We respect your privacy. Any information you disclose is confidential to the Student Wellbeing Services team. As a rule, we do not pass on personal information about you, including your attendance, to anyone outside the service (such as parents, tutors and placement staff).
There are certain exceptions:
- Where you give us express consent to disclose information (for example, talking to a GP, Community MH Team, The Zone, if you request an extenuating circumstances letter etc.).
- Where, in order to support you, we need to contact your GP or involve other University or external services. It is our practice that, wherever possible, we will discuss any such contact with you in advance and any information shared will be on a strictly ‘need-to-know’ basis.
- If you are admitted to hospital as a result of your mental health we will inform your faculty to ensure they are aware of the reason for your absence. The information shared will be minimal and on a need to know basis to ensure that you receive sensitive support when you return to university.
- Where the law requires us to break confidentiality (we are talking about serious crime such as terrorism and drug-trafficking, rather than misdemeanours).
- If you give us information that leads us to believe that you, or someone else, is at serious and/or imminent risk of harm then we may take steps to minimise this danger. This would include child protection or safeguarding issues. Any action would usually be discussed with you first. It is important to emphasise that no one will be told who does not need to know.
Fitness to practice
If you are training to be a doctor, dentist, nurse, teacher or social worker, the University also has a duty of care to the members of the public. In exceptional circumstances, where Student Wellbeing Services staff feel that the difficulties you are experiencing place people in your care at risk of harm, we would contact the relevant school to enable you to access additional and appropriate support, such as Occupational Health. You would be included in and supported through this process wherever possible.
Supervision
Student Wellbeing Services staff are required to receive professional clinical supervision for their work to ensure quality of practice. Your sessions, but not your identity, will be discussed in supervision which is confidential and undertaken with an experienced practitioner.
Record keeping and data protection
Record keeping and data protection
It's considered good practice for Student Wellbeing Services staff to keep records of their client work. If you use the service you will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement confirming you have received the data protection information and that you consent for us to keep details of your sessions; these records only contain brief and factual information. Information is held on a password protected database (we no longer keep paper records) and kept for a period of six years, at this point it will be deleted.
Access to notes
Under the terms of the current Data Protection Regulations (GDPR 2018), you have a right to access all notes kept on you. If those notes contain references to other individuals these may not be made available to you, as data protection is also granted to third parties.
If your file includes a letter or additional information from the person responsible for your clinical care, such as a GP or psychiatrist, consent from the relevant practitioner must be obtained before the correspondence is disclosed.
If you wish to see your file, you should put a request in writing to the Manager of Student Wellbeing Services,
Kelly Lewington
, giving at least ten days’ notice.
Complaints
Although we provide a high quality, professional service, if you feel we have fallen short of our high standards please raise this with the member of Student Wellbeing Services with whom you are linked. If you would like to speak to someone else you may always contact the Manager,
Kelly Lewington
. Any concern will be handled with sensitivity.
Although we provide a high quality, professional service, if you feel we have fallen short of our high standards please raise this with the member of Student Wellbeing Services with whom you are linked. If you would like to speak to someone else you may always contact the Manager,
Members of Student Wellbeing Services subscribe to their own relevant professional bodies. The counsellors abide by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Ethical Framework and are subject to the BACP Professional Conduct Procedure
Formal complaints should be addressed via the University’s student complaints procedure.
