Bar training > Chambers employees and workers

Anti-bullying and harassment training for non-regulated staff.

Built for clerks, administrators and other staff. Supports your duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment under the Worker Protection Act.
Aligned with the
Harman Review
Creates evidence of
"all reasonable steps"
Includes Bar Council Toolkit training elements
Supports compliance with the Worker Protection Act

Written for employed personnel.

Employees and workers are covered by the Worker Protection Act, not the BSB Conduct Rules. This programme carries the messaging an Employment Tribunal expects to see delivered, with staff-specific examples on contractual, policy and behavioural obligations. It also gives your people a clear view of the reporting routes and the support open to them.

The all reasonable steps duty.

Employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. From October 2026 the Employment Rights Act 2025 raises this to all reasonable steps and extends liability to harassment by third parties across all protected characteristics. EHRC guidance points to risk assessments, up-to-date policies and role-specific training as the evidence expected. Comprehensive gives you that evidence in depth. Foundation meets the baseline quickly.

Choose your level.

Comprehensive

£180 plus VAT

Per person
£150 plus VAT for 100 or more licenses
100 minutes | Six modules
For a deeper understanding and the evidence of all reasonable steps that a tribunal expects.

Foundation

£70 plus VAT

Per person
45 minutes | No CPD
For fast, essential awareness that meets the baseline quickly.
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Buying for barristers too? Add the barrister's programme to the same cart and check out once.

What does the Comprehensive Programme cover?

Six modules, 120 minutes, tailored throughout for barristers and pupils.

Module 1. Introduction (5 minutes)

  • Context: the culture of silence, untouchable perpetrators, fear of career damage and retaliation, low confidence in the complaints process.
  • Correcting myths on how the Equality Act and the Protection from Harassment Act apply.
  • The Harman Review and the Bar Council, BSB and judicial response: changing the culture of the Bar.
  • Flexible learning and module timings.

Module 2. Regulatory Safeguards (20 minutes)

  • The Commissioner for Conduct, role explained.
  • Talk to Spot: engaging the Commissioner, with a demonstration.
  • Talk to Spot's four-step process.
  • Useful to know: how the Commissioner decides whether a barrister or pupil's behaviour meets the serious misconduct threshold.
  • Why you have no personal duty to report to the BSB, and how Talk to Spot still supports you.
  • Who acts on your report, and how your chambers or employer procedure runs alongside it.
  • What else your Spot record can do.
  • Conduct Rule changes affecting the barristers and pupils you work with: target and confidant exemptions, the revised third-party threshold, the new definition of bullying.
  • Bar Council helpline and support services, open to all Bar personnel, not only regulated members.
  • The Institute of Barristers' Clerks Employee Assistance Programme.
  • A brief outline of the BSB Core Duties and Conduct Rules that govern the barristers and pupils around you.
  • The BSB direct reporting portal, with a demonstration.
  • The Victim Support helpline shown.
  • The JCIO portal for reporting judicial conduct.
  • Learning summary and quiz.

Module 3. Regulatory Safeguards (20 minutes)

  • Your contractual obligations: employment contract, statement of terms, staff handbook.
  • Standards of behaviour, expressed and implied.
  • Below-threshold behaviour: Bar Council Toolkit examples.

  • Workplace behaviour, equality and inclusion policies, and other policy areas: social media, IT, confidentiality, GDPR, intimate relationships.
  • What behaviour you can expect from others.
  • The Core Duties and Conduct Rules on bullying and harassment.
  • Learning summary and quiz.

Module 4. Regulatory Safeguards (20 minutes)

  • The definitions of bullying.
  • Where and when bullying happens at the Bar.
  • How bullying happens.
  • Types of bullying, with Bar-specific examples for employees and workers.
  • Common excuses and cultural defences, and how to respond to them.
  • Who is responsible for eliminating bullying, tailored for employees and workers.
  • A barrister and pupil's Core Duties and Conduct Rule obligations, a reminder.
  • Handling bullying if it happens to you: what to say, internal help, evidence, support, and the informal and formal reporting pathways.
  • Being an active bystander, zero tolerance, and the five Ds.
  • Consequences of a bullying finding, from warning to summary dismissal.
  • The benefits of calling out bullying.
  • Learning summary and quiz.

