Keeping You Safe

Your wellbeing is our number one priority and we're committed to ensuring you can enjoy a safe night out in our venues.

Here's a rundown of the key mechanisms and processes we have in place to keep you safe:

Good Night Out Crew

As part of our work around student safety, we have a Good Night Out Crew who are on hand to ensure students have the support they need when attending evening events at the SU Venue and Medicine.

Whether this is mental health-related, physical injury, or as simple as helping them access lost property, finding the right queue or bringing up a complaint, the Good Night Out Crew are there to support you!

You’ll see them roaming the venue wearing pink hi-vis jackets, or you can find them in the pink tent at the venue entrance.

All staff are Mental Health First Aid trained to engage in open discussion, recognise triggers and signpost to the relevant support services both within the university and SU, as well as external services.

Anti-spiking measures

Our Stamp Out Spiking campaign is here to raise awareness and inform you about how we're tackling the issue with a range of anti-spiking measures.

The Union works closely with the University and the Police to prevent and reduce the impact of drugs on campus and part of this partnership involves the sharing of CCTV footage of incidents and pushing for prosecution where possible.

We have a number of initiatives that are aimed at helping to prevent drink spiking within our venues:

Anti-spiking products

We have a range of anti-spiking products, including Spikeys and StopTopps, in our venues, along with NightCap scrunchies available to purchase from the Union Shop.

DRUG TESTING KITS

We stock drug testing kits and these are available from the on-site medic at SU Venue events or from the Advice Centre the day after an event. The results from these kits will be used in a non-prejudicial way and should help to inform you of the next steps you need to take e.g. reporting a crime to the Police or the specific type of medical care required.

FIRST AID

Spiking test strips are available in our venues and a first aider/paramedic is always on-site to offer medical assistance should you need it. If you think that you or a friend may have been spiked, please immediately inform a member of the bar staff, Good Night Out Crew, or security team who will be able to assist you.

Security

Led by 2022/23 SU President, Maia Jarvis, last year we conducted a full review of our security service to ensure you feel safe and welcome in our venues. This culminated in the publication of a Student Insight Report which proposed a list of recommendations that we hope will have a positive impact on current and prospective students’ feelings of safety - both when attending events in our venues and with regard to our security team. 2023/24 SU President, Hannah Hockin, will continue to drive this work to ensure these recommendations are implemented across our three venues (SU Venue, Medicine, and The Packhorse) and with the current security team.

Read the report

Bag and person checks

As part of our security operation, we operate random bag and body searches. This is part of our ongoing commitment to stop banned and restricted substances from being brought into our venues.

Our guest policy

Students can bring a maximum of one guest to ticketed events taking place at the Union Venue and Medicine. For ticketed events, guest tickets must be purchased in advance of the event via a student account. Students are required to provide the name and date of birth of their guest at the point of purchase. Guests must arrive at the event with the student who has purchased their ticket and provide photographic proof of age ID. If the guest presented doesn't match the details provided, they will be denied entry to the venue.

As part of our Purchasing Terms & Conditions, students are responsible for their guests' behaviour while they are in the venue and may be given a sanction should they break the Code of Conduct.

Pubwatch

We are members of Pubwatch - a voluntary organisation that aims to achieve a safer drinking environment in all licensed premises throughout the UK.

The objectives of Pubwatch groups are:

• to tackle and prevent anti-social behaviour and criminal activity
• promote safe drinking environments for customers and secure working environments for staff
• improve communication and sharing of information between licensees

As part of our commitment to providing safe drinking premises, our Chief Operations Officer meets regularly with the licensing officer and local landlords to discuss problems and share best practice.

CCTV

We have a number of surveillance systems in our venues (this includes CCTV, body-worn video and dash cams) intended to be used for:

• Maintaining the security of property and premises, and preventing and investigating crime
• Maintaining high standards of health and safety, and the review and investigation of accidents and incidents within the premises
• Delivery of the four licensing objectives as defined within the Licensing Act 2003: prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; prevention of public nuisance; and protection of children from harm
• Insurance compliance and incident investigation

Find out more by reading our Surveillance Systems Policy.

Code of Conduct

All students must abide by the Licensed Operations Code of Conduct when attending our events. Any breaches of these rules will be dealt with immediately with details reported to the Venues Disciplinary Panel.

All events are subject to immediate closure where behaviour is not compliant with expected conduct.