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

Freedom Of Information, Bournemouth University

Thank you for your enquiry.

 

We (Bournemouth University Higher Education Corporation) will use the
personal information you provide for several purposes.  These are: to
handle the request, including any follow-up on your part or for the
Information Commissioner; to oversee and adjust our handling procedures;
and for statistical purposes.  Please see our General Enquiries & Public
Events privacy notice for more information:

 

[1]https://www1.bournemouth.ac.uk/about/gov...

 

Requests made under the Data Protection Legislation for information we
hold about you (Subject Access Requests) will receive a response within a
month following receipt by us of sufficient proof of your identity, and
sufficient information for us to locate the information requested.

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 requests will receive a response (or
request for clarification) within 20 working days.

 

If your request is for information about programmes provided by
Bournemouth University, please consult our courses database at:
[2]https://www1.bournemouth.ac.uk/search?ty... .

 

Full information about access to information at Bournemouth University,
including our Publication Scheme, can be obtained at:
[3]www.bournemouth.ac.uk/foi .

 

 

Kind regards

 

Information Office

Legal Services

Bournemouth University M209,

Melbury House 1-3 Oxford Road Bournemouth

BH8 3ES

Tel: +44 (0) 1202 961315

Email: [4][email address] / [5][email address]

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References

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Freedom Of Information, Bournemouth University

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Card

 

We write further to your email of 7 December 2018. 

 

Your request has been processed by us in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

 

As regards your numbered questions, the responses to numbers 1-4 are set
out in the attached Excel spreadsheet.

 

As regards number 5 (internal reports or reviews relating to mental health
provision), please see the attached PDF document which contains materials
falling within your request.  These comprise:

 

·        Annual sessional reports which relate to the Student Wellbeing
service. These are provided by Dorset Healthcare University Foundation
Trust (DHUFT) as the contracted provider of our Student Wellbeing service.
We attach these DHUFT Annual Reports for the years 2015-16, 2016-17 and
2017-18

 

·        Report to the University Board on Student Welfare, dated November
2018

 

·        Extracts from report to the University Leadership Team on Student
Mental Health Support, dated September 2018

 

Material has been redacted from these documents or withheld on the
following basis:

 

·        We have redacted the names of the authors of some reports on the
basis of section 40(2) FOIA, as they are the personal data of the authors
and we do not consider it would be fair and within the reasonable
expectations of the authors for this information to be disclosed.   

 

·        We have redacted or omitted:

 

o   Information within the reports which does not relate directly to the
provision of mental health services

 

o   Commercially sensitive information which we are withholding under
section 43(2) FOIA:

 

§  Benchmarking figures.  This information was provided to us by a third
party service provider (Tribal) on a confidential basis, and we consider
that disclosure of the information would prejudice our commercial
interests and/or those of third parties (Tribal);

 

§  Information about costings/staff gradings and salaries, and other
internal information which we consider would be likely to prejudice the
commercial interests of the University and/or third parties if disclosed.
Some of this information is also personal data which may be covered by the
exemption in section 40(2) FOIA.

 

As section 43(2) provides only a qualified exemption, we have applied the
public interest test.  We are not satisfied that there is sufficient
public interest in the detail of this information to override the public
interest in avoiding prejudice to commercial interests, particularly given
that we are disclosing overall conclusions from the benchmarking and
substantial other information about the University’s mental health
services support/provision.

 

If you have any questions or are dissatisfied with this response, you
should contact us at [1][email address]. The University’s Director
of Finance or his nominated alternate will review any appeal and may amend
the University’s current decision.  Thereafter, you may refer your request
to the Information Commissioner in accordance with section 50 of the
FOIA. 

 

 

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

 

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

SK9 5AF

 

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745

 

Website: [2]www.ico.org.uk

 

There is no charge for making an appeal.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Information Office

Legal Services

Bournemouth University

Melbury House

1-3 Oxford Road

Bournemouth

DORSET  BH8 8ES

 

Email: [3][email address]

Tel: 01202 961315

 

[4]https://www1.bournemouth.ac.uk/about/gov...

 

 

 

 

 

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