Sexual Harassment at Work

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Employer 8-step guide: Preventing sexual harassment at work

Introduction

As a practice you have a responsibility to take proactive action to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

Under the Equality Act 2010 employers have a positive legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers.

This is called the preventative duty. If employers do not comply with it, they are breaking the law. The preventative duty is designed to improve workplace cultures by requiring employers to anticipate how sexual harassment might happen in their workplace and take proactive reasonable steps to prevent it happening.

New guidance around legal duty to prevent sexual harassment

Preventing sexual harassment, misogyny, and sexual misconduct in the workplace | NHS Employers

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published guidance about the new duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

The Worker Protection Act (amendment of Equality Act 2010) came into force on 26 October 2024 and changes the duty on employers from redress to prevention. This means all employers will be required to take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published a new 8-step employer guide and updated technical guidance about the new duty. These guides help employers to understand their legal responsibilities in relation to:

harassment, victimisation and the preventative duty
the steps they should take to prevent harassment and victimisation at work
what they should do if harassment or victimisation occurs.

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Employer 8-step guide: Preventing sexual harassment at work

Step 1: develop an effective anti-harassment policy

Step 2: engage your staff

Step 3: assess and take steps to reduce risk in your workplace

Step 4: reporting

Step 5: training

Step 6: what to do when a harassment complaint is made

Step 7: dealing with harassment by third parties

Step 8: monitor and evaluate your actions

The guides use examples to illustrate some of the practical steps employers of different sizes and types can take to eliminate harassment in the workplace.

Other resources

Please find an example of a risk assessment that you might find useful to adapt
NHS England has released a Sexual safety in healthcare – organisational charter which asks employers to commit to a zero-tolerance approach to any unwanted, inappropriate and/or harmful sexual behaviours towards our workforce.
Learn about NHS Project S, a campaign to improve working conditions in the NHS, focusing on discrimination and workplace safety, and particularly the safety of women working in healthcare.
Visit the Surviving in Scrubs web page to find out more about their campaign to end sexism, harassment and sexual assault within healthcare.
Read this blog from Dr Kathy McLean to understand why she believes all NHS boards must sign up to the NHS Sexual Safety Charter.
In 2023, the BMA launched a pledge to tackle gender discrimination in medicine. This followed a survey that showed a shocking 91 per cent of women doctor respondents in the UK had experienced sexism at work with 42 per cent feeling they could not report it.
Join the Health and Care Women Leaders Network, a free network for women in the NHS and broader health and social care sector. The network is a diverse community of talented professional women who connect through events, networking and shared learning.
Access the Health and Care LGBTQ+ Leaders Network’s latest infographic which highlights that that 19 per cent of bisexual NHS staff, and 15 per cent of transgender NHS staff, have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour from patients, relatives and visitors. It explores the growing LGBTQ+ staff experience gap, and actions you can take to support LGBTQ+ colleagues working across health and care.

For reference NHS England states that if employees need to report behaviour from a patient or member of the public then the process should be to speak to their line manager and use relevant policies e.g. safeguarding and violence and aggression policy which could result in warning the patient or reporting to the police.

Prevention of Sexual Harassment Action Plan

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