1. University of Wolverhampton
  2. About us
  3. Corporate Information
  4. Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy
  5. Strategy Pillars

Student Mental Health and Wellbeing

Our Strategy Pillars

Leadership Pillar

We recognise that nurturing a ‘whole population approach,’ with health and wellbeing considered a strategic priority across all interfaces of University activity, requires strong strategic leadership and engagement with sustained prioritisation.

Our University proudly serves a diverse student body of over 21,000, and we are fully committed to enhancing their experience. This strategy is underpinned by leadership that has a well-developed sense of purpose in widening access to higher education, playing a key role in the region’s education and economy, which aims to achieve a common sense of values and commitments within all of our interactions.

Yet our leadership team is not reflective of our student population, our own journeys into and through higher education are likely to have been very different to those of many of our students.  And whatever our own pasts, we need to be mindful of power asymmetries in the here and now between staff and students.  So we need to be ready to delegate authority (but not responsibility) for enhancing health and wellbeing to students themselves.

As a university community, we will:

  • behave respectfully and ethically in all that we do
  • be inclusive and fair in our interactions
  • be professional, transparent, confident, collaborative, and challenging when engaging with our communities both locally and globally
  • listen and learn from others.

 We have appointed an Associate Dean for Inclusivity who is responsible for shaping the delivery of the University's Inclusive Curriculum Framework to and for nurturing a culture of belonging for all staff and students.

We have appointed a substantive role serving as the University’s Academic Lead for Mental Health and Wellbeing. This role spans across spaces of student support, safeguarding, staff development and, Learning and Teaching at strategic levels, responsible for the infusion and enhancement of Mental Health and Wellbeing principles by design.

 

  • The University Senior Management Team will prioritise the implementation of this Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, taking responsibility for delivery against agreed key performance metrics. For this, they are accountable to the Board of Governors which includes SU officers. This will be supported by a new annual strategic mental health report and annual review for the University.

  • The University Senior Management Team is responsible for delivering effective and joined up student support that is accessible by, and meets the needs of, our diverse student population.

  • The University Senior Management Team is responsible for ensuring that staff have the training, support and time to meet effectively their responsibilities for student wellbeing, including setting clear limits for individual accountabilities.

  • This strategy will enable the University to deliver the commitments set out in Vision 2030 to:

    - Provide student-centred support that integrates the academic and non-academic to meet the needs of the individual

    - Embed academically-led and discipline-specific approaches to wellbeing within each programme.

    - Design interventions that enable our students to develop their capabilities to manage their own wellbeing during and after university, at all levels of study: from level 3–8.

    - We will continue to work with the Student’s Union, including its full-time elected officers, student representatives and all students who want to engage, to ensure student feedback and voices are heard consistently throughout the development of our approach and implementation of this strategy.

  • We will seek to better understand our students’ lived experiences and how these impact upon their health and wellbeing so that we can work with them to put in place effective mechanisms for enhancement

  • We will meet and go beyond our legal responsibilities for safeguarding to ensure all our students can flourish in a safe and nurturing university environment

  • We will commit to zero tolerance of staff behaviours that unconsciously or consciously undermine students’ confidence and wellbeing

  • We will undertake a review of our physical estate that prioritises student and staff wellbeing in access to and design of facilities and resources

  • We will continually keep under review our systems, processes and policies to ensure that rather than create barriers to student wellbeing and success they support them.

     

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Transition - Pillar of our Strategy

Supporting students and mitigating the risk of known transition points, with a commitment to explore, support and mitigate less known transition points, e.g. placement-based learning and the life cycle of Post Graduate Research studies.

Ensuring points of possible disclosure are joined up and that systems speak to each other. Our institutional visions and values, and our moral responsibility, is to improve the engagement and belonging of all of our students with intentionality, co-ordination, whole of institution and whole of student emphasis.

 

We have a number of roles within our university support set up, employed to support students through and beyond known transition points.

