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Funding for Mental Health in Colleges AY21-22

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Dear North East Scotland College,

Under Freedom of Information Scotland, I wish to receive the following information within 20 working days:

1. Please provide details of the amount of additional funding allocated to you by Scottish Funding Council for Mental Health in Colleges for AY 21-22. For the avoidance of doubt, I am referring to the funding provided which was supplementary to the college’s core funds.
2. Please advise what proportion of these funds will be spent or is proposed to be spent on Support Staff/Lecturing Staff/Students. Please provide separate figures for each.
3. Please advise how the additional funds will be spent or are proposed to be spent on each separate group.
4. Please advise whether the recognised trade unions were consulted before submission of the document or on any subsequent decisions taken?

Yours faithfully,

John Gallacher

Kim Rattray, North East Scotland College

Dear Mr Gallacher,

 

Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information Request. Please see below
the response from North East Scotland College.

 

1.      Please provide details of the amount of additional funding
allocated to you by Scottish Funding Council for Mental Health in Colleges
for AY 21-22.  For the avoidance of doubt, I am referring to the funding
provided which was supplementary to the college’s core funds.

o See [1]Funding for Mental Health in colleges AY 2021-22.

2.      Please advise what proportion of these funds will be spent or is
proposed to be spent on Support Staff/Lecturing Staff/Students.  Please
provide separate figures for each.

·       It is expected that approximately 40% of the funding will be
allocated to create additional support staff roles (details as in first
bullet-point below), and the remaining 60% will be used to fund staff
training (support staff and lecturing staff) and other activities to
support delivery of our Wellbeing Strategy which is for all staff and
students.  

3.      Please advise how the additional funds will be spent or are
proposed to be spent on each separate group.

o Support Staff

o Extending and developing the posts of Student Wellbeing Adviser and
Student Engagement and Wellbeing Coordinator (created with previous
additional funding to support Student Mental Health and Wellbeing).
o Recruitment of another Student Wellbeing Adviser on a fixed term, 1
year contract.
o Consideration will be given to any additional staffing requirements
as we progress with our Wellbeing initiatives.
o Training to further upskill the Student Support Tutors, Mental
Health First Aiders and Safeguarding team.

o Lecturing staff

o Training to further upskill Academic Tutors in their role as first
point of contact for students and as part of our whole-college
support model.

o All staff (this activity covers a mix of support and lecturing staff)

o Training to develop the Wellbeing Ambassador role and develop a
peer-to-peer support programme.
o Introduction of Mental Health First Aiders for staff.
o Review and expand the support offered through our existing Employee
Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Provider
o Training on mental health to upskill staff to help them support
students but also for self-management and self-care strategies

o Students

o    NESCol is participating in a pilot with Upstream which is a survey
tool to identify youth led ideas for change. The survey will be tested
with an initial cohort of no more than 300 young people to identify risk
which will help ensure the right support provision at the right time,
enhancing these young people’s ability to sustain their positive
destination in college.  

o    Nightline provision is being discussed as a College sector via the
College Development Network groups and we will work closely with our local
Universities to explore any support service partnership opportunities.

o    All of the above work will support students.   

4.      Please advise whether the recognised trade unions were consulted
before submission of the document or on any       subsequent decisions
taken?

o To support implementation of our Wellbeing Strategy the College will
utilise two frameworks. The Framework for Supporting Student Wellbeing
was created in partnership with the Students' Association, and the
Framework for Supporting Staff Wellbeing in currently in progress and
will include consultation with our trade unions.

·         There was already consultation with the unions previously when
creating the Wellbeing Strategy.

 

North East Scotland College has a statutory duty to include details of
appeal rights in every FOI response. The Commissioner’s contact details
can be found at the following link -:
[2]www.itspublicknowledge.info/Appeal

 

Kind Regards

Kim

 

Kim Rattray

College Administration and Examinations Manager

North East Scotland College

Tel: 01224 612374

Email: [3]mailto:[NESCol request email]

 

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Dear Kim Rattray,

Can you please provide a response to question 1? The only reference I can see is "o See [1]Funding for Mental Health in colleges AY 2021-22."

Yours sincerely,

John Gallacher

Kim Rattray, North East Scotland College

Dear Mr Gallacher,

There was a link included in the email, I can only apologise that you could not access this. I have added the link below for you -:

https://www.sfc.ac.uk/publications-stati...

This link provides the information requested regarding the additional funding allocated to North East Scotland College for Mental Health and wellbeing support in colleges.

Kind Regards
Kim

Kim Rattray
College Administration and Examinations Manager
North East Scotland College
Tel: 01224 612374
Email: mailto:[NESCol request email]

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