Module 5. Regulatory Safeguards (20 minutes)

  • How unlawful harassment related to a protected characteristic fits into discrimination.
  • The definition you need to know.
  • The seven protected characteristics.
  • What counts as unwanted conduct.
  • What "related to" means.
  • Purpose and effect.
  • Bar-specific visual examples of each protected characteristic.
  • Victimisation explained.
  • The detriments you might see at the Bar, tailored for employees and workers.
  • Employee and worker visual examples of unlawful harassment, victimisation and detriments.
  • Handling unlawful harassment if it happens to you.
  • Judicial harassment: informal and formal pathways.
  • Third-party harassment: Bar Council Toolkit guidance, how to handle it, what to say, support, evidence and all pathways.
  • Being an active bystander, a reminder.
  • The consequence for an employee or worker alleged or found to have unlawfully harassed someone.
  • Learning summary and quiz.

Module 6. Regulatory Safeguards (20 minutes)

  • How sexual harassment fits into discrimination.
  • What sexual harassment is.
  • What "less favourable treatment" means.
  • Less favourable treatment must relate to gender reassignment or sex, but conduct of a sexual nature does not have to relate to any protected characteristic.
  • Unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, with examples.
  • Victimisation, a reminder, and the employee and worker detriments you might see at the Bar.
  • Employee and worker visual examples of sexual harassment, less favourable treatment, victimisation and detriments.
  • Handling sexual harassment if it happens to you.
  • Third-party harassment: how to handle it.
  • Being an active bystander, a reminder.
  • The consequence of an allegation or finding of sexual harassment.
  • Sexual harassment as a hate crime.
  • Learning summary and quiz.

What does the Foundation Programme cover?

Foundation covers the same topics as Comprehensive in less depth across 40 to 45 minutes of learning.
  • Bar context and the Harman Review.
  • Regulatory safeguards and reporting routes: the Commissioner for Conduct, Talk to Spot, the reporting routes and support open to staff, why you have no personal duty to report to the BSB, judicial conduct reporting, and general reference to the BSB rules that govern the barristers around you.
  • Behavioural standards and policies: your contractual sources such as the employment contract, statement of terms and staff handbook, and the named workplace policies.
  • The law in essence: definitions of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment, the core legal tests summarised, key Bar examples, third-party harassment and hate crime.
  • Practical skills: being an active bystander and the five Ds, and the consequences of a finding against you.

How the training works.

  • Self-paced online video.
  • Interactive knowledge checks and quizzes.
  • A personal login to a secure platform.
  • A dashboard showing progress and completion.
  • Start, pause and resume at any time.
  • A time-stamped completion certificate.

Built by experts in bullying and harassment.

Julia Gidney, Founder, Wdidi

Founder Julia Gidney is a former leading employment law Partner at top UK firms and Group Head of People and Compliance for major international organisations, with more than 30 years front-line experience. Julia leads all Wdidi content and brings in recognised Bar experts to validate it.

Common questions.

Does this training satisfy the Worker Protection Act's all reasonable steps duty?

The Comprehensive Programme is built to support the all reasonable steps standard employers must meet under the Worker Protection Act. It carries the messaging an Employment Tribunal expects to see delivered on contractual, policy and behavioural obligations. Foundation meets the baseline quickly; Comprehensive gives you deeper evidence of that standard.

What does all reasonable steps mean?

Employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. From October 2026 the Employment Rights Act 2025 raises this to all reasonable steps and extends liability to harassment by third parties across all protected characteristics. EHRC guidance points to risk assessments, up-to-date policies and role-specific training as the evidence expected.

Why do staff need training separate from barristers?

Barristers and pupils are self-employed and regulated directly by the BSB, with different professional consequences for misconduct findings. Employees and workers are covered separately, by the Worker Protection Act rather than the BSB Conduct Rules. Because different laws apply, Wdidi runs two role-specific programmes rather than one course for both.

Is the training kept up to date as the rules change?

Yes. The platform supports real-time content updates. When the regulatory framework changes, whether Harman Review implementation, BSB Conduct Rules or Bar Council Toolkit guidance, the training is updated quickly.

Enrol your chambers employees.

Training barristers as well? See the programme for barristers and pupils.

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