Mental Health

The request was partially successful.

Dear Universities,

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information in regards to the mental heath resources at your university.

1. How many support service staff have been employed with a mental health remit (e.g. counselling, wellbeing) in each of the last 5 academic years. If a breakdown is not available for mental health staff, please provide a total for the closest possible category.

2. Budget for mental health support for each of the last 5 academic years, and where possible a breakdown on how that money is allocated, e.g. staff, marketing, equipment etc.

3. Number of students seeking mental health support in each of the last 5 academic years.

4. Average waiting time for mental health support in each of the last 5 academic years.

5. Any internal reports or reviews relating to mental health provision over the last 5 years.

Please provide the above information digitally, preferably in the form of an excel spreadsheet.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under your Section 16 obligations, as to how I can refine my request to be included in the scope of the Act.

In any case, if you can identify ways that my request could be refined please provide further advice and assistance to indicate this.

I look forward to your response within 20 working days, as stipulated by the Act.

If you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to clarify what I am asking for.

Yours faithfully,

Kirsty Card

Saladin Rospigliosi, Heythrop College

Dear Ms Card

 

Thank you for your enquiry. 

 

 

Heythrop College is to cease trading at the of January 2019: see the
notice on the front page of our website and
[1]http://www.heythrop.ac.uk/history.html

 

Our last full cohort of undergraduate students was admitted in September
2014 and our last cohort of taught postgraduates (full-time) in September
2016. 

 

There have been no students registered for study at Heythrop College in
2018/19.

 

The Student Support Manager was retained (part-time) until the end of
November 2018 to cover the maximum period during which students who were
registered in 2017/18 could submit appeals or complaints.  From 1 December
2018 onwards the College has had no Student Support Department.

 

In preparation for closure in just over one month’s time we have been
securely destroying various records, including those containing personal
data that no longer serve a business process and business process records
that have not been selected for the post closure archive.

 

Below is a similar request that we received earlier in the year and the
response.  This covers most of the areas included in your request and I
trust adequately meets your needs.

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled you can request a review by writing to me at the address below.

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at

  The Information Commissioner’s Office

  Wycliffe House

  Water Lane

  Wilmslow

  Cheshire

  SK9 5AF

  Telephone 0303 123 1113

  Website [2]www.ico.org.uk

 

Thank you again for your enquiry

 

Best wishes

 

Mr Saladin Rospigliosi

Director of Administration

Heythrop College

University of London

Kensington Square

W8 5HN

 

020 7795 4269

[3][email address]

[4]http://www.heythrop.ac.uk/

 

From: Saladin Rospigliosi

To: @bbc.co.uk>
Cc: Freedom of Information (FoI) Requests <[5][Heythrop College request email]>
Subject: Mental health services - Freedom of information request

 

Dear Ms

 

Thank you for your enquiry.

 

It may be helpful for you to know for context that Heythrop College is a
small institution, with fewer than 200 registered students in 2017/18. 
The College is to close shortly after the end of the current academic year
(see [6]http://www.heythrop.ac.uk/about-us/heyth...) and
has been ‘teaching out’ its remaining students for several years, with a
sharp decline in the student population each year since 2015/16. 

 

The answers to your questions are as follows:

 

1      1           We have a number of members of staff involved in
providing mental health support, including the Student Support Manager,
counsellors and a consultant psychiatrist.  Of these, only the counsellors
are fully dedicated to the provision of mental health care.  The Student
Support Manager’s responsibilities include the direct delivery of support
for students with mental health issues and the line management of the
counsellors and the consultant psychiatrist, but also a range of other
responsibilities.  The consultant psychiatrist’s responsibilities include
the direct delivery of support to students with mental health issues, but
also other responsibilities.  The data I have provided includes the
Student Support Manager, counsellors and the consultant psychiatrist.  We
do not hold data to show what portion of each individual’s time is
dedicated to assisting students with mental health.  The numbers (maximum
for each year) are shown below.  It may be worth noting that the increase
in the provision of counsellors in 2015/16 and 2016/17 was in recognition
of the additional pressures imposed on students in connection with the
College’s context and the teach out:

2012/13: Student Support Manager, Consultant Psychiatrist, 1 counsellor

2013/14: Student Support Manager, Consultant Psychiatrist, 1 counsellor

2015/16: Student Support Manager, Consultant Psychiatrist, 2 counsellors

2016/17: Student Support Manager, Consultant Psychiatrist, 2 counsellors

2017/18: Student Support Manager, Consultant Psychiatrist, 1 counsellors

 

 

  2 2 Student Support is the service tasked with helping students with
mental health issues.  Our chaplaincy also provides pastoral care.