Global Opportunities Office With a student body representing over 140 nationalities, students will be part of a vibrant, multicultural learning community at the University of Wolverhampton. The Global Opportunities Office is responsible for identifying opportunities, developing and implementing the University’s international strategy for student recruitment and international partnerships.

The Global Opportunities Office is the starting point for all international students and focusses on helping international students navigate through the different stages of their applications.  This includes everything from pre-application advice through to helping students integrate into their new life abroad.  The office aims to make the international student application journey as smooth as possible and are equipped to answer questions from students ranging from entry requirements to applications and accommodation to scholarships.

The pre-entry transition working group brings together colleagues from across the university with a link to incoming student transition and has five linked work streams.

Its guiding principles are:

  • Work across services, faculties and departments to bring together pre-entry transition across audiences (e.g. apprentices, international, UK, APP linked cohorts)
  • Link into other university central projects (e.g. student campus project, Induction Group, APP workstream)
  • Ensure a comprehensive and consistent programme of pre-entry transition support is coordinated, delivered, and impact-measured for incoming students across levels and types of study, tailored to student backgrounds.

Academic coaches (AC) act as personal tutors to level 3 and 4 students and to level 7 international students, providing academic support and pastoral care, to improve engagement and facilitate independent learning whilst enabling students to gain transferable skills for future employment.

Student transition teachers (STT) support applicants through their transition into study through bespoke nurturing events, working closely with ACs to provide differentiated and inclusive small group teaching and support to level 3 and 4 students.

ACs and STTs work together in an anticipatory and experiential manner to encourage early disclosure and help-seeking. Nurturing and induction activities are personalised to develop relationships and to foster cultures of trust. Individual Learner Profiles (ILPs) support students to share their origins, stories, cultural contexts and aspirations, their confidence and strengths, and areas in which they require further guidance and support. This early sharing and acknowledgment is followed by nuanced referrals and meetings that focus on the student. The relationship creates spaces for the student to reflect upon their capabilities and needs, and together the AC and student construct a personalised action plan that is reviewed and refined over time. The meeting portfolios that emerge from these interactions are a rich transition tapestry and narrative that allow the student to see and take ownership of their development over time.

Interventions are anticipated and calendared relating to pinch points in the year of study. STTs and ACs are aware of the risks and barriers that may leave some students behind. To further support transition anxiety and create a sense of belonging, STTs plan and teach sessions in safe and brave spaces that invite the student to share their lived and living experiences, cultures and communities, to share their transition experiences, to engage in meaningful and respectful group work that values and listens to the experiences and opinions of others through thoughtful turn-taking. 

The development of assessment literacies and practices are anticipated and embedded in sessions and reinforced through meetings with ACs who carefully suggest training and support opportunities which are then followed up in later meetings.

The development of student agency and autonomy underpins the STT and AC roles as they act to provide a secure and safe transition landscape and experience for students which allow them spaces to flourish, spaces to be vulnerable and spaces to be honest about the support that they might need.

For our degree apprenticeship students, there are a required set of skills and behaviours that each apprentice must be able to demonstrate and evidence. To assist with this development and evidence capture need, each apprenticeship student will be assigned to a skills coach within their discipline. Skills Coaches will meet with apprentices on a quarterly basis, and engage in a workplace review, to ensure they are on track with their degree requirements and if not, to discuss actions and support that might be needed to get there.

All level 5, 6, and 7 students will be allocated a personal tutor. Personal tutoring is the provision of support to a group or individual students by the named personal tutor, with a focus on personal and academic development and progression throughout their programme of study and not on individual module studies exclusively. It is not the provision of subject support by module tutors to students undertaking their module. 

The personal tutor will have an understanding of, and commitment to, improving student learning. The Personal Tutor Policy (2020) sets out a series of commitments to every student enrolled on our undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes. The defining principle of the policy is that all students on taught programmes, including postgraduates, will be assigned a named member of academic staff who is responsible for general academic, pastoral and career support throughout the entirety of their programme, via a series of structured tutorial sessions.

All level 5, 6, and 7 students will meet their personal tutor at least three times a year if they are a full-time student, and twice if they are studying on a part-time basis.

