Statistics of number of parents / nominated persons contacted by university regarding student mental wellbeing.

The request was successful.

Dear University of East Anglia,
Student ‘opt-in’ or ‘consent at registration’ was a hot topic in 2018. Essentially it involves lowering the bar at which parents or nominated others could be contacted by a university, when there are serious concerns that something bad might happen to an enrolled student, and/or where their health, wellbeing or welfare could be affected.
To qualify as ‘opt-in’ a scheme must be optional and additional to any compulsory emergency contact protocol. The latter is typically restricted to serious incidents and/or emergency situations, that may present an imminent threat to a student’s vital interests. Modifying your compulsory emergency contact protocol is not ‘opt-in’, it is ‘opt-out’, since action would be required to withdraw consent.
This important policy has been implemented at a number of universities, and presumably at your institution as well. If so, please provide me with the following more detailed information:
• How many students were registered at your institution for each of the academic periods
2018-19,
2019-20 and
2020-21?
Please provide the above information according to year-of-study e.g. 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year
For each academic period and year-of-study sub-division:
• How many students opted-in at registration?
• How many students subsequently rescinded their consent?
• How many times was the opt-in consent used to contact somebody?
• How many times was use of the opt-in consent considered, but with you deliberately choosing not to contact a parent or nominated individual?

Yours faithfully,

Gillian Green

Freedom of Information, University of East Anglia

10 Attachments

Dear Gillian Green

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Information request (UEA ref: FOI_21-047)

Thank you for your request for information received on 18 February 2021.
We are considering your request and we intend to provide response within
the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the [1]Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

For your information, the Act includes a number of exemptions which may
prevent release of some or all of the information you have requested. If
we withhold any information we will provide a full explanation of the
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If the information you request contains reference to a third party then we
may consult them prior to a decision being taken on whether or not to
release the information under the Act.

If the requested information held by the University consists of, or forms
part of a [2]dataset, the University will, so far as reasonably
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Attached to this email please also find a Privacy Notice informing you of
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Please quote our reference given at the top of this email in all
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Kind regards,

 

 

 

 

 

Kirsty McDonald

Information Compliance Assistant,

Information Compliance,

Room 1.26, The Library,

University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ

Tel: 01603 593651  Fax 01603 591010

 

 

 

[5]cid:image001.png@01D09851.EF67E200

 

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Freedom of Information, University of East Anglia

9 Attachments

Dear Gillian Green

Thank you for your request received on 18 February 2021 under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000. Our response is now published on our Disclosure
Log:

 

[1]FOI_21-047 Students registered with well-being 'Opt-In' service - About
- UEA

 

We hope this information will meet your requirements, however if you are
not satisfied you have the right of appeal. If you wish to appeal, please
set out in writing your reasons for appealing and send to the above
address. You must appeal within 40 working days of the date of this
letter. In line with section 5.3 of the UK Government’s Freedom of
Information Act Code of Practice, we are not obliged to accept internal
reviews after this date.

You also have a subsequent right of appeal to the Information
Commissioner’s Office. Further information is available on their website:
[2]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/, or by telephone on 0303 123
1113.

We would also like to know if our handling of your FOI request has met
your expectations. To help us improve our service please complete our
short [3]online form.

Kind regards,

 

 

 

Kirsty McDonald

Information Compliance Assistant,

Information Compliance,

Room 1.26, The Library,

University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ

Tel: 01603 593651  Fax 01603 591010

 

 

 

[4]cid:image001.png@01D09851.EF67E200

 

Gold (Teaching Excellence Framework 2017-2021)
World Top 200 (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020)
UK Top 25 (The Times/Sunday Times 2020 and Complete University Guide 2020)
World Top 50 for research citations (Times Higher Education World
University Rankings 2020)
Athena SWAN Silver Award holder in recognition of advancement of gender
equality for all (Advance HE 2019)

 

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Any personal data exchanged as part of this email conversation will be
processed by the University in accordance with current UK data protection
law and in line with the relevant UEA Privacy Notice.

