This information is provided in addition to that given in the Staffordshire University Student Privacy Statement.
Confidentiality
Information relating to any support you receive from the Student Wellbeing and Safeguarding Team will usually remain confidential to the team, which includes our Out of Hours Co-Ordinator's who work across Student Wellbeing and Residential Life Services. The practitioners in the Student Wellbeing and Safeguarding Team receive supervision from supervisors external to the University, in line with guidelines from their respective professional body. This supervisory relationship is confidential. Information held within the Student Wellbeing team may be discussed within the Student Wellbeing Team for purposes of supervision and coordinating support for students.
In order to best coordinate your support, other University staff within Student Support and Wellbeing Services may be aware that you have had recent contact with us. In addition, University IT staff have access to electronic systems and records used within the Student Wellbeing Team in order to maintain and update them.
Student Wellbeing will not share information about a student with any other Staffordshire University Department or College without the student’s express permission. However, where permission cannot be gained and there is a cause for concern, then limited, factual, information may still be shared.
There may, be circumstances where we feel it necessary or be bound by law to break confidentiality, with or without your consent or knowledge, and liaise with and/or provide information to appropriate University staff and/or persons or organisations external to the University. Such circumstances are rare and usually relate to a serious concern for your own or someone else’s wellbeing. They include (but are not limited to):
• Concern that you may attempt suicide or seriously harm yourself
• Concern that serious harm may come to someone else (including Safeguarding and terrorism)
• If a Court of Law/the Police require information
Where possible and appropriate, we would usually attempt to discuss any such circumstances with you prior to taking any action.
What information is stored and processed?
Any information you provide to us, or that we wish to record in relation to providing support to you, will be stored electronically and processed in line with Data Protection Law. We need to store and process this information in order to provide a service to you. The practitioner will make brief notes about any appointments or other interactions that you have with our team. We may also include information provided to us by other people which relates to us providing a service to you. Any information that we store in relation to any support that you receive from us will be kept for 6 years from the date of your last appointment here, unless there are any ongoing matters relating to the information that mean we need to retain it for longer. After this time period, all information will be deleted in line with the University's Data Classification, Handling and Disposal Policy (which can be viewed on the University’s web pages). We also use the information to compile anonymous statistics about the use of the service, which are shared within and outside of the University.
Access to information
You will usually have the right to see the information that we hold about you. For further details, please see the University’s web pages, which include information on how to make a Subject Access Request.