Personal tutors provide a consistent and focused source of support for students in developing the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and habits that are essential to achievement in their studies and to their future success. 

Successful personal tutoring comes from developing a strong and respectful relationship between tutor and tutee. To build that relationship there should be clear roles and responsibilities on both sides that are communicated to personal tutors and tutees. These are set out in our Personal Tutoring Principles in the Personal Tutor Handbook.

It is recommended that all students should complete an initial Individual Learning Profile (ILP) or revisit their level 3 or 4 ILP, prior to the first meeting with their personal tutor. The personal tutor should use this profile as a basis for discussion in their first tutorial with the student, in order to consider individual needs. This should include formal disclosure of any pre-existing mental health and wellbeing difficulties, learning, and social needs.

The transition to level 8 studies is akin to the transition from level 3 to level 4.  All prior learning experiences are different to what is expected at level 8. Learning expectations can differ considerably. 

Postgraduate research supervisors work with PGR to develop and deliver their research, identify their researcher development needs, and deliver and defend their doctoral thesis. PGR supervisors also provide pastoral care and signpost PGR to University support opportunities.

Postgraduate researcher pastoral tutors provide pastoral advice and support where a student does not want to or cannot approach their supervisory team for pastoral support. PGR pastoral tutors provide advice on the research process, signpost to University support mechanisms, and where appropriate mediate between a PGR and their supervisory team.

The Doctoral College: Where support and communication with faculty fails, students can approach the Doctoral College for support. The Doctoral College will liaise with Faculties, offer advice, and ensure that the PGR is supported appropriately. In addition, the Doctoral College provides PGR-specific workshops or resources on resilience and health and wellbeing, dealing with imposter syndrome, developing resilience in research, having assertive conversations, and managing supervisory teams. 

The support with the journey from student to graduate is one that the Alumni Association supports and encourages, with a number of benefits and services open to recent graduates to help with that transition.

Our Alumni Mentoring Scheme is where professionals give back as mentors by providing one-to-one career support, inspiration, and guidance to mentees. This service is open to both current students and recent graduates. Our mentors are University graduates who have volunteered to support, as they know from personal experience that the transition between university and professional career can be hard.

In addition, recent graduates also have access to the careers service. This is provided for up to three years post-graduation and offers both support and guidance into their professional careers. Services which graduates have access to are all run through our careers team and include the following:

  • One-to-one careers appointments to help with application forms and CVs
  • Mock interviews to help practice answering difficult or sector-specific interview questions
  • Research further study options
  • Information on Graduate schemes and internships
  • Advice on options and professional qualifications they might need to successfully meet their career aspirations
  • Careers advice and information once employment has started

The student and education sub strategy and our vision for 2030 are ambitious and challenging. They identify that we have foundations and existing initiatives, but also that we have much work to do if we are to ensure inclusivity, equity of outcome, remove barriers, and add value to our students’ experiences. Transitions are everybody’s business (Kift 2010) and transitioning is complex. We recognise that a relationship between transition points and holistic interventions are required and that unsuccessful transitions are painful.

  • All students will expect and experience coherent and personalised transition support into, through and out of their university study and then into employment or further study. With a continued commitment to co-explore lesser known transition points that students navigate.

  • Transition activity will recognise and value students’ wealth of lived experiences, social and community interactions, and external commitments, forging intentional links to support students to ‘find their places, be inspired and excited’ (Kift et al. 2010, p.3).  

  • Students will feel valued and a sense of belonging and connectedness to their friendships, their subject and peer groups and to their subject and the university. It is within the warmer/closer layers of friendship and connection that student’s focus. This is their protection – through this level of belonging they begin to understand the rules of HE learning, navigate the systems, normalise experiences, develop academic resilience, and is critical to their retention, progression, and in part their success. So it can be extrapolated that this layer of belonging is critical to their mental health and wellbeing (Cureton, 2017; Cureton and Gravestock 2018). It is also worth highlighting that students from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds experience belonging differently to their white counterparts (Cureton and Gravestock, 2019).

  • A students sense of belonging and ‘mattering’ (Flett, 2018; Flett and Nepon, 2020) will be further enhanced, with the aim of enhancing an additional layer of connection, supported by a named academic coach, personal tutor, or postgraduate research supervisor who will understand, support, and enhance their students’ transition and life cycle experiences, their personal and social wellbeing, and their professional development.

  • All students will have the opportunity to experience pastoral and academic support built around the specific needs of each student, recognising the differences in life histories and journeys into higher education (S and E strategy).

  • Interventions to support transition, attainment and progression will be personalised, timely, and targeted, and students will feel able to confidently engage with wider pastoral and academic support services

  • The University will consider adopting a case management system in order to effectively track student interactions across all transition points. This would be available to academic coaches, personal tutors, and postgraduate research supervisors to help build the student picture. This would enable all interventions to support transition and attainment, and for progression to be personalised, timely, and targeted. Students should feel able to confidently engage with wider pastoral and academic support services.

  • A new opt-in nominated contact procedure will be introduced, whereby students will be asked at the beginning of each year of their academic programme, to appoint a trusted person who will act as an emergency contact for the university, in the event there are ever any significant concerns about their mental health and wellbeing.

  • Students are currently communicated to through a significant number of departments and mediums with little oversight of what is being sent, when, and by whom. In addition, there is not a recognised governance framework for communication that aims to align outgoing communications to desired principles around tone, content, and timing. This will possibly contribute to poor mental health and wellbeing. The University will undertake a project to engage in a review of our existing state and to establish and realise a desired state. The outcome of the project will offer the University a holistic view of ‘push’ communications that will enable concise, understandable communication that is delivered in a tone-appropriate, recognisable, and coherent manner. One such example will be the development of a categorisation tool for communication, which will offer levels that reflect importance and potential wellbeing impact.

The Global Lounge is for all students looking for an opportunity to learn about and share different cultures. It is a friendly space for conversation around a 'theme' that we announce ahead of time. You’re welcome to attend with a story or images prepared to share, or to just listen in to what others have to say.

People with interest in practising their English speaking and listening skills have the opportunity for everyday practice and mentorship to build language confidence, and we also get to celebrate our hugely diverse student and staff body by learning about each other and our backgrounds.

Enrol onto this Canvas topic to receive regular announcements and updates about upcoming Global Lounge events.

Collaboration and Partnerships - Pillar of our strategy

The exploration and establishment of internal and external partnerships, with a continued commitment to work with them in a meaningful way at both commissioning and operational levels, is at the core of this pillar of our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

  • The University fosters a strong collaborative relationship with public health authorities at Wolverhampton City Council and with third-sector groups including the Samaritans, Papyrus, Kaleidoscope, Our Black Country Recovery College, and Positive Participation. The University is a key stakeholder in city-wide wellbeing activity, to include Wolverhampton and Black Country Wide Suicide Prevention and action planning. In 2019 our Academic Lead for Mental Health and Wellbeing was appointed as independent chair for the Wolverhampton Multi Stakeholder’s Suicide Prevention Forum, and has led the forum to gaining charity status in 2021.

  • Our Student Support and Wellbeing service has established links with the Black Country Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and with the local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group. This is aimed at improving pathways into NHS specialist mental health provision for our students. Within this relationship, is a clear distinction of what provision and service we can offer as a HEI, as well as the service and provision we cannot offer and is instead more appropriately provided by secondary care or emergency services

  • We work closely with Wolves Student’s Union on Mental Health and Wellbeing. For example, within our Office for Students mental health project, they are a named partner who has enabled and enhanced our ability to work with groups of students to co-explore their placement-based experiences and will support with the co-design of pedagogic solutions and resources.

  • The University aims to create partnerships with students in attempting to identify and offer provision for some of the mental health and wellbeing challenges they navigate. One such example can be found below.

  • The University will continue to commit as a key community partner and stakeholder to any mental health and wellbeing steer, needs assessment, and planning within our region

  • The University will continue to commit to contributing to national discussions within higher education mental health and wellbeing, and to sharing and learning from best practice.

  • We will continue to work with external partners to improve pathways between the University and local mental health services, helping students and staff to navigate those pathways.

  • A key thread within our Office for Students project and our Vision 2030 strategy is to view our students as partners. Co-exploration of the experiences they navigate and co-production of some of the solutions we can work together to make happen, will form the basis of our own framework for co-exploration and co-creation. This will be made available to our own Faculties, Institutes and Schools, and the wider HE sector. 

  • We will continue to work closely with Wolves Student’s Union on mental health and wellbeing, working with SU officers and staff, and any students who want to be involved, aligning them with university steering group membership.
  • We will work in partnership with students in the development and delivery of this strategy's priorities through a paid Student Wellbeing Ambassador scheme
  • To further strengthen our collaborative working, a robust Memorandum of Understanding will be finalised with public health and NHS partners. This will cover a spectrum of support and provision to also include opportunities for students, such as placements, volunteering, research and employability.

 

Wolverhampton Wellbeing Checks

In 2020, one of our Student’s Union School Reps and Final year Medical Science and Clinical Practice students has worked in partnership with the University to develop and offer open access 20-minute wellbeing checks, which are available to both staff and students.

The University of Wolverhampton Wellbeing Check consists of a 20-minute no-fee-consultation, where a number of non-invasive baseline measurements are offered, to include: blood pressure, pulse rate, BMI, body fat percentage, visceral fat, and muscle mass. A range of signposting is on offer and is all tailored to the individual’s needs, which can include nutritional plans, exercise and lifestyle advice, along with food recipe cards.

In further partnership with WLV Gym, all attendees receive two complimentary guest passes for WLV Gym (with which they can bring a friend or attend twice).

 

Data and Research - Pillar of our strategy

All activity aligned to this Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, will be underpinned with an ability to capture data in order to monitor trends, and to use data and research to support this strategic priority. We will co-explore and design meaningful and engaging ways of capturing student voice and experiences, and also devise a set of meaningful KPIs to be measured against.   

As with our Access and Participation Plan we will use TASO’s Theory of Change methodology to evaluate our strategy through the four steps of diagnose, plan, measure and reflect.  The KPIs are largely the same as for our Students and Education Sub-Strategy because if our approach to wellbeing is working for all students we will remove unexplained gaps in continuation and award and improve reported levels of satisfaction by different groups.  Lead indicators will be provided for each commitment within the strategy.

  • Our vision for 2030 sets out our ambition to significantly develop our research capacity, culture and success; the area of student mental health and wellbeing in our higher education context should be considered as part of this ambition. In short, if we treasure it as a strategic priority, we should also measure it.

  • This will be enhanced with the potential of developing an established mental health and wellbeing research network in order to underpin our activity with evidence base, offer opportunities for student peer researchers, and to contribute to knowledge in the area of university-based mental health and wellbeing provision.

 

Vision 2030 strategy and associated CARE Framework.

Vision 2030

  • To promote a flourishing environment for students to thrive (Place)
  • To ensure all students have support (Inclusive)

CARE Framework

To create an environment of cohesive

  • Co-created Mental Health and Wellbeing Survey and insights-gathering activities will be developed and disseminated in collaboration with the Doctoral College

  • Renewed and focused evaluation of the personal tutor, AC and STT roles will commence and findings will be disseminated, with recommendations

  • An online feedback mechanism will be established to request and capture feedback with students, following interactions with the Student Support and Wellbeing service, along with a process for responding to negative feedback. With a process established to collate and analyse feedback on a regular and timely basis.

  • KPIs to track performance of the service offering and its effectiveness will be updated once the proposed Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy has been adopted.

  • Data and insights established will be reported into the mental health and wellbeing governance structure on a regular basis.

 

Support and Intervention - Pillar of our strategy

Spanning a continuum of whole-population awareness and signposting, self-help and early intervention, through to focused support and intervention if mental health and wellbeing difficulties arise, to include crisis and safeguarding intervention. 

Our Student Support and Wellbeing team is here for all students who may be experiencing mental health and wellbeing difficulties. We provide free, confidential and non-judgmental support and access to online resources.

  • The University aims to foster an inclusive and supportive environment for students with a wide range of needs and different abilities. The Disability and Inclusion Advisory Team is based within the Student Support and Wellbeing Centre (Alan Turing Building room 001). The team’s role is to provide advice on how students can access and fully participate in their studies.
  • The University of Wolverhampton takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of any member of the University community, as well as to work together with other agencies to ensure that adequate arrangements are in place to identify, assess, and support any member of the University community who may be suffering from abuse, harm or neglect, or who is at risk of being drawn into terrorism and being radicalised. 

The team is responsible for interpreting disability legislation (i.e. Equality Act 2010) and liaising with students, academic staff, faculty enabling tutors (FET), service departments and internal and external partners ensuring that all services are accessible. The Adviser is able to provide a confidential, personalised service to students throughout their academic life, including advice concerning funding, non-medical helper support, accommodation, equipment, specialist software, examinations and assessments.

Advice regarding reasonable adjustments for individual students is disseminated to relevant departments in the form of a tutor awareness sheet (TAS).  A university wide e-learning module on reasonable adjustments will be made available in 2022.

  • The Dennis Turner Hardship Fund can be accessed* by any students, home or international, who are struggling to make ends meet. The fund is not classed as public money and does not affect the visa status of international students. These hardship funds are non-repayable, and can provide a short-term solution to students in this position. 

  • Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Team aims to offer students the service(s) most appropriate to their individual needs, these can include:

1:1 short-term counselling or mental health practitioner support

Referral to online or other self-help resources

Group work – which may be therapeutic or skills-based group work

Onward signposting and referrals 

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Team sits within the Student Support and Wellbeing services. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Team comprises six practitioners and the team manager. It is a multi-disciplinary team of different specialist practitioners within the team, ranging from a mental health nurse to counsellors and including a social worker. The service operates between 9-5pm Monday to Friday. 

The work undertaken by the team includes mental health triage, assessment, brief and longer-term therapeutic support, internal and external referral and follow-up – including with, and for, students presenting high levels of distress   or in crisis.  There is daily screening of referrals by the Practitioners who then allocate students and respond to cases in which a student needs to see a practitioner from the team urgently. Practitioners provide one to one support through a time limited service which includes an initial assessment and further sessions of interventions if required.

A key part of the service is collaborating with other key University services and Faculty teams, making and receiving effective referrals to ensure that the support students receive from the wider University is properly coordinated. There are also follow-ups with internal and external stakeholders following serious student incidents to ensure such case are properly coordinated across the University.  Other teams, including security, accommodation and faculty teams, may also work in tandem with the service seeking clear and effective guidance on how to respond effectively to complex cases.

  • Togetherall
  • Community - Share thoughts, get creative and receive support. The community is safe, anonymous, and monitored 24/7 by trained professionals (wall guides).
  • Courses - Work through a selection of courses relevant to you, with professional support on hand.
  • Resources - Complete tests, access tools and content, and receive helpful techniques to help manage your mental health.

As part of the mental health offer of support for students the University has access to an online digital platform to which staff and students can access and discuss their wellbeing and concerns. The Support Network is the baseline service of Togetherall, providing 24/7 access to safe, anonymous online support mediated by counsellors 365 days a year. Members can make use of a range of art and writing therapies, psycho-educational materials, self-assessment tools, groups, and peer support.

Togetherall offers the following;

  • WLV Gym offer a free 3-month WLV Gym pass for students with a self-declared mental health issues, following a referral from Mental Health and Wellbeing colleagues who as part of their overall assessment and support plan, feel physical activity might help a student. 
  • The Psychology Community Research Clinic (PCRC) is a community-based clinic offering psychological support to students and staff of the University of Wolverhampton, free of charge. The staff leading the PCRC are BPS-chartered and HCPC-registered psychologists, experienced in helping those in need. Some clinic staff are in training to become counselling psychologists. The team is managed and professional supervision is provided by HCPC-registered counselling psychologists. The Psychology Community Research Clinic (PCRC) is a clinical research project in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton. The project is owned by the School of Psychology, and is run by the senior clinical staff. All activities are reviewed by the leadership team of the Centre for Psychological Research and the CPRC remains separate from other support services in the university (such as SSW). The role of the CPRC is to learn more about psychological therapies and human wellbeing through offering psychological support for those who might need help with an emotional or psychological concern. The PCRC includes therapies for anxiety, depression, low mood, public speaking anxiety, and more. The PCRC operates ongoing individual or group sessions, workshops and single session consultations. Students and staff can self-refer though an online booking system. To manage the workload of staff, sessions are currently available online, and face-to-face on designated “clinic days” where staff have availability and supervision from the clinical lead is on hand. There is no limit on the number of sessions a client can access as the needs of the client are taken into account.

  • Our duties in relation to providing adjustments and support for disability and inclusive teaching and learning will also be further developed. We will review and look to improve the provision of our Tutor Awareness Sheet content, and the possible medicalised threshold through which they are available to students

  • A comprehensive suite of policy documents will be developed and published following on from this Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and will include:

- Student support

- Support to study

- Trusted person notification

- Clinical supervision

  • A comprehensive Mental Health and Wellbeing Handbook will be created to outline all procedures in place across the SSW department. This handbook will be appropriately owned, shared with the appropriate team members and subject to annual review and approval.
  • We will review the various points of contact in which students can disclose mental health and wellbeing difficulties and consider information sharing arrangements across the University to ensure students who disclose difficulties or are showing poor engagement are supported early, and so that students do not have to make these connections on their own.

The University recognises the additional challenges which may be faced by care leavers (those who have been in care for 3 months or more around their 16th birthday) and estranged students (those aged 18-25 who have no communicative relationship with either living biological parent) and offers a wide range of support for these students. The University has a single point of contact for any student who identifies at enrolment, or during their studies, that they fall into one of these categories.

Students are asked to complete a registration and consent form which gives permission (or not) for our SPoC to speak to colleagues on behalf of the student, where this is in the student’s best interests.  This includes the Funding Team, Accommodation, Academic Coach/Personal Tutor, Careers, etc.

Additional support includes:

  • Financial (an access bursary paid through the Student Loans Company) and an additional bursary paid through the Dennis Turner Hardship Fund each year.
  • Accommodation – 52-week licence in University-owned accommodation, assistance with deposit where needed.
  • Priority access to Mental Health and Wellbeing once a student has completed the registration form
  • Dedicated careers support

For more information please see our dedicated web page dedicated web page

Staff - Pillar of our strategy

We know that the needs of our students in relation to their mental wellbeing are not static, and change as life, society, and their personal context changes around them.  Staff training and personal development must evolve to meet these changing needs. We need to ensure that our staff can have effective and meaningful discussions with students about their mental and physical wellbeing. In addition, we need to provide spaces, interventions and support as it is needed.

Ensuring that all staff understand and are able to meet their responsibilities for student wellbeing in a non-judgemental way is important. Equally important is that staff understand the limits of their own responsibility and expertise and can therefore signpost and refer appropriately.

The University is committed to protecting the health, safety, and wellbeing of all in its community.

  • Academic Staff: Students and Education Handbook has been developed for staff and will be updated annually. It seeks to bring together helpful information in a central, accessible format to support colleagues responsible for teaching and those who regularly work with students.
  • Student Support and Wellbeing Services have devised a 3-Levels Support Guide which can support and enable the facilitation of referring students for assessment and support.
  • Our Organisational Development Department have a clear and sustained commitment to staff development, and offer a range of education and training opportunities for staff across a range of platforms. Examples include Three Minutes to Save a Life, Talk to Me, Resilience and Mindfulness workshops as well as a range of management and leadership development programmes.
  • The University of Wolverhampton is, like other HEI’s, in a period of rapid, transformational change. We are all working hard to meet the evolving needs of our students, customers, colleagues and stakeholders. Our CARE framework (all about being collaborative, ambitious, respectful and effective) ensures that all staff know the behaviours the University values. Good for staff, good for our students and customers.

This framework aims to support staff development and career progression which ultimately can lead to reward and recognition for those who demonstrate high levels of competency. In addition, it supports our selection processes to ensure that we always recruit the best candidate.

  • The University of Wolverhampton has appointed a new company, OHWorks, to provide occupational health services to our staff. OHWorks is a specialist occupational health provider with considerable experience of delivering these services to universities. Occupational health is a distinct branch of preventative health care, which works to promote health in the workplace and forms part of the overall health, safety, and wellbeing agenda, focusing on the management of work-related health risks.
  • Our human resources directorate support and maintain a Staff Wellbeing Hub. A range of services and resources are accessible and available to all staff. This includes a suite of self-help information and signposting to support:
    • Mental health and wellbeing  
    • Physical health and wellbeing
  • Crisis support
  • Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Wolverhampton has partnered with Remploy and the Department of Work and Pensions to offer a mental health support service to all staff, free of charge. The service is fully confidential and offers expert advice and support for nine months which includes:
  • Support to produce your own individual wellbeing plan in order to help you to stay in or return to work.
  • Information about workplace adjustments to help you fulfil your role.
  • Practical guidance about coping strategies which you feel might work for you.
  • Access to Work - Mental Health Support Service
  • Each staff member (including temporary staff and visiting lecturers) can access the staff Employee Assistance Programme, for themselves and their family members. The programme provides a free confidential telephone advice line which is aimed to enable staff to discuss any problem(s) they may have with someone who is trained to listen. Staff can access a free counselling service which consists of up to six sessions of counselling per issue, per year. The first session will be up to 1½ hours and any subsequent sessions will be about 50/60 minutes. 

  • We will take a whole-university approach to the planning and delivery of staff training relating to mental health and wellbeing, identifying priorities across our whole staff community, including developing the role of personal tutors and of postgraduate research supervisors.

  • We will support the review of the training need and strengthen ongoing professional development requirements for personal tutors and postgraduate research supervisors and offer a clear remit of the expectations of staff in these roles with respect to the provision of mental health support and guidance for students. These expectations to include their compassionate and safe boundaries will be 1clearly communicated to both staff and students.

  • We will build on the existing training for personal tutors to develop training for other academic staff

  • We will look to extend the provision of training and support on student wellbeing issues for staff outside of traditional pastoral roles such as estates and facilities, recognising their crucial contribution, often as front facing members of our community who students develop meaningful connections with.

  • We will regularly seek feedback from staff and students to inform our approach, one such example will be the findings from our “Reflections on culture” survey which has been designed and aims to explore principles that underpin our CARE framework.

The Action Framework for Disability Equality aims to ensure that all disabled staff and students are valued during their time at the University of Wolverhampton. It is underpinned by seven fundamental guiding principles that, once confirmed, will be reflected in University strategy, policies, practice, behaviour, action plans and culture. You can read the draft action plan here: Disability Equality Action Plan. To join the consultation and provide feedback on the plan, please email Megan Lawton (M.J.Lawton@wlv.ac.uk) or Sukhvinder Singh (Sukhvinder.Singh@wlv.ac.uk).

The action frame work is underpinned with some key aims to include that all staff recognise and value the vast experiences of our disabled and neurodivergent student population.

All staff are advocates for disability equality in order to ensure all our students reach their full potential.

We actively work to remove all institutional structures and barriers and are at the heart of developing solutions to the challenges our disabled and neurodivergent students and staff may encounter.

We recognise that disabled and neurodivergent students and staff are not a homogenous group. Our students and staff live with different disabilities and ways of thinking, having varying experiences and outcomes, and we consider that complexity when analysing data and developing actions.

We honour the intersection of disability or neurotype and other factors wherever possible. Our students and staff have identities shaped by several different characteristics.

Our disabled people are well represented in both our staff and student committees, as this fosters a sense of belonging and relatability for our disabled and neurodivergent student population.