 

3.       3 We do not have a separate budget line for the provision of
mental health support for students.  However, it may be helpful for you to
have some figures for recent expenditure on Student Support:  2012/13 -
£65,920; 2013/14 - £72,699; 2014/15 - £79,913; 2015/16 -  £88,010; 2016/17
- £85,068.

 

4-6 The number of students seeking support for mental health issues are as
follows

2012/13:    20

2013/14:    17

2014/15:    21

2015/16:    7

2016/17:    Fewer than 6

2017/18 up to 31/3/18: Fewer than 6

 

Section 40 of the FOIA

I can confirm that Heythrop College holds the information you requested.
However, I am withholding specific numbers where I have written ‘fewer
than six’.  I consider that the exemption under section 40(2) applies to
these, and consider that the public interest in maintaining the exemption
outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

For students, our provision is such that we do not need to operate a
waiting list.  Therefore we do not keep records of waiting times, but in
practice the longest period is likely to be two weeks.  No students have
been waiting to access services at year end.

 

7.            We do not hold records breaking down the data into the
categories set out in your question 7.  If we did, I think it is
reasonable to suppose that the numbers would be too small to examine
potential trends, and in most cases so small that the exemption under
section 40(2) would apply.

 

 

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled you can request a review by writing to me at the address below.

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at

  The Information Commissioner’s Office

  Wycliffe House

  Water Lane

  Wilmslow

  Cheshire

  SK9 5AF

  Telephone 0303 123 1113

  Website [7]www.ico.org.uk

 

Thank you again for your enquiry

 

Best wishes

 

               

           

Mr Saladin Rospigliosi

Director of Administration

Heythrop College

University of London

Kensington Square

W8 5HN

 

020 7795 4269

[8][email address]

[9]http://www.heythrop.ac.uk/

 

Sent: 27 March 2018 13:09
Subject: Mental health services - Freedom of information request

 

Hi

 

Please see my request for the information below which I’m submitting as a
formal request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FoI").

 

Could you please provide information for each year from 2012 to 2018 for
the following:

 

1. Number of staff assigned to assist students with mental health issues
or working within mental health in pastoral care departments – please
break down numbers of staff by job type eg therapist/counsellor

 

2. Details of the number and nature of university services to help
students with mental health issues ie counselling, psychologist,
therapists, peer support

 

3. Budgets for providing mental health support for students

 

4. Numbers of students seeking support for mental health issues - how many
students were still waiting to get treatment for mental health issues at
year end and how many accessed treatment during the year

 

6. How long on average a student had to wait before they were able to
access help

 

7. Please supply the following demographic information for students
seeking help - I have no interest in identifying individuals but would
like the total number of students within each category if it is not too
small to examine potential trends:

 

A.      Gender – male, female, other, trans

B.      Age

C.      Year of study ie first year, second year

D.      Course type ie undergrad, masters, PhD

E.       Was the student from a state school?

F.       Socio-economic background

 

Could you please send the requested information in a table in one tab of a
spreadsheet/Excel/.xlsx file/.csv file

 

If you can’t answer all of my questions and need further information,
please call me as soon as possible to discuss what information your
university has available on +44 (0)121 567 7057. 

 

Please acknowledge this FOI request by reply with a reference on receipt.

 

If the information requested is currently in the public domain, or if you
have published a similar response, please let me know where I can find it.
If you have published some of the requested information already but not
all of it, can you please send me what has already been published and fill
in the gaps by reply?

 

If you can’t provide all of this information, please send what information
you can in the spirit of Section 16 of FoI, to “provide advice and
assistance, so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do
so, to persons who propose to make, or have made requests for
information”.

 

Please send me the information by email with a summary of the information
I’ve requested.

 

I look forward to hearing from you promptly within the statutory time
limit of 20 working days from your receipt of this email.

 

Whilst writing, I take this opportunity to remind you of the Information
Commissioner's public statements, in which he has stated that there is a
"presumption of disclosure" under FoI.

 

Please note that if this request for FoI disclosure is refused, I reserve
the right to take up the matter with the Information Commissioner and/or
to pursue all legal avenues of appeal.  I trust this will not be
necessary.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Regards

 

 

BBC Local News Partnership

 

[10]http://www.bbc.co.uk/lnp/sdu

 

 

Heythrop College, University of London is a registered charity in England
and Wales Charity no. 312923

Heythrop College, University of London is a registered charity in England
and Wales Charity no. 312923

Heythrop College, University of London is a registered charity in England
and Wales Charity no. 312923

Heythrop College, University of London is a registered charity in England
and Wales Charity no. 312923

References

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