 

This email is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the
intended recipient please accept my apologies; please do not disclose,
copy or distribute information in this email or take any action in
reliance on its contents: to do so is strictly prohibited and may be
unlawful. Please inform me that this message has gone astray before
deleting it. Thank you for your co-operation

 

References

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Dear Freedom of Information,

I am writing to remind you of my FOI request which should have been answered by now.
I understand that times are difficult, so this is just a polite reminder.

Yours sincerely,

Gillian Green

Freedom of Information, University of East Anglia

Dear Gillian

Thank you for your email.

Your response was sent to you via email at 10.42 am today.

If you require us to forward this email to you again please do get in touch.

Kindest Regards

Kirsty McDonald
Information Compliance Assistant,
Information Compliance,
Room 1.26, The Library,
University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ
Tel: 01603 593651  Fax 01603 591010

Gold (Teaching Excellence Framework 2017-2021)
World Top 200 (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020)
UK Top 25 (The Times/Sunday Times 2020 and Complete University Guide 2020)
World Top 50 for research citations (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020)
Athena SWAN Silver Award holder in recognition of advancement of gender equality for all (Advance HE 2019)

         
 
Any personal data exchanged as part of this email conversation will be processed by the University in accordance with current UK data protection law and in line with the relevant UEA Privacy Notice.

This email is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient please accept my apologies; please do not disclose, copy or distribute information in this email or take any action in reliance on its contents: to do so is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Please inform me that this message has gone astray before deleting it. Thank you for your co-operation

show quoted sections

Dear University of East Anglia,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of University of East Anglia's handling of my FOI request 'Statistics of number of parents / nominated persons contacted by university regarding student mental wellbeing.'.

You said:

"This task is not included in registration, and students are not asked to ‘opt-in’ at this stage. Students can optionally provide, update, and remove contact details for their chosen emergency contact, which Student Support staff can use in the case of a welfare concern. There is no audit trail retained by the University as to when a student may provide contact details within E-vision (the system used for this purpose), and we are not able to ascertain at which stage they decided to add contact details/opt in, therefore the University does not hold a record of the number of students who opted in at time of registration."

1. If not at registration, at what stage are the students asked to ‘opt-in’?
2. Please supply end of year numbers instead.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/s...

Yours faithfully,

Gillian Green

Dear Freedom of Information,

Hello,
I recently requested an internal review regarding my FOI. As it is overdue, I thought I would check that you had received my message. I understand that many people are still working from home and this may explain why you haven’t been able to help me.
Hoping to hear from you before too long,
Best wishes,
Gillian Green

Yours sincerely,

Gillian Green

Freedom of Information, University of East Anglia

9 Attachments

Dear Gillian Green

 

Thank you for your reply, dated 22 March 20221,  to the University of East
Anglia in relation to our response to your Freedom of Information Act
request, our ref: FOI_21-047.

 

We apologise that no formal acknowledgment was given and that we have
reached the 40 working day deadline for submission of an internal review
without getting back in touch.

 

We have been in touch with the relevant departments and can confirm the
following regarding your enquiries.

 

 

You requested further details on the following:

 

We stated in our response to FOI_21-047: ‘This task is not included in
registration, and students are not asked to ‘opt-in’ at this stage.
Students can optionally provide, update, and remove contact details for
their chosen emergency contact, which Student Support staff can use in the
case of a welfare concern. There is no audit trail retained by the
University as to when a student may provide contact details within
E-vision (the system used for this purpose), and we are not able to
ascertain at which stage they decided to add contact details/opt in,
therefore the University does not hold a record of the number of students
who opted in at time of registration ‘

 

 

You asked:

 

1.    If not at registration, at what stage are the students asked to
‘opt-in’?

 

2.    Please supply end of year numbers instead.

 

 

Our response:

 

1.            Although opting-in to providing contact details is not a
requirement of registration, we do promote the scheme  to students prior
to their arrival at the University at registration and they are encouraged
to consider completing the relevant forms at this stage, as well as at
other various times throughout the academic year through regular
communications or reminders. Our response to FOI_21-047 stated that we
could not provide figures for those who opted in at registration as there
is no time stamp or audit trail within their E-Vision record to indicate
whether a student completed this information at registration or at any
other time during the year. The University does not record how many
students at registration provided emergency details and agreed to be part
of the Opt-in service.

