of work that can be challenging, stressful and require a considerable amount of emotional labour? Strong leadership and a whole institution approach can help understanding of how to prioritise resources and why.

Data

Complying with E6 requires changes to policies and systems, and the data implications of those changes, need to be considered. For example, there are considerations around how information is shared in relation to incidents and investigations. Providers will need to look at their data protection policies to ensure they can explain decisions made during investigations. Also, where providers decide against a straightforward ban on staff-student relationships, taking a discouragement route will have data and resourcing implications. To show that a non-ban route is making a significant and credible difference in protecting students from abuse of power, providers may require disclosure and to hold a register of relationships, in which case how will this be monitored, by who, and how will it be operationalised? Some funders (e.g. UKRI) require notification of upheld findings of misconduct against any personnel (staff and students) on projects they fund. Providers will need to ensure they have data, systems and policies in place to enable this.

Collaboration

One unintended consequence of the new condition may be that providers see tackling harassment and sexual misconduct as primarily a compliance issue, and as a result move away from the good work carried out through collaboration with student groups and partner organisations. Our work in this area has identified the importance of creating meaningful change through collaboration and partnerships, including locally and regionally, and in co-creation with students to develop policies, procedures, training and awareness raising campaigns that are relevant to diverse audiences, wide-reaching and impactful.

Making reporting ‘the new norm’

The new condition requires providers to set out how students, staff and anyone else can report behaviour which may amount to harassment or sexual misconduct. Examples given include signposting to information on how and where to report, providing a range of reporting mechanisms, and removing barriers to reporting.

Driving up reporting is essential both in responding to as well as preventing further misconduct. As SUMS associate Professor Graham Towl (a leading expert in addressing sexual violence at universities) puts it: “Making reporting the new norm should be the goal for our universities. Finding ways to encourage more students to come forward and report is essential. Doing so reduces the risk of further misconduct as it deters perpetrators”. Reporting also allows providers to provide educational adjustments and specialist support to students affected.

For these reasons, providers should also be looking at different ways of encouraging reporting. Examples include proactively encouraging students to report incidents through targeted awareness-raising campaigns, communicating that providers’ disciplinary proceedings are based on the civil threshold of the balance of probabilities, and being as transparent as possible in publishing the volume of incidents and outcomes on their websites. Doing so can make a huge difference in giving students the confidence needed to come forward and make reports. Ultimately, the ambition should be to reduce the prevalence of harassment and sexual misconduct on campus and in our society.

How can SUMS help?

The introduction of the new E6 Condition is a regulatory improvement. However, truly tackling harassment and sexual misconduct goes beyond compliance with the E6 condition and requires culture change and buy-in across the institution – from Boards of Governors, senior leaders and individual staff and students.

SUMS works in partnership with providers and the sector to build on what is in place and help providers exceed requirements. We know that providers are already doing good work to tackle harassment and sexual misconduct, and that there is an appetite to share knowledge and experience to build on good practice in the sector.

Our expert team can support you in:

• Reviewing and advising on your approaches to tackling harassment and sexual misconduct – including in assessing and advising on these in relation to the new E6 condition and good practice.
• Reviewing and re-developing strategy and policy, including to introduce trauma informed approaches and compassionate communications.
• Convening groups of our member and client institutions in round table discussions to allow the sharing of knowledge and issues faced, in a confidential, safe space.
• Investigating and advising on innovative approaches to addressing harassment and sexual misconduct, drawing on our knowledge of what works in the UK and internationally.
• Enhancing services and models to tackle serious non-academic misconduct, including investigations and disciplinary proceedings, and effective case management.
• Ongoing mentoring and critical friend support and advice within our member and client institutions to help implement and successfully embed change.

Find out more on our website here

Get in touch for more information about how we can support you. Email our experts at consulting@sums.ac.uk or fill in the form below.