How we keep you safe in our venues
Y Plas night club is one of the largest Students’ Union clubs in the UK. Each week, on average 8,000 students attend the popular club nights – we are proud that these events are a core part of the Cardiff student experience for a large proportion of the student body.
Supporting students to have fun in a safe manner will always be a fundamental part of how we organise and deliver events. As a not-for-profit venue, we invest heavily in safety initiatives which we have outlined below. In return, we require our attendees to help keep themselves and others in the club safe by playing their part to keep the student community safe and ensuring at all times, their behaviours in the club are in line with our code of practice.
Whilst serious incidents in our clubs are minimal, we are aware that damaging and, on occasion, harmful activity can still occur. We take all reports of inappropriate, harmful and unlawful behaviours incredibly seriously and want to encourage any student who experiences these types of behaviours to report it. Our staff and security team are on hand during events to handle complaints, if you do not feel comfortable reporting at the time, please see the reporting and accessing support section below.
Safety Initiatives
Cardiff Students’ Union has been working with local partners for many years to deliver other initiatives that will help to safeguard your personal safety at night. These initiatives are available for any Cardiff University student to use:
Safety Bus
We have partnered with South Wales Police to deliver the Cardiff Safety Bus. The bus patrols the city centre every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night and will provide help to anyone who needs it.
Private Medical Staff
During each club night event, we pay for private medically trained staff, with trained paramedics, to be in our venues to support with any medical issues that occur.
Safe Taxi Scheme
No matter where students are in Cardiff, you can get home safely with just your student card thanks to our Safe Taxi Scheme. We work in partnership with Dragon Taxis to help students get home safely without any cash. Find more information about the scheme here.
Drink Spiking Testing Kits
We take the personal safety of our attendees very seriously. Drink spiking with drugs is incredibly uncommon. Spiking by injection is even more uncommon. There has been a significant amount of media exposure contributing to a very real fear. Research however suggests that it is actually very rare.
If you believe you have been spiked in our venues, please report to a staff member who will alert the onsite paramedic for assistance. We have invested in drink testing kits to give you immediate testing options at our venues and would encourage any student who is concerned about themselves or a friend at our events to speak to a staff member to access one of these.
Please do not be hesitant of taking a spiking test kit in the Union, no action will be taken as a result of a positive test for drugs taken knowingly. Medical staff are employed for your safety.
Drink Toppers
All drinks are served with lids*. Bottle stops are available free of charge at all bars for anyone who wants added drink protection.
*Shot glasses don't have lids due to the size of the glass.
Security staff
We employ a large security team to ensure the safety of attendees at events. This includes several dedicated positions in observational roles to watch for, and act on, inappropriate behaviour.
Searches on Entry
We conduct random searches as a condition of entry. For occasional events, sniffer dogs are utilised to support the identification of illegal substances. We have a zero-tolerance approach to possession of drugs in our venues, those caught can face a lifetime ban to all events (club nights, gigs and external events) and we may report to the police.
Extensive CCTV and Body Cameras
We have invested heavily in a CCTV system that has over 300 cameras in operation across our venues. On top of this, many of our security staff will be wearing body cameras to support gaining footage of incidents where required to aide police investigations.
Staff Training Programme
We’re developing our staff training programme to include information about how to handle inappropriate behaviours and to spot signs of drink tampering.
These initiatives are regularly reviewed to understand the effectiveness and we welcome any feedback or improvement suggestions by emailing SUCustomerService@cardiff.ac.uk.
Student Behaviour Expectations
To ensure all our club night and event goers can enjoy themselves in a safe manner, we require all attendees to always behave in an appropriate and respectful manner. If behaviours fall short of our Code of Practice, you will be ejected from the venue and may face a venue exclusion/ban for periods ranging from four weeks to a permanent lifetime ban, we may also pass information about the incident on to the police or to the University complaints procedures.
Examples of activity that will not be tolerated in our venues and will result in persons being asked to leave the premises and likely to face a ban.
- Intimidating or abusive behaviour
- Sexual harrassment
- Pushing or shoving
- Violence or aggression of any kind
- Throwing bottles, cups or vessels, or intentional drinks throwing
- Horseplay (rough, boisterous behaviour)
- Failure to comply with a request of staff
- Possession of illegal substances and/ or spiking of others with illegal substances
- Possession of any kind of weapon
Length of bans and any subsequent action will be determined on a case by case basis depending on the specifics of the incident.
However, students and guests attending events are advised that the venue has an absolute zero tolerance to drugs, as well as abusive or aggressive behaviour to any members of staff.
Spiking
Read our new guidance below, developed in partnership with South-Wales Police.
Other information about our venues
Lost property
We experience a large volume of lost property handed in at our venues. Please do take care to look after your belongings and check them into our cloakroom if required. If you have lost an item please email SUCustomerService@cardiff.ac.uk and we will aim to identify and return your property as soon as possible. If you spot a phone, purse or belonging in our venues, please hand into security.
Queue Management
Due to the popularity of our events and our requirement to carry out checks as conditions of entry, you may be required to queue to gain access. Please be respectful of you fellow students and security staff when in queuing lanes. We want to get you to the dance floor as fast as possible!
Leaving our venues
Please leave our venues in a respectful manner and listen to instructions from security.
Reporting and accessing support
There are wide-ranging reporting and support services that are in place for students if incidents occur. This can be dependent on the nature of the incident and if you are looking for an investigation to take place or wanting to give feedback on the service or event.
Reporting
Would you like to report what has happened to South Wales Police? If this is the right option for you, please find ways to contact the police below:
You can report anything suspicious, or any situation that makes you concerned about your safety or the safety of others. You can contact South Wales Police on 101 or contact the emergency services on 999 if you think you are in immediate danger. You can also report an incident to South Wales Police online:
If you have experienced any kind of violence, abuse, or unacceptable behaviour and you would like support, we can help. Please find some related support links below.
Feedback on our services
If you have any suggestions or improvements on the running of our services, please do get in touch with our customer services team who will be able to pass you onto our relevant teams.
Email: SUCustomerService@cardiff.ac.uk