 

2.            We are sorry but we are unable to provide a snapshot view of
figures on a specific date or for a particular time frame. As noted above,
the University can only retrieve data about the number of students who
have a current record indicating they have ‘opted-in’ to this service. We
are not able to see the exact date that this information was entered into
the system and we do not hold data about any opt-in subsequently being
rescinded.

 

 

We hope this information will meet your requirements, however if you are
not satisfied you have the right of appeal. If you wish to appeal, please
set out in writing your reasons for appealing and send to the above
address. You must appeal within 40 working days of the date of this
letter. In line with section 5.3 of the UK Government’s Freedom of
Information Act Code of Practice, we are not obliged to accept internal
reviews after this date.

You also have a subsequent right of appeal to the Information
Commissioner’s Office. Further information is available on their website:
[1]https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/, or by telephone on 0303 123
1113.

We would also like to know if our handling of your FOI request has met
your expectations. To help us improve our service please complete our
short [2]online form.

Kind regards,

 

 

 

 

Kirsty McDonald

Information Compliance Assistant,

Information Compliance,

Room 1.26, The Library,

University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ

Tel: 01603 593651  Fax 01603 591010

 

 

 

[3]cid:image001.png@01D09851.EF67E200

 

Gold (Teaching Excellence Framework 2017-2021)
World Top 200 (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020)
UK Top 25 (The Times/Sunday Times 2020 and Complete University Guide 2020)
World Top 50 for research citations (Times Higher Education World
University Rankings 2020)
Athena SWAN Silver Award holder in recognition of advancement of gender
equality for all (Advance HE 2019)

 

[4]TEF Gold logo RGB  [5]facebook 
[6]twitter-old [7]tumblr [8]flickr [9]linkedin [10]youtube [11]cid:image008.png@01CF8BB5.50024060

 

Any personal data exchanged as part of this email conversation will be
processed by the University in accordance with current UK data protection
law and in line with the relevant UEA Privacy Notice.

 

This email is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the
intended recipient please accept my apologies; please do not disclose,
copy or distribute information in this email or take any action in
reliance on its contents: to do so is strictly prohibited and may be
unlawful. Please inform me that this message has gone astray before
deleting it. Thank you for your co-operation

 

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
2. https://www.uea.ac.uk/web/about/universi...
5. http://www.facebook.com/ueaofficial
6. http://www.twitter.com/uniofeastanglia
7. http://uniofeastanglia.tumblr.com/
8. http://www.flickr.com/uniofeastanglia
9. http://www.linkedin.com/edu/school?id=12...
10. http://www.youtube.com/ueaofficial
11. http://instagram.com/uniofeastanglia

Dear Freedom of Information,
Things are much clearer. I understand that it will be necessary for me the make specific requests at different times of the academic year. For now, please supply a snapshot of the current student record. The date is immaterial, although it would be helpful to know what date has been used.

Yours sincerely,

Gillian Green

Freedom of Information, University of East Anglia

Dear Gillian Green

Thank you for your request, we have decided to continue to respond to this enquiry as business as usual and will not be responding under the Freedom of Information Act.

As of 24 May 2021, we can confirm a total of 4,094 records indicate that the student has answered 'Yes' regarding consent to use emergency contact details under the 'Opt-in# service.

We hope this information will meet your requirements, however if you are not satisfied please do get in touch.

Kindest Regards

Kirsty McDonald
Information Compliance Assistant,
Information Compliance,
Room 1.26, The Library,
University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ
Tel: 01603 593651  Fax 01603 591010

Gold (Teaching Excellence Framework 2017-2021)
World Top 200 (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020)
UK Top 25 (The Times/Sunday Times 2020 and Complete University Guide 2020)
World Top 50 for research citations (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020)
Athena SWAN Silver Award holder in recognition of advancement of gender equality for all (Advance HE 2019)

         
 
Any personal data exchanged as part of this email conversation will be processed by the University in accordance with current UK data protection law and in line with the relevant UEA Privacy Notice.

This email is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient please accept my apologies; please do not disclose, copy or distribute information in this email or take any action in reliance on its contents: to do so is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Please inform me that this message has gone astray before deleting it. Thank you for your co-operation

show quoted sections