Something found
When something was found
Six kinds of thing get called the same thing. The grading decides whether the outcome is proportionate.
Grading What You Found
Something happened. Before deciding what to do, establish precisely what kind of something, because the categories call for entirely different responses.
The Mistake That Looks Like Misconduct
The technical evidence for an error and for a deliberate act are frequently identical. What distinguishes them, and the cost of getting it wrong.
Proportionate Outcomes
The range of available responses is wider than most organisations use, and the two they default to are the extremes.
Dismissal and What It Requires
The most serious outcome, and the one where the quality of everything earlier in the process becomes visible.
Referral Outside the Organisation
Reporting a matter to a regulator, a professional body or the police changes who controls it. The decision should be made deliberately and rarely.
Recovery: Data, Access and Relationships
After a substantiated finding there is practical work: retrieving what left, closing what was open, and repairing what the case disturbed.
The Departure That Follows
Somebody is leaving at the end of a difficult process. Handling the exit badly turns a resolved case into a continuing one.