Found: along the Merseyside coastline for boats and shore 671 Make it compulsory for universities to record student

Found: I agree and acknowledge the complexity of student suicide.

Found: of sexual violence and talking about it in a way that they did not used to, and a world in which student

Found: of sexual violence and talking about it in a way that they did not used to, and a world in which student

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2023 to Question 149 on Universities: Mental Health Services, what information her Department holds on the (a) number and (b) proportion of universities that have amended their practices in line with the recommendations in her Department's letter.

Answered by Robert Halfon

It is a priority for this government that students are provided with the mental health support they need. The opportunity to enter, thrive and graduate from university should be open to everyone with the ability to do so. To achieve this, the department is taking an approach based on three pillars:

• Funding vital services and innovative projects via the Office for Students, with £15 million allocated for the 2023/24 academic year to support students starting university for the first time and enable effective partnerships between higher education (HE) providers and local NHS services. £3.6 million was invested to launch Student Space in 2020 and it has since provided over 450,000 students with free online mental health resources and confidential support.
• Spreading and implementing best practice consistently across providers.
• Clear responsibilities for providers and protection for students, with solutions developed by the HE Student Support Champion, Professor Edward Peck.

On 5 June 2023, the department wrote to all higher education providers asking for their strongest possible commitment to the mental health of our students, including by showing ownership of mental health at an executive level. The department has set a target for all universities to sign up to Student Minds’ University Mental Health Charter Programme by September 2024 so that they take a whole-university approach to mental health and wellbeing and follow the principles set out in the Charter. This programme is about continuous improvement from universities so that standards are raised within the sector.

61 universities had joined the programme by the 2022/23 academic year. Following the 5 June 2023 letter, nine HE providers wrote back to the department on action being taken to improve practice. A significant number of universities then applied to the Charter Programme during the summer 2023 application window. The programme has seen a greater than 50% increase in membership and now has 96 members for the 2023/24 academic year. The full list of members is available at: https://hub.studentminds.org.uk/charter-programme-members-23-24/.

The Higher Education Mental Health Taskforce is looking at the application of best practice among HE providers. The Taskforce will deliver a final report by May 2024 and will provide an update ahead of that early in 2024.

I continue to raise the value of Charter Programme membership with universities and sector representatives and hosted a roundtable on the mental health of students with university leaders at Leeds Trinity University on 23 November 2023. This roundtable addressed the important role that executive leadership have in setting the culture and practice around wellbeing for students on campus. We also confirmed at this roundtable that the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health, a renowned centre of expertise on suicide prevention, will lead the National Review of HE Suicides. This will ensure lessons from tragic instances of student suicide are shared widely across the sector.

This roundtable followed a speech I delivered at the UUK Mental Health Conference on 21 November 2023 where I asked the sector to come together and finish the job of embedding best practice.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of potential merits of introducing a requirement for coroners to inform universities of the death of a student enrolled on a course.

Answered by Mike Freer

Every student death is a tragedy. Where a student’s death is investigated by the coroner, it may be appropriate for the higher education provider to have “interested person” status in the investigation and, where this is the case, would be provided with the Record of Inquest which includes the cause of death. Inquest hearings are public and open for anyone to attend.

In addition, coroners have a statutory duty to issue a report to prevent future deaths (a PFD report) where they consider that an investigation has identified circumstances which should be addressed to prevent or reduce the risk of future deaths. The report must be made to a person or organisation whom the coroner believes could have the power to take action, which may include higher education providers, and recipients are obliged by law to respond.

As coroners are independent judicial office holders, the way in which they conduct their investigations is entirely a matter for them. It would therefore be inappropriate to impose a duty on them to provide information to higher education providers in relation to individual student suicide cases. Moreover, coronial investigations are limited fact-finding exercises, and it cannot be guaranteed that consistent and comprehensive information on a deceased person’s background will be made available to the coroner in every case.

The Government expects all higher education providers to take suicide prevention very seriously, providing information with place for students to find help, actively identifying students at risk, and intervening with swift support when needed. Where a tragedy does occur, this must be treated with the utmost sensitivity by a provider. This approach to suicide prevention is set out in the Suicide Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK and Papyrus and supported by Government. Supporting mental health and ensuring action is taken to prevent future tragedies is a high priority for Government. That is why we have targeted funding at mental health support measure including, partnerships between higher education providers and NHS services to provide better pathways of care for university students.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to require coroners to inform universities when the suicide of an enrolled student is registered.

Answered by Mike Freer

Every student death is a tragedy. Where a student’s death is investigated by the coroner, it may be appropriate for the higher education provider to have “interested person” status in the investigation and, where this is the case, would be provided with the Record of Inquest which includes the cause of death. Inquest hearings are public and open for anyone to attend.

In addition, Coroners have a statutory duty to issue a report to prevent future deaths (a PFD report) where they consider that an investigation has identified circumstances which should be addressed to prevent or reduce the risk of future deaths. The report must be made to a person or organisation whom the coroner believes could have the power to take action, which may include higher education providers, and recipients are obliged by law to respond.

