College Counselling Provision

The request was successful.

Alice Gilderdale

Dear Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,

This is a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Could you please provide the following information:

In this FOI, when describing an ‘external Counselling provider’, this refers to any Counsellor who is not hired through the University’s Counselling Service.

1 - How many Counsellors does the College hire from an external Counselling provider to provide counselling or therapy for students during full term time?

2 - The name of the agency or company which the College is hiring Counsellors from.

3 - The hours of counselling the college hires external counsellors for during a week of full term.

4 - The skills or qualifications each of the College’s counsellors have and to what level.

5 - Does the College provide any other therapy or mental health support further to Counselling for students in the college for example nurses, therapists etc? Please list any.

6 - The skills or qualifications any of these employees hold and to what level.

7 - How many Counsellors does the college hire through the University’s Counselling Service?

If you are to invoke Section 43 to withhold information in relation to any of these questions please note you must provide details of the exact FOIA exemption, details of who would be prejudiced by this information, and a public interest test justifying a conclusion with arguments for and against the release of the information.

If you are to invoke Section 12 to withhold information in relation to any of these questions please provide details of how locating, retrieving and extracting this information would exceed the appropriate limit of £450 as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Please also be aware of your duty under section 16 (1) of the Act to advise and assist me in narrowing my request to bring it within the appropriate limit.

In its guidance the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said that the requirement to respond 'promptly' and the requirement to respond no later than 20 working days were to be considered as separate obligations. Public bodies should be able to justify why it took them as long as 20 days to respond to requests in cases where they do not act more promptly than that "long stop" deadline. I look forward to receiving your response in the next 20 working days. If you are unable to provide a response in the next 20 working days please provide an updated timeline by the deadline 20th May.

Thank you very much for your assistance with this request. If you would like any clarification on the information I have asked for, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Please confirm you have received this email, provide the reference number of the request, and give the date you will respond on or before.

Yours faithfully,

Alice Gilderdale

CAIUS Senior Bursar, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Dear Alice,

I write to acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information request. The answers to your questions are as follows:

1 - How many Counsellors does the College hire from an external Counselling provider to provide counselling or therapy for students during full term time? *The college does not hire external counsellors. It does use the services of a counselling firm called JHD. It has plans to employ a counsellor but this would not be 'external'*

2 - The name of the agency or company which the College is hiring Counsellors from. *See answer to 1*

3 - The hours of counselling the college hires external counsellors for during a week of full term. *We do not hire external counsellors. We use the services of an external counselling firm. No calculation is done of hours*

4 - The skills or qualifications each of the College’s counsellors have and to what level. *See answers to 5 and 6.*

5 - Does the College provide any other therapy or mental health support further to Counselling for students in the college for example nurses, therapists etc? Please list any. *The college employs two nurses each of whom can and does provide a variety of such services according to the medical issues which the students present.*

6 - The skills or qualifications any of these employees hold and to what level. *This is personal information and exempt under section 40(3)*

7 - How many Counsellors does the college hire through the University’s Counselling Service? *No information. The college does not hire counsellors from UCS nor does it receive, when students use the UCS, information on the number of different counsellors this gives rise to being used at the UCS. The college does not participate in the arrangements the UCS has with certain colleges where they fund particular counsellors for use in the college. Instead the college retains nursing staff and has plans to employ a counsellor.*

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of this decision, you should write to the Senior Bursar, Gonville & Caius College, Trinity Street, Cambridge, CB2 1TA who will then assign an appropriate person to conduct the internal review. If subsequently you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the College. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Gardiner

RG Gardiner MA FCA

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