Student Counselling and Wellbeing service agreement and privacy notice  Confidentiality and data sharing

The Student Counselling and Wellbeing Service provides a confidential service.

Wellbeing, mental health and counselling practitioners use a team approach in order to provide the best quality services to students, and where necessary, practitioners within the team may need to liaise to discuss the best possible support for a student. These discussions are specific and limited.

Subject to the following exceptions we don’t discuss your personal information (including those relating to your attendance) with parents, partners, guardians or tutors unless we have your permission to do so.

With regard to sharing personal information outside of Student Counselling and Wellbeing, this will be rare. We would only disclose your personal information, without your consent, under the following circumstances:

1. If there is good reason to believe that you or someone else may be at serious risk of harm, we may disclose information about you. Unless the situation is an emergency, or we think otherwise inappropriate, we will always try to discuss things with you and obtain your consent before making the disclosure. 
2. We may be legally bound to disclose personal information on certain occasions e.g. under a court order or under the general law, such as under the Safeguarding and the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults Act, the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and the Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering Act. 

Referral for additional support

There may be occasions when you ask us to pass your personal data (name, email address) to an external agency for purposes of onward referral, for example, if you would like us to arrange an appointment with your GP.  We will always consult with you about the appropriateness of an onward referral and seek your specific consent to communicate with that agency.

Mitigating Circumstances evidence – Fitness to Study

You may ask us to share information about your wellbeing with your academic school or other University service or department, for example you may request evidence from the Student Counselling and Wellbeing Service as part of a Mitigating Circumstances or Fitness to Study process. We will always seek your specific consent to share information and agree the detail of any information to be shared.

Clinical supervision

Clinical supervision is the process by which our staff members receive the advice and guidance of another senior practitioner and our engagement in supervision is an important part of our professional Code of Conduct. Your personal details are never shared in clinical supervision; the purpose is to support the practitioner in their effective professional practice.

Disability support

Before releasing your personal information to others for the purposes of the University providing you with further support relating to a disability, we would first seek your consent. Please be aware this means that if you don’t give your consent the University will not be able to provide the necessary support.