As coroners are independent judicial office holders, the way in which they conduct their investigations is entirely a matter for them. It would therefore be inappropriate to impose a duty on them to provide information to higher education providers in relation to individual student suicide cases. Moreover, coronial investigations are limited fact-finding exercises, and it therefore cannot be guaranteed that consistent and comprehensive information on a deceased person’s background will be made available to the coroner in every case.

The Government expects all higher education providers to take suicide prevention very seriously, providing information with place for students to find help, actively identifying students at risk, and intervening with swift support when needed. Where a tragedy does occur, this must be treated with the utmost sensitivity by a provider. This approach to suicide prevention is set out in the Suicide Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK and Papyrus and supported by Government. Supporting mental health and ensuring action is taken to prevent future tragedies is a high priority for Government. That is why we have targeted funding at mental health support measure including, supporting partnerships between higher education providers and NHS services to provide better pathways of care for university students.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of suicides committed by persons in full-time Higher Education.

Answered by Robert Halfon

Every suicide is a tragedy. The government is committed to doing all we can to prevent these devastating events which we know have a profound and lasting impact on family and friends.

The Office for National Statistics published a refreshed dataset on suicide in the higher education (HE) population on 31 May 2022, available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/estimatingsuicideamonghighereducationstudentsenglandandwalesexperimentalstatistics/2017to2020. This dataset shows that the suicide rate for HE students in England and Wales for the academic year ending 2020 was lower than in the past four years. The HE student suicide rate is also lower when compared with the general population and with the same age group, however the numbers per year mean we have to be cautious in our interpretation of this data.

It is a high priority for the government that students get effective mental health and wellbeing support, and that action is taken to prevent future tragedies. The department expects all universities to take active steps to prevent suicides, to intervene and support students at risk, and to deal sensitively when a tragedy occurs. We continue to work closely with the Office for Students (OfS) and the HE sector to promote and fund effective practice which ensures that students are well supported.

We support the Suicide Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK and Papyrus. This helps university leaders prevent student suicides and better support students and families with bereavement. Its approach has been widely adopted and is a key component of the University Mental Health Charter led by Student Minds.

To ensure that all students have access to dedicated mental health support no matter where they study, the department asked the OfS to fund Student Space, a mental health and wellbeing online platform for students, with up to £3.6 million invested so far. It has been accessed by over 250,000 students since its launch in August 2020.

OfS has allocated an additional £15 million in the 2022/23 financial year help address the challenges to student mental health posed by the transition to university and to support better joined up working with NHS services. This funding targets those students in greatest need of such services, including vulnerable groups and hard to reach students.

This government is also investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year to expand and transform mental health services by 2023/24 as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.

The department will continue to work closely with experts to ensure that we are taking all necessary steps to prevent suicides among university students.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the number of suicides committed by persons in full-time Higher Education in each of the last five years.

Answered by Robert Halfon

Every suicide is a tragedy. The government is committed to doing all we can to prevent these devastating events which we know have a profound and lasting impact on family and friends.

The Office for National Statistics published a refreshed dataset on suicide in the higher education (HE) population on 31 May 2022, available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/estimatingsuicideamonghighereducationstudentsenglandandwalesexperimentalstatistics/2017to2020. This dataset shows that the suicide rate for HE students in England and Wales for the academic year ending 2020 was lower than in the past four years. The HE student suicide rate is also lower when compared with the general population and with the same age group, however the numbers per year mean we have to be cautious in our interpretation of this data.

It is a high priority for the government that students get effective mental health and wellbeing support, and that action is taken to prevent future tragedies. The department expects all universities to take active steps to prevent suicides, to intervene and support students at risk, and to deal sensitively when a tragedy occurs. We continue to work closely with the Office for Students (OfS) and the HE sector to promote and fund effective practice which ensures that students are well supported.

We support the Suicide Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK and Papyrus. This helps university leaders prevent student suicides and better support students and families with bereavement. Its approach has been widely adopted and is a key component of the University Mental Health Charter led by Student Minds.

To ensure that all students have access to dedicated mental health support no matter where they study, the department asked the OfS to fund Student Space, a mental health and wellbeing online platform for students, with up to £3.6 million invested so far. It has been accessed by over 250,000 students since its launch in August 2020.

OfS has allocated an additional £15 million in the 2022/23 financial year help address the challenges to student mental health posed by the transition to university and to support better joined up working with NHS services. This funding targets those students in greatest need of such services, including vulnerable groups and hard to reach students.

This government is also investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year to expand and transform mental health services by 2023/24 as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.

The department will continue to work closely with experts to ensure that we are taking all necessary steps to prevent suicides among university students.

Found: Universities UK and PAPYRUS' guidance 'Suicide -Safer Universities' provides a framework to understand student

Half of U.K. universities do not record their rates of student suicide, which we believe is concerning. This information could help identify where students are struggling and the reasons for this. I am asking the government to make it compulsory for universities to record student suicide rates.

Found: By asking the government to make it compulsory for all universities to record student suicide rates-

We want: 1. Coroners to inform universities when the suicide of an enrolled student is registered 2. Universities to publish annually the suicide rate of enrolled students 3. New powers to place universities into ‘special measures’ where suicide rates exceed that of the national average.

Found: Currently, there is no mechanism by which universities must record or publish their student suicide rates

Found: For services to Higher Education and to Student Suicide Prevention and Response Worcester